Rethinking Gender and Health Help-Seeking and Health-Seeking Practices among Three Generations of Men in Bangladesh
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Abstract
Help-seeking and health-seeking are social practices influenced by ethnicity, class, race, age, and gender, among other factors. Globally, research suggests that ideas about masculinity influence men’s health-seeking practices. However, only a modest body of literature has considered masculinity in relation to men’s health problems in South Asia. To address this research gap, a qualitative study was conducted to gather the nar-ratives of three distinct social generations of men in Bangladesh concerning the understandings of gender and masculinity, and men’s help-seeking and health-seeking practices. Drawing on evidence from men’s accounts, we suggest some of the ways in which specific forms of social generational masculinity influence men’s help-seeking and sexual health-seeking practices. Findings carry implications for future health policy and health promotion practices. Generational masculinities and generation-specific health-seeking practices need to be taken into account in health policy and practice.
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Hasan, K., & Aggleton, P. (2020). Rethinking Gender and Health: Help-Seeking and Health-Seeking Practices among Three Generations of Men in Bangladesh. International Journal of Mens Social and Community Health, 3(1), e36-e47. https://doi.org/10.22374/ijmsch.v3i1.25
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References
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25. Story WT, Burgard SA. Couples’ reports of household decision-making and the utilization of maternal health services in Bangladesh. Social Science & Medicine. 2012;75(12):2403-11. Available from: https://www.sci-encedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612006806
26. Connell R. Gender, health and theory: Conceptualizing the issue, in local and world perspective. Social Science & Medicine. 2012;74(11):1675-83. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0277953611003509
27. Hasan MK, Aggleton P, Persson A. The makings of a man: Social generational masculinities in Bangladesh. Journal of Gender Studies. 2018;27(3):347-61. Available from: https://doi.org/ 10.1080/09589236.2017.1388773
28. Barker G, Olukoya A, Aggleton P. Young people, social support and help-seeking. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health. 2005;17(4):315-36. Available from: https://europepmc.org/abstract/ med/16445071
29. Samuel G. Islamic piety and masculinity. Contemporary Islam. 2011;5(3):309-22. Available from: https:// link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11562-011-0163-x
30. Metcalf BD. TablıJama¯’at as a Transnational Islamic Movement for Faith Renewal. Leiden: Brill; 2000. p.
44-58.
31. Lakhani A, Gandhi K, Collumbien M. Addressing
semen loss concerns: Towards culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS interventions in Gujarat, India. Reproductive Health Matters. 2001;9(18):49-59. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/ S0968-8080(01)90090-4
32. Hawkes S, Collumbien M. What do men want? Understanding what men in South Asia want from sexual health services. International Journal of Sexual Health. 2007;19(3):53-64. Available from: https://www.tand-fonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J514v19n03_07
33. Courtenay WH. Construction of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine. 2000;50:1385-1401. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/abs/pii/S0277953699003901
34. Saltonstall R. Healthy bodies, social bodies: Men’s and women’s concepts and practices of health in everyday life. Social Science & Medicine. 1993;36(1):7-14. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/ abs/pii/027795369390300S
35. Elliott K. Caring masculinities: Theorizing an emerging concept. Men and Masculinities. 2015:1-20. Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ abs/10.1177/1097184X15576203
36. Castells M. A new society. In: Seidman S, Alexander JC, editors. The new social theory reader. 2nd ed. London and New York, NY: Routledge; 2008. p. 313-24.
37. Castells M. The rise of the network society: Economy, society, and culture. 2nd ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 2010.
2. Boyce P. ‘Conceiving kothis’: men who have sex with men in India and the cultural subject of HIV prevention. Medical Anthropology. 2007;26(2):175-203. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ full/10.1080/01459740701285582
3. Boyce P, Khanna A. Rights and representations: Querying the male-to-male sexual subject in India. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 2011;13(1):89-100. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/136910 58.2010.515317
4. Collumbien M, Hawkes S. Missing men’s messages: Does the reproductive health approach respond to men’s sexual health needs? Culture, Health & Sexuality. 2000;2(2):135-50. Available from: https:// www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/136910500300769
5. Khan SI, Hudson-Rodd N, Saggers S, Bhuiya A. Men who have sex with men’s sexual relations with women in Bangladesh. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 2005;7(2):159-69. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ full/10.1080/13691050412331321258
6. Osella C, Osella F. Men and masculinities in South India. London: Anthem Press; 2006.
7. Imtiaz SMS. Young men in a colourful city: Masculinity, young men’s sexual practices, and HIV/AIDS in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Amsterdam: The University of Amsterdam; 2012.
8. Srivastava S. Sexual sites, seminal attitudes: Sexualities, masculinities and culture in South Asia. New Delhi: Sage; 2004.
9. Srivastava S. Non-Gandhian sexuality, commodity cultures and a ‘happy married life’: Masculine and sexual cultures in the metropolis. In: Srivastava S, editor. Sexual sites, seminal attitudes: Sexualities, masculinities and culture in South Asia. New Delhi: SAGE; 2004. p. 342-90.
