“Lockdown Is a Kick to the Stomach and Ego”: Narratives of Masculinity and Stress During COVID-19 in Dhaka’s Slums

This chapter explores how patriarchal masculine norms contributed to the erosion of urban poor men’s emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws from 30 in-depth interviews with men (aged 16–65) conducted in two slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2021. The financial shocks of the lockdowns created acute socioeconomic vulnerabilities, particularly within slums. Coupled with dominant hegemonic masculine norms, this gave rise to intense experiences of stress and anxiety. Men’s narratives shed light on how their need to conform to the dominant masculine role as their families’ provider in a situation of economic deprivation became detrimental to their well-being even before the pandemic. The negative impacts became amplified during the pandemic. Men reported being engulfed with shame, loss, and fear of losing their jobs or educational prospects and living with uncertainty in deprived conditions. Our findings highlight how men speak of and think about stress and anxieties about patriarchal masculine norms as they unfold in and interact with economic and social deprivation. Such emotional and psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic require more intersectional and nuanced attention by research and programmatic interventions, particularly in the Global South.