On Masked Vulnerability: Men’s Experiences of Fractured Masculinities in Kigezi, South-western Uganda

Abstract

The social construct of how Kiga men perform hegemonic masculinity in Kigezi, Southwestern Uganda has gone through several shifts and challenges. This paper exposes how shifts in economic and policy change have ushered in nuanced untold complex men’s vulnerability and taken-for-granted masculinity experiences that the majority of old men who hold on to dominant hegemonic masculinity ideals, including violence, no longer hold. Using a case study of 18 life history interviews and 4 community dialogues (2 for men only and 2 for men and women mixed groups), the study digs deeper into Bakiga men’s spaces. The findings unravel how men either adhere to experiences of fractured masculinity and/or negotiate or defy the socially constructed notion of a ‘real man’ by masking their vulnerability. Expressions of would rather suffer or die in silence for fear of losing dominance in society were commonly identified. Aligned to the theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity, we show that the taken-for-granted notions of hegemonic masculinity are becoming highly contested due to dwindling male entitlements. The article presents men’s experiences that have been bypassed by most studies on masculinity that portray men as beneficiaries of patriarchal configurations and universally benefiting from a patriarchal system they knowingly or unknowingly created. We argue that there are vulnerabilities concealed beneath the masculine privilege which is a source of frustration that pushes some men into relative self-destruction and agony. Men’s vulnerabilities like old age abandonment by children were attributed to impossible social expectations and failure to accept impossibilities, dwindling role model effect, distorted male entitlements, and women’s subtle takeover. The paper ends by suggesting a greater need to examine men who are breaking from such hegemonic masculine ideals, the costs, and what it means in the discourse of gender relations and feminist studies.