10. Srivastava S. Masculinity and its role in gender-based violence in public spaces. Delhi: Centre for Equity and Inclusion; 2010. Available from: http://cequinindia.org/ wp-content/uploads/2018/01/MASCULINITY-AND-ITS-ROLE-IN-GBV-IN-PUBLIC-PLACES-Sanjay-Srivastav.pdf
11. Osella C. Desires under reform: Contemporary reconfigurations of family, marriage, love and gendering in a transnational South Indian matrilineal Muslim community. Culture and Religion. 2012;13(2):241-64. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/ 10.1080/14755610.2012.675508
12. O’brien R, Hunt K, Hart G. ‘It’s caveman stuff, but that is to a certain extent how guys still operate’: men’s ac-counts of masculinity and help seeking. Social science & medicine. 2005;61(3):503-16. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/ S0277953605000031
13. MacLean A, Hunt K, Smith S, Wyke S. Does gender matter? An analysis of men’s and women’s accounts of responding to symptoms of lung cancer. Social Science & Medicine. 2017;191:134-42. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S027795361730549X
14. Lynch I, Brouard PW, Visser MJ. Constructions of masculinity among a group of South African men living with HIV/AIDS: reflections on resistance and change. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 2010;12(1):15-27. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/ doi/ abs/10.1080/13691050903082461
15. Olanrewaju FO, Ajayi LA, Loromeke E, Olanrewaju A, Allo T, Nwannebuife O. Masculinity and men’s health-seeking behaviour in Nigerian academia. Cogent Social Sciences. 2019; 5(1):1-15. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/233118 86.2019.1682111
16. Hasan MK, Aggleton P, Persson A. Rethinking gender, men and masculinity: Representations of men in the south asian reproductive and sexual health literatures. International Journal of Men’s Health. 2015;14(2):146-62. Available from: http:// www.mensstudies.info/OJS/index.php/IJMH/
article/view/705
17. Ahmed SM, Adams AM, Chowdhury M, Bhuiya A.
Gender, socioeconomic development and health-seeking behaviour in Bangladesh. Social Science & Medicine. 2000;51(3):361-71. Available from: https://www.scien-cedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795369900461X
18. Arnold F, Kishor S, Roy T. Sex-Selective Abortions in India. Population and Development Review. 2002;28(4):759-85. Available from: http://qed.econ. queensu.ca/pub/faculty/sumon/sexabortions_india.pdf
19. South SJ, Trent K, Bose S. India’s ‘missing women’and men’s sexual risk behavior. Population Research and Policy Review. 2012;31(6):777-95. Available from: https:// link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-012-9248-3
20. Fikree FF, Pasha O. Role of gender in health disparity: The South Asian context. British Medical Journal. 2004;328:823-6. Available from: https://www.bmj.com/ content/328/7443/823.short
21. Sen G, Iyer A. Who gains, who loses and how: Leveraging gender and class intersections to secure health entitlements. Social Science & Medicine. 2012;74(11):1802-11. Available from:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0277953611003236
22. Ara RF, Alam MJ, Yusuf MA. Menopause-Related Symptoms and Help Seeking Behavior among Women Attended at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2018;8(04):376. Available from: http:// file.scirp. org/pdf/OJOG_2018041815333134.pdf
23. Hou X, Ma N. The effect of women’s decision-making power on maternal health services uptake: Evidence from Pakistan. Health Policy and Planning. 2012;28(2):176-84. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/heapol/ article/28/2/176/757843
24. Mumtaz Z, Salway S. ‘I never go anywhere’: Extricating the links between women’s mobility and uptake of reproductive health services in Pakistan. Social Science & Medicine. 2005;60(8):1751-65. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0277953604004101
25. Story WT, Burgard SA. Couples’ reports of household decision-making and the utilization of maternal health services in Bangladesh. Social Science & Medicine. 2012;75(12):2403-11. Available from: https://www.sci-encedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612006806
26. Connell R. Gender, health and theory: Conceptualizing the issue, in local and world perspective. Social Science & Medicine. 2012;74(11):1675-83. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0277953611003509
27. Hasan MK, Aggleton P, Persson A. The makings of a man: Social generational masculinities in Bangladesh. Journal of Gender Studies. 2018;27(3):347-61. Available from: https://doi.org/ 10.1080/09589236.2017.1388773
28. Barker G, Olukoya A, Aggleton P. Young people, social support and help-seeking. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health. 2005;17(4):315-36. Available from: https://europepmc.org/abstract/ med/16445071
29. Samuel G. Islamic piety and masculinity. Contemporary Islam. 2011;5(3):309-22. Available from: https:// link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11562-011-0163-x
30. Metcalf BD. TablıJama¯’at as a Transnational Islamic Movement for Faith Renewal. Leiden: Brill; 2000. p.
44-58.
31. Lakhani A, Gandhi K, Collumbien M. Addressing
semen loss concerns: Towards culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS interventions in Gujarat, India. Reproductive Health Matters. 2001;9(18):49-59. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/ S0968-8080(01)90090-4
32. Hawkes S, Collumbien M. What do men want? Understanding what men in South Asia want from sexual health services. International Journal of Sexual Health. 2007;19(3):53-64. Available from: https://www.tand-fonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J514v19n03_07
33. Courtenay WH. Construction of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine. 2000;50:1385-1401. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/abs/pii/S0277953699003901
34. Saltonstall R. Healthy bodies, social bodies: Men’s and women’s concepts and practices of health in everyday life. Social Science & Medicine. 1993;36(1):7-14. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/ abs/pii/027795369390300S
35. Elliott K. Caring masculinities: Theorizing an emerging concept. Men and Masculinities. 2015:1-20. Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ abs/10.1177/1097184X15576203
36. Castells M. A new society. In: Seidman S, Alexander JC, editors. The new social theory reader. 2nd ed. London and New York, NY: Routledge; 2008. p. 313-24.
37. Castells M. The rise of the network society: Economy, society, and culture. 2nd ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 2010.