By Will Firth
BERLIN — A public meeting on East German men's identity was organised for late November in East Berlin as a springboard for a range of men's "consciousness-raising" and anti-sexist initiatives. But attendance was very poor, leaving the prospects for men's activism at square one.
Men in East Germany were brought up with a less specific social division of labour (though the traditional psychological division remained, with nurturing and "emotional work" staying women's domain). The dominant view was of the sexes being equals, with gender-specific nuances. With next to full employment, no pornography or degrading advertising and little prostitution, most men knew women not only as partners but also as friends and co-workers.
Since 1989, the social changes have put many men in a totally new position. Mass unemployment has hit women hardest and put many men in the situation of having to take on the role of sole breadwinner for the first time.
At the same time, they often feel "second-class men". The sexologist Hartmut Bosinski sees a "feminisation" of East German men taking place in united Germany as they are "pushed into women's subordinate position" by the confident, established West German man. Yet increasing tensions due to unemployment and rapid social change have led to an unprecedented level of male violence against women and children.
In East Germany there were some isolated attempts to deal with men-specific questions in certain circles of the Protestant Church (which in general served as an umbrella for dissent) and also in the gay scene, which the regime allowed to exist so long as it kept quiet.
Elsewhere in the east, there are several features in common with the ex-GDR. One is the resurrection of capitalist and often mafia-like structures stressing the leading role of men in public life. Communism's full employment for women and the correspondingly comprehensive net of social services (especially health and child-care) are now held by many to have been an unnatural experiment in social engineering. This opinion is cultivated particularly in the gutter press.
Parallel to this offensive aimed at pushing women back into the home, men are now expected to take on a more dominant role and compete for power to an extent unknown under Stalinism. This further alienates men from nurturing and cooperative human relationships.
The rebirth of hierarchical and patriarchal religion in central and eastern Europe is placing a major block on the process of open-minded questioning of social norms. This is entrenching "traditional" role models for men and women.
After decades of centrally controlled media and public morality, eastern Europe is awash with pornography (originally of western origin, now increasingly locally made).
Resurgent nationalist mythologies hardly allow room for gender-equality and sexual self-determination. Their emphasis on ethnic identity and the "fate of the nation" often results in a manipulative approach to sexuality, reducing it to reproduction. Abortion services and the right to abortion are under threat in most of these countries.
In most east European countries, homosexuality is strictly taboo. In the ex-USSR, sex between consenting male adults in private was punished with up to five years' imprisonment (Article 121 of the USSR Criminal Code). Lesbian relationships are not always punished so severely, but "public morality" sees to it that women suspected of lesbianism are treated with similar brutality.
Men behaving freely in public and greeting each other with a hug or a kiss is common in some of these countries. To Anglo-Saxon men, this may seem a sign of greater openness and ease with physical contact, but it's often an expression of bravado and exclusive belonging to the "boys' club" with its own patriarchal codes.
In many western countries, men's movements have grown up under the influence of the women's movement. There was no such development in eastern Europe, although equality of the sexes was a pillar of the official ideology.
The loudly proclaimed "equality" of women and men in the world of paid work masked women's double or triple burden (paid work, domestic work and child-care). Even in Moscow (about the most cosmopolitan and "progressive" place in the ex-USSR), a survey of young adults revealed that 80% of men and women consider housework and child rearing to be largely women's responsibility. Most of them think that men should just help out, and a third of men are not even prepared to do that. Only 20% of women and 10% of men believed that housework and child rearing should be shared equally.
The challenge of building a broad-based movement for human liberation is as relevant as it ever was. It remains to be seen whether the growth of women's movements in the countries behind the "Iron Curtain" will also lead to a growth in men's anti-sexism. When will the real sexual revolution come to eastern Europe?