Fazendo as conexões: normas masculinas prejudiciais, conflito e guerra

Os 16 Dias de Ativismo Contra a Violência de Gênero são uma campanha internacional usada por ativistas ao redor do mundo (25 de novembro a 10 de dezembro) como uma estratégia de organização para pedir a eliminação de todas as formas de violência de gênero. 

Este ano, compartilharemos pesquisas sobre as ligações entre normas masculinas prejudiciais e oito formas diferentes de comportamento violento, bem como insights e recomendações para eliminar todas as formas de violência.

Embora não haja nada inerente ao fato de ser homem que impulsione a violência, a maneira como socializamos os meninos em suas identidades como homens e o que esperamos deles — isto é, as normas masculinas da sociedade — estão inegavelmente ligados à violência.

De fato, meninos e homens são frequentemente criados, socializados e incentivados a usar a violência de alguma forma; em geral, homens e meninos têm uma probabilidade desproporcional de perpetrar a maioria das formas de violência e de morrer por homicídio e suicídio. No entanto, a pesquisa afirma que essa violência é prevenível, a igualdade de gênero é alcançável e normas e ideias não violentas sobre masculinidade são predominantes e poderosas. 

Relatório da Equimundo e da Oak Foundation Normas Masculinas e Violência: Fazendo as Conexões, examines the links between harmful masculine norms and eight forms of violent behavior. This eighth and final blog in the Fazendo as conexões, 16 Dias de Ativismo series focuses on conflict and war. It breaks down the facts on conflict and war, explores their linkages to other forms of violence, and provides recommendations for action.

Conflito e Guerra

Os fatos

Men are disproportionately likely to die as a direct result of armed conflict compared with women. These violent deaths are not the only – or even a major proportion of – deaths associated with active conflict, however, and some data suggest that the majority of overall deaths associated with active conflict – when indirect consequences are considered – are women and children.

Involvement in militaries or militias is also undeniably male. Even among men who voluntarily enlist in the military or join a militia or rebel group, a certain amount of coercion rooted in potential access to dominant, powerful, and privileged masculinity is at play.

Os Links

Some scholars suggest that young men’s social exclusion, rather than their inherent nature or their number, may lead them to violent behavior.

Violence, conflict, and war are not related only to men or masculinities. Further, these roles must not be mistaken as static. On the contrary, evidence points to women taking on men’s roles during war, including engaging in combat.

Military/militarized culture is rooted in a gendered hierarchy in which the masculine is valued over the feminine. Traditional militarization relies upon aggression and adventurousness being tied up in performances of hegemonic masculinity, equating “being a man” with conquest, defense, and the willingness to kill. In this way, militarization and the social construction of violent masculinities are reinforcing and interdependent processes.

Objectification, dehumanization (including feminization of enemy combatants), and “othering” are central to creating male soldiers willing to kill, and masculine norms have proven to be useful vehicles for achieving this. Colonization and domination of other cultures, and imperialism are seen as justified and even necessary by cultures that create hierarchical identities in which the hegemonic man is on top, positioning non-hegemonic male identities as inferior and in need of being controlled.

Repression of empathy or social connections is also a shared objective of militarization and hegemonic masculinity. Research also shows that conflict-related rape is a result of a specific production of masculinity that is fostered precisely because of its usefulness in political domination. 

As Interseções 

Many factors contribute to men’s engagement in violent conflict, such as structural, contextual, individual, and psychosocial factors. These include economic frustration (drawing upon the social expectation that men be financial providers), early exposure to violence, traumatic indoctrination, and the numerous ways that militaries are glorified in a given setting. 

Lack of employment and social mobility can result in young men joining armed conflicts as a means of obtaining wealth, as rebellion against ruling classes, or as a result of social vulnerability.

Da Teoria à Prática 

Ainda é raro que operações de manutenção da paz e humanitárias incorporem a conscientização sobre questões de gênero, muito menos abordagens transformadoras de gênero. Iniciativas que visam prevenir conflitos e guerras devem se concentrar nas seguintes transformações de normas masculinas nocivas:

• Proporcionar aos jovens do sexo masculino oportunidades de meios de subsistência não violentos e caminhos para o reconhecimento social.
• Discuss, model, and encourage nonviolent forms of masculinity that value emotional expression, community building, and humanizing “the other.”
• Engage men and boys – and women and girls and individuals of all gender identities – in discussions about traditional gender norms, violence, and the military as a gendered space.

Leia o resto do Fazendo as conexões, Série de blogs 16 Dias de Ativismo para aprender mais sobre violência do parceiro íntimo; violência física contra crianças; abuso e exploração sexual infantil; intimidação; homicídio e crimes violentos; non-partner sexual violence; e suicide.