The challenge of ‘protest’ masculinities: how Arab riots have changed the representation of North-African masculinities in the public space

Abstract

In the last decades, the rare analysis on Maghreb masculinities have usually linked them with violence, social exclusion and terrorism, preventing the full understanding of changing processes on-going in the area, reflected also by changings in masculinities’ models. This article reports some preliminary reflections of a study in progress on masculinities in the contemporary Maghreb, focusing on the emergence of ‘protest’ masculinities in the public space after the so-called Arab Spring, through the analysis of the representation of masculinities in the Tunisian post-revolutionary street-painting.The aim of the paper is to theoretically discuss the challenges that ‘protest’ masculinities pose to the concept of masculinity in North Africa and to analyse the way in which 'emerging' protest masculinities represent themselves in the public space, through artistic narratives. Fluid protest masculinities, represented through arts, are, indeed, a clear sign of the extreme variability of gender subjectivities and the impermanence of models of masculinity, characterizing contemporary North Africa, in opposition to the dominant national and international narratives about its inherent immobility.

Keywords

• masculinities,representation,public sphere

‘Protest’ erkekliklerin meydan okuması: Arap ayaklanmalarının kamusal alanda Kuzey Afrikalı erkekliklerin temsilini nasıl değiştirdiği

Öz

Son birkaç on yılda, Mağrip erkekliklerine ilişkin yapılan ender analizler onları genellikle şiddet, sosyal dışlanma ve terörizm ile ilişkilendirerek bölgedeki değişen süreçlerin tam olarak anlaşılmasını engellerken, aynı zamanda erkeklik modellerindeki değişimleri de yansıttı. Bu makale, Arap Baharı sonrasında kamusal alanda 'protest' erkekliklerin ortaya çıkışına odaklanarak, Tunus'taki post-devrimci sokak resimlerindeki erkekliklerin temsilinin analizi yoluyla çağdaş Mağrip’teki erkekliklere yönelik bir araştırmanın bazı ön yansımalarını sunmaktadır. Yazının amacı, ‘protest’ erkekliklerin Kuzey Afrika'daki erkeklik kavramına getirdiği meydan okumaları teorik olarak tartışmak ve bu protest erkekliklerin "ortaya çıkarken” kendilerini kamusal alanda nasıl temsil ettiklerini sanatsal anlatılar aracılığıyla analiz etmektir. Gerçekten de sanat yoluyla temsil edilen bu sabit olmayan protest erkeklikler, cinsiyet öznelliklerinin aşırı değişkenliğinin ve egemen ulusal ve uluslararası anlatılar hakkındaki doğal sabitliğe zıt olarak çağdaş Kuzey Afrika'yı karakterize eden erkeklik modellerinin geçiciliğinin açık bir işaretidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• erkeklikler,temsil,kamusal alan

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