What masculinity really means

Last week the internet was split, as usual, on what was served at the BRICS banquet hosted by the Prime Minister, with one group saying we are a meat-eating country with great food diversity, which had gone unrepresented. The meat-eating group also went on to talk about how if the PM had a wife the menu would have been better. One woman also said a diplomat’s wife would have done a stellar job of menu setting.

This gender-fication of roles – woman as menu-setter, man as diplomat – ties both genders to poles they may not want to be tethered to. Setting a menu or diplomacy are both skills that don’t come with little blue and pink tags attached to them.