The Cinematic Pleasures of Indian Men’s Rights Activists

Abstract

Indian Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) claim that men are oppressed by laws of marriage and domestic violence, and that there is no recognition of men’s vulnerabilities. The State and organized feminist groups are identified as primary culprits. While MRA groups are commonly associated with calls to reinstate “traditional” family structures, here I focus on MGTOWs (Men Going Their Own Way), a subset of MRAs who oppose familialism and ideologies of compulsory marriage, preferring to live among like-minded men. This paper examines their oppositional negotiations with marriage, romance and masculinity through three films they recommended: a Bildungsroman with a naïve female protagonist, a male buddy film about adventure and healed trauma, and a revenge fantasy orchestrated by a scorned woman. MGTOW viewers were drawn to the ways that marriage and romance were critiqued, and families of choice highlighted. They emphasized spaces of men’s community and the portrayal of men’s silent struggles, while disavowing hegemonic masculinity associated with success. Female protagonists were treated as one of their own when their actions aligned with challenges to utopian heteronormative futures. In highlighting men’s community and vulnerability, MGTOWs elided privileges of gender, class and caste the men in these films embody, and drew attention away from their anti-feminist crusade.