Negotiating masculinities in times of crisis: On the COVID frontline in Pakistan

This study provides a detailed analysis of the ways in which male Pakistani civil servants negotiated their masculinity while working as frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show how these men, in high-pressure work environments, invoked multiple hegemonic and non-hegemonic manifestations of masculinities as they experienced extreme stress. We contribute to the existing hegemonic masculinity literature by illuminating the ways in which different types of masculinities can be performed, embodied, and disrupted in high-stress situations. We also explore the processes by which these different types of masculinities are negotiated in a Global South context allowing us to examine how masculinity is contested in a context with particular cultural and societal norms and expectations.