Subverting The Hegemonic Masculinity: A Study on Anita Nair’s The Better Man

Abstract

Anita Nair is the most prominent writer in the present scenario. Her first novel The Better Man has given her immense recognition. The Better Man by Anita Nair is the story of Mukundan, a retired government employee who returns to his homeland unwillingly and ends up being a better man. In gender studies, hegemonic masculinity is a concept popularized by sociologist R.W. Connell of proposed practices that promote the dominant social position of men, and the subordinate social position of women. Conceptually, hegemonic masculinity proposes to explain how and why men maintain dominant social roles over women, and other gender identities, which are perceived as “feminine” in a given society. As a sociologic concept, the hegemonic nature of “hegemonic masculinity” derives from the theory of cultural hegemony, by Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci, which analyzes the power relations among the social classes of a society. Hence, in the term “hegemonic masculinity”, the adjective hegemonic refers to the cultural dynamics by means of which a social group claims, and sustains, a leading and dominant position in a social hierarchy; nonetheless, hegemonic masculinity embodies a form of social organization that has been sociologically challenged and changed. Anita Nair in her maiden novel, try to normalize the gender equations and with her characterization, is successful at “creating a de-gendered world where all configurations of practices are set transparent.” (Howson, 5)