Masculinities and Gender-Based Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings
Course participant: Sabine Piccard (Pristina, Kosovo)
Masculinities and Gender-Based Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings: Addressing the Gap in Violence Against Men
1. Introduction
The concept of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) generally refers to “violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships between the two genders, within the context of a specific society” 1. Although the term is subject to different interpretations, GBV targets women and girls, but also men and boys, and includes different types of sexual violence. 2 As Bloom underlines, men and boys can experience violence and suffer from discrimination if “they are deviating from expectations around masculinity” 3. This leads us to the concept of masculinity, developed and theorized by Connell as “a place in gender relations, the practices through which men and women engage that place in gender, and the effects of these practices in bodily experience, personality and cultures” 4.