India: What’s a Man: A podcast that attempts to unravel toxic traits in men

Article here. Excerpt:

'How do you define a man? More importantly, how do you define ‘masculinity’? For centuries, in India and around the world, gender roles have trapped men inside the falsehood of machismo. It has caged their thoughts and perpetuated falsities about ‘manhood’. ‘Ladkey rotey nahi‘, and ‘mard ko dard nahi hota‘ are some of the adages that they have picked up from films, furthering a belief that a man is a different species.

But in the last few years, this belief has been challenged. Today, many Indian men are not afraid to cry, or admit they are in pain. Mard ko dard hota hai, and they are unafraid to express that dard. So, amid this constant self-duelling, and unlearning of things, how does the modern man perceive masculinity?

Deepa Narayan, an award-winning researcher, author, social scientist and an advisor to the World Bank, attempted to understand this through her podcast What’s a Man: Masculinity in India. In the 10-episode series, she interviewed 250 middle and upper-class boys — some as young as seven — and men, to understand the different models of masculinity and their consequences.'