Traumatic masculinities: the gendered geographies of Georgian IDPs from Abkhazia

Abstract

Over 200,000 people became internally displaced after several violent conflicts in the early 1990s in Georgia. For many internally displaced persons (IDPs), gender relations have been transformed significantly. This translates to many women taking on the role of breadwinner for their family, which often is accompanied by the process of demasculinization for men. In this article, we examine the construction of masculinities and analyze the gendered processes of displacement and living in post-displacement for Georgian IDPs from Abkhazia. We identify the formation of 'traumatic masculinities' as a result of the threats to, though not usurpation of, hegemonic masculinities. Drawing on interviews, we highlight how IDPs conceptualize gender norms and masculinities in Georgia. Despite the disruptions that displacement has brought about, with the subsequent challenges to IDPs' ideal masculine roles, the discourses of hegemonic masculinities still predominate amongst IDPs. We further illustrate this point by identifying two separate gendered discourses of legitimization that attempt to reconcile hegemonic masculinities with the current contexts and circumstances that IDPs face. These new traumatic masculinities do coexist with hegemonic masculinities, although the latter are reformed and redefined as a result of the new contexts and new places within which they are performed.

Gender, migration, mobility and transnationalism

“…A broad range of articles published in recent years in Gender, Place and Culture illustrate the different extents to which masculine subjectivities are reworked in the process of migration, and hegemonic masculinity destabilised or reinforced, often in complex ways dependent on class, ethnicity, religion, citizenship status and possibilities provided by living in urban areas (Dwyer, Shah, and Sanghera 2008;Hopkins 2009;Kabachnik et al 2013;Lin 2013;Rao 2013;Stanley 2012;Ye 2013).…”

‘My life is on hold’: examining home, belonging and temporality among migrant men in Ireland

“…This tension is explained in some studies with return migrants which suggest the return migration to the homeland challenges an 'idealised image of home' constructed about homeland once migrants lived in host countries. It was assumed that by returning, an ideal home would be achieved (Ley and Kobayashi 2005) although, sometimes returning to home has been a traumatic experience (Kabachnik et al 2013). This tension between lived and ideal homes does not mean that migrants form 'unproblematic' ideals of home in terms of return to homeland (N ı Laoire 2007) and in fact, material investments in building homes there (in homeland) can be fragmented and inconsistent (Boccagni 2014).…”

Stabilizing or Challenging Patriarchy? Sketches of Selected “New” Political Masculinities

“…Some men embrace the challenges to the "traditional" expectations of masculinity that these processes present, for example, in terms of being a breadwinner, protector, and decision maker, as an opportunity to change their lives, while others may adapt more covertly to avoid ridicule from peers and other community members (Hollander 2014;Schroer-Hippel 2017). For many other men and boys, however, the societal pressures and often bewildering changes can lead to renewed efforts to gain control, to redouble their insistence on fulfilling what are seen as the "traditional" norms, to substance abuse, violence against others, and selfharm and/or a withdrawal from society (Dolan 2002;Gibbs et al 2015;Hollander 2014;Kabachnik et al 2012;Rice 2017). Successfully working on changing expectations and enactments of masculinity both in practice and in theory thus requires addressing the broader structural, economic, and social dynamics, which constrain men's lives as well as working on individual gender norms and roles.…”