This article examines emerging discourses on men, masculinities and gender equality in the field of humanitarian aid to refugees. Through an analysis of key policy texts and interviews with humanitarian aid workers based in Thailand and Bangladesh, Olivius draws attention to three key representations of refugee men in humanitarian policy and practise: 1. Refugee men as perpetrators of violence and discrimination, 2. refugee men as powerful gatekeepers and potential allies, and 3. refugee men as emasculated troublemakers. The author argues that this way of portraying refugee men is problematic; it depicts them as pathologized ‘primitives’, while also obscuring gender relations and eliding the need to empower women refugee.