WEEKLY REFLECTION 4

Our masculine-inclined society often pushes women to take steps and actions, suppressing their

most vulnerable emotions and crucial decisions just to favour their family rather than thinking of

their own. According to a discussion paper on “Engaging men in gender equality from Beijing”

states while inferring about the effects of masculinity that men do not contribute equally to

family and household work creates an obstacle for the women of the family to make their own

decisions in terms of such their professional life. The best example of this case is the tragic

character Antigone in Sophocles’ Greek Tragedy, who had to take certain self-harmful actions to

be devoted to her family, influenced by masculine culture.

As described by a very close friend of mine her family was going through a time of crisis. Upon

asking about it, she said that her uncle, married for a year is very much abusive towards his wife

and he has a ton load of restrictions asserted on her. The line was crossed when a simple

argument lead towards him breaking plates and glasses kept on the table, making his wife feel

guilty whereas he was the one at fault. Later they reached a stage of parting ways, but she pulled

away at the last minute, reasoning that everything would be fine in time. She was close to some

people of the family only, and she explained weeping to my friend that she is living in hell but

she has to carry on looking towards the reputation of her own family. A divorce is seen as a

taboo in our society which would therefore as a result make negative potrayal of herself but more

of her family. This was a very vivid portrayal of toxic masculinity.

 References

MenEngage. (2014). Men, masculinity and power: A discussion paper on engaging men in
gender equality from Beijing 1995 to 2015. United Nations Population Fund.
https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/Men-Masculinities-and-Changing-
Power -MenEngage-2014.pdf