Between emasculation and hypermasculinity: Theorizing British South Asian masculinities

Abstract

Recent interest in the intersections of religion, masculinity, ethnicity and race in the British context have arguably opened up a new space in academic research racialized groups. In particular attempts to understand performance failure of young Muslim men has driven a certain type of research agenda focusing on policy. This article argues that much of this work remains relatively poorly theorized and rather than illuminating an area of research which offers potentially fruitful new engagements rehearse the problems of the British race-relations narrative. By considering masculinities in the light of postcolonial perspective, the article offers a way of avoiding some of the pitfalls that focusing on racialized groups through the particular lens of British race-relations creates. Colonial masculinities and postcolonial emasculation are demonstrated as obverse sides of the same problematic and, therefore, require greater attention to key identity markers, such as religion, which are often used in a cavalier manner in the emergent literature on masculinity.