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Abstract

This article seeks to understand and analyze the formation of urban masculinities in Rawalpindi, Pakistan by focusing on a subculture known as “Pindi boys,” who are young men aged 17-22. In doing so, this research offers an understanding of what it means to be a teen or young man from a low-income household in the urban city of Rawalpindi. How does sociocultural context influence boys and young men to embody a specific type of masculinity? Following the daily lifestyle of Pindi boys, this research avoids generalizations that result in an ahistorical analysis of men and masculinities in urban spaces. Considering how cities—in this case, the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad—can simultaneously be spaces of exclusion and inclusion, this research offers a feminist reading of men and masculinities in present-day Pakistan. Adopting a feminist ethnographic methodology, the paper demonstrates that these boys and young men form bonds and affiliations among themselves to resist and revolt against the Westernized, elitist, liberal, classist sensibilities of their immediate neighbors of Islamabad. In this process of differentiating themselves from the “Burger boys” of Islamabad, they have constructed a distinctive identity rooted in their socio-cultural and economic contexts. Exploring the lives of Pindi boys from Rawalpindi reveals the intersectional nature of their masculinity. In reaction to the stigmatization and othering they have experienced in terms of class and location, they find power in a masculine identity anchored in patriarchal structures. This work contributes to theorizing masculinities in urban spaces by addressing how urban masculinity is imagined, embodied, and received in a particular sociocultural milieu.

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