Khan SI, Hudson-Rodd N, Saggers S; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. D10765.

Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

Background: While men commonly construct manhood in the framework of responsibility for the family, they behave irrationally by taking various risks including sexual. Methods: Fifty men of 18 to 55 years from diverse socio-demographic backgrounds and five key-informants were interviewed in a qualitative study to explore Bangladeshi men's views about manhood and its relations to sexuality. Results: Men's success and competence are now measured against the scale of monetary power and acquisition of tangible property. Men's sense of taking the responsibility for supporting the family is translated to courageous and unbreakable manly challenges by undertaking various risks in their lives. Thus, a poor man is considered less masculine with compromised sexual potency. This notion of materialist power influences men's sexual relations with women with conflicting emotional attachment. Like that of economic power, men see sex as another agency of showing success, dominance and power on wom en. The meanings of penile erection often equate to male power and potency, penetration to the success of winning women and ejaculation to the achievement of reproductive capacity and acquiring fatherhood. However, the notion of manhood as provider is struggled since supporting family becomes challenging for many men in the context of Bangladesh where massive unemployment, low waged jobs and terrorist activities in business sectors have created the situation further complex. Conclusions: Men's gallantry attitudes towards lives are originated to their sense of economic providers, having implications on their sexual lives where they often transgress the boundary of the normative notions of monogamous sexual lives and reject safer sex practices. Men's risk-taking attitudes reflect their lifetime frustrations with the unattainable masculine standard of competitiveness and monetary success entrenched by the essentialist paradigm in this materialistic world.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Bangladesh
• Behavior
• Conflict (Psychology)
• Family
• Female
• Health Services
• Humans
• Interpersonal Relations
• Male
• Power (Psychology)
• Risk-Taking
• Sexual Behavior
• Sexuality
• Social Behavior

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0033618

UI: 102277834

From Meeting Abstracts