The virus is reshaping lives

The lockdowns offer a chance for macho men to learn to become peaceful househusbands.

Many articles have been written on Covid-19 and its effect on women. But the virus has taken a greater toll on men. Covid-19 has taken away their formal jobs, robbed them of their outside world, displaced them from their public space, and snatched away their unlimited freedom. Robbed of their manhood, they feel naked. It has taken away men's patriarchal power. The novel coronavirus has trapped men in their homes. They are forced to live with the ‘second sex’, their wives. They have suddenly come face-to-face with home economics and management, the underbelly of the economy. The home was a secondary place where they came to eat, sleep and engage in the bare minimum of socialisation. It was never a meaningful place with meaningful people for them. Now they are confused because the pandemic has disrupted power relations at home.