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

Year 2016, Issue: 6, 30 - 54, 22.08.2017

Valentina Fedele

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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

erkeklikler, temsil, kamusal alan

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