Despite decades of radical progress, gender inequality still characterizes social realities throughout the globe – of course, with varying scopes. This is hardly surprising given that in the thousands of years of human history, women’s subservient roles have been engraved in early legal codes, mythological legacies, holy texts, and even modern-day institutions with their implicit gender norms.
In the Balkans, the global phenomenon of gendered inequality reveals itself in highly normalized practices of domestic violence against women, rape shaming, enforced economic dependence via unequal resource distribution, and many other historical and contemporary dimensions.
Naturally, the majority of feminist efforts seek to ameliorate such female-centric issues – issues that have otherwise been delegated to the periphery of public and historical concerns. But if feminism is to truly serve as a unifying, equalizing nexus for society, it must also at times contend with limiting social constructions that predominantly affect men’s lives – at the expense of both their women counterparts and their own selves. Such normative externalities are not in short supply in the Balkans, as men seek to mold their most “manliest” of selves and avoid at all costs any “feminine” flaws – whatever society dictates those to be.
