(Un)Real addresses the ways in which the HIV and AIDS epidemic has positioned men and the crucial roles that men can play in the social and political responses to HIV and AIDS. We address the construction of male identities and ‘maleness’ and the ways in which mascu­linities and male sexuality has been understood. For too long ‘gender’ has looked mainly at the position of women in society, addressing women and young girls in ways that position them negatively in relation to the rest of society through descriptions of vulnerability, of powerlessness and of being oppressed by men who have been placed centrally as the major problem in HIV and AIDS. This approach to gender has ensured that the many voices of men have been silenced and that men have been seen as being central to the problem but on the margins of solutions and of social, political and personal behaviour change.