Read Ozy Frantz and Noah Brand at AlterNet, who write:
We live in a sexist society, one where gender programming starts at birth (though the advent of the sonogram has allowed parents to get a head start by painting the nursery pink or blue and stocking up in advance on gendered toys and clothes) and is so pervasive as to be inescapable. Feminism has done an excellent job analyzing and challenging the ways that these assigned and enforced gender roles damage and deform the lives of women. The same tools of analysis can be applied to the damage and deformation that men suffer. And that damage, sad to say, is severe.
Feminism has also done an excellent job of discussing the damage men’s culturally enforced roles do to men. (Of course, male fetuses aren’t killed because of that darn penis…)
Ozy Frantz and Noah Brand haven’t been looking very hard, have they? I read books on this back in the 80s in Women’s Studies courses.
Masculism?
Really?
I’ve read a little about the resurgence of intersectionality in (analytical?) feminism. And it’s clear the authors recognize the evils of gender stereotyping, (although it’s not quite as clear if they see feminism as something more than just defeating stereotypes).
But wouldn’t articulating yet another identity reinforce the very kyriarchal conditioning the authors state we need to “unlearn?”
Maybe I’m just old school but I was under the impression that feminism liberated everybody…men and women.
And I agree that having some sort of grasp on intersectionality is useful, at least for the intelligentsia, when trying to identify and defeat institutionalized discrimination.
But masculism?
Really?
Maybe I’m just uncomfortable putting all that cruel suffering men have been subjