Locating violence-resistant masculinities in sites of conflict

Abstract

Scholarship on conflict has been slow to recognise masculinities, often failing to address the impact of gender on men and boys. Even when masculinities are recognised in sites of conflict by feminist scholarship, they tend to be framed exclusively in terms of explicit norms around men’s use of violence or treatment of women. This has meant that alternative masculinities, which might be more amenable to peace, are often difficult to locate or fraught. Reflecting on conducting interviews on responding to political violence in Indonesia (Aceh and Central Java), this paper interrogates the methodological challenges of researching the diverse range of masculinities that might create pathways for disrupting violence. Three strategies are suggested for ‘locating’ violence-resistant masculinities while researching conflict (‘reading’ gender, strong objectivity and in-depth methods) and considering how researchers might avoid misinterpreting these masculinities in problematic ways.