Queering Masculinities: Homosocial Desire and Men’s Self-Fashioning in India

Marius Janusauskas
Ghent University

Abstract

This paper explores how collective men's self-fashioning practices mediate power, social fluidity, and belonging in postcolonial India. Drawing on typological analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and visual representations of men in Indian films and fashion advertisements, I introduce several interpretive strategies for understanding how sartorial choices in homosocial spaces simultaneously reinforce social hierarchies and foster intimate bonds among men. I argue that such choices both challenge and uphold existing heteronormative ideals. This study then critically examines how alternative masculinities intersect with the caste, class, and sexuality systems. I highlight the significance of the “hard body” masculinity and “new man” figure in fashion, showing how the neoliberal construct of consumer culture advances progressive masculine aesthetics while compelling men to negotiate both conformity and the pursuit of intimacy. By foregrounding the fashioned male body as a site of modernity, this study addresses the potential for Indian men to subvert hegemonic structures, even as they remain entangled within social strata. In this process, I demonstrate the socially fluid, fashioned body escapes stereotypes and evokes new possibilities for non-traditional expressions of masculinity.

Presentation