Upturned Moustaches and Manufactured Manhood: A Study of Hegemonic Masculinity in Tariq Rehman’s Moustache

Abstract

This study explores the construction and performance of masculinity in Moustache by Tariq Rehman through the theoretical lens of hegemonic masculinity as developed by R. W. Connell. While previous scholarship has interpreted the story through postcolonial paradigms such as mimicry and subalternity, this paper argues that the narrative fundamentally dramatizes the production, regulation, and humiliation of masculine identity within a rural Punjabi power structure. The moustache operates as a symbolic marker of hegemonic masculinity, linking honor, authority, class, and bodily discipline. Through qualitative textual analysis, this study demonstrates how Allah Dad (Dadu) and Shafaqat attempt to perform dominant masculinity but are repeatedly subordinated within shifting hierarchies of power. The findings reveal that masculinity in the story is neither natural nor stable; rather, it is socially constructed, policed, and violently enforced.

Keywords: Hegemonic Masculinity, Masculinity Studies, Power, Symbolism, Rural Hierarchy, Identity Performance, Tariq Rehman