While watching the serial "Man vs Wild", where the 'hero' who was trying to survive in the jungle, and was trying to escape from something -- I don't know what, i came late -- it was either predators or mafia, but they were all around and they were out to get him, and the only way he could survive was by camouflaging himself. He did it by putting on masks and stuff that made him mix with the environment -- rubbing mud on himself, especially everything that shone or stood out, and putting plants on himself.
I could immediately relate it with how men have been forced to live all these centuries and especially in the modern heterosexual society. It's so damn hostile to the real man in them, that it will kill them the moment it sees it. So they survive by putting on masks -- masks of heterosexuality. They do a thousand things, just so to mix with the environment, so that the oppressive forces don't find them, isolate them and then banish them from the society and take away their very identity from them.
And, then suddenly I recalled how Sameer was dating women, even when our relationship was just getting strong -- and I left him thinking he had decieved me, that social power meant more to him. But, he wasn't doing it for social power. He was doing it only because he needed it to survive. He just doesn't have the skills to protect himself, if they catch him. All those scary and hostile heterosexual masks that he wore was to hide himself -- a survival skill, just like that 'hero' in the serial 'Man vs. Wild'. And then the oppression of men became even more stark and obvious. Because this is pretty much what most other straight men do. And it also gave me an idea. If I want men to feel safe to come to our movement, then I must camouflage my ownself, our movement and give them a space where they can safely come without jeopardising their identity and existence. At least in the beginning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment