Masculinity in pandemic times: where power decreases, violence increases^1,2

Abstract

In the context of the emergence of the pandemic caused by covid-19, the objective of this essay is to reflect on the man-power-violence relationships and the resignification of men’s place, from the conceptions of Hannah Arendt, problematizing the normalized concept of hegemonic masculinity and seeking to understand the increase in domestic violence against women. Throughout this essay, we seek to deconstruct the idea that there is a single model of hegemonic masculinity that proposes a global domination of men over women, since women also present aspects of masculinity, being a historical-social construction that is constantly changing. Thus, in the face of historical gender reforms added to the instability caused by the covid-19 pandemic, there is an increase in domestic violence as an effect of the decrease in patriarchal power, in an attempt to stabilize the masculinity model defined by this patriarchal power, an attempt is made to reconstitute it (re-signify it) in new configurations.

Keywords:
Pandemics; Masculinity; Domestic Violence; Violence Against Women; Gender Violence