The American University in Cairo Press Economies of the Male Body: Productivity, Pathology, and Pleasure in Urban Egypt

An intimate portrayal of masculinity in Egypt from lively, grounded, and fresh perspectives Based on long-term research in Cairo and Alexandria and grounded in ethnographic stories and intimate portrayals, Economies of the Male Body takes up masculinity in Egypt from an important new angle: male bodies in conditions of overwork, illness, as well as pleasure and recreation. The contributors to this volume center bottom-up everyday perspectives, in which the men appear as real flesh-and-blood human beings, embodying both their society’s gendered ideals as well as their own personal trajectories and idiosyncrasies. They set out to substantiate how underlying economic and social conditions undermine non-elite men’s ability to eat a varied diet, get proper rest, participate in sports, be loving and present husbands, and, more generally, lead rich, full, and worthwhile lives. Economies of the Male Body shows how the health of Egyptian men, many of whom are overweight and overworked, and Egypt’s grim health statistics of high premature male mortality among men of lower socioeconomic classes should be read not as a result of substandard awareness among the population, but as a record of visceral inequalities generated by late capitalism and a global economic system that disproportionately burdens underprivileged bodies. Contributors: Carl Rommel, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden Karin Ahlberg, Stockholm University, Stockholm Sweden and Universität Bremen, Bremen Germany Mariz Kelada, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon Mustafa Abdalla, The Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany Youssef Ramez Boktor, The City University of New York, New York, USA Noha Fikry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada