The Masculinity Project at EMK Center

In search for answers to the question “What does it mean to be a man?”, senior research associate of James P Grant School, Saad Adnan Khan, and photojournalist of The Daily Star, Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo, traversed  different locations and intersections of Bangladesh and posed this question to the common man.

With the answers and a simple photograph taken of the participants in any style they preferred, relating to their answers, Apurbo and Saad set up an exhibition of photo-narratives that explore that many realms of masculinity, at the EMK Center in Dhanmondi Road 27.

“We wanted to know and understand how men view masculinity, and in doing so, get glances of different realities. This project is an attempt to explore how masculinity is expressed in different locations and intersections of Bangladesh,” says Saad.

Through photo-narratives and interactive workshop sessions, the goal of the project is to implement a dialogue on masculinity and gender politics and explore that masculinity can be expressed in multiple and non-oppressive ways.

“Men from different socio-economic backgrounds who were photographed were asked, 'What do you think it means to be a man?' The men were photographed where they wanted to be photographed, with the people and paraphernalia that they thought defined their own masculinity, and the way they wanted the world to see them as men,” he adds. Thus, the narratives represent how men identify, interpret, express and negotiate masculinity.  

The exhibition kicked off on February 27 and will continue till March 10. A dialogue was held on February 29, where young and experienced minds alike were invited to discuss the concept of masculinity. While some participants of the dialogue said the concept of masculinity was vague, which often led to violence and other problems, other suggested that it depended upon many other things like- race, tribe, culture, etc. Explaining the play of intersections such as gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, Saad Khan took the discussion a notch further, as the participants of the dialogue learned new things about sex, sexuality and began strengthening their grip on the concept of masculinity.

The exhibition and dialogue are only small parts of a larger project which includes workshops, more dialogues, a photobook and an academic course on masculinity.

The project is supported by EMK Center, in collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University.