Men and Masculinities in Algeria

This chapter provides an overview of the current scholarship on men and masculinities in Algeria, noting that work on gender in the country has overwhelmingly focused on women and their experiences. It then critiques how scholars and media outlets have portrayed Algerian masculinities in highly problematic and essentializing ways. These works often reduce Algerian male agency to acts of violence or aggression, especially against women. To counter these narratives, especially those that concern the country’s civil conflict of the 1990s, this chapter analyzes Andrew Hussey’s 2014 book, The French Intifada, to demonstrate how the author ascribes to Algerian men a propensity for violence that simply does not exist. In this way, I seek to contribute to broader conversations currently underway in African studies that are moving past ideas of violent masculinities and masculinities in “crisis” (Ammann and Staudacher, Masculinities in Africa Beyond Crisis: Complexity, Fluidity, and Intersectionality. Gender, Place & Culture 28(6): 759–768, 2021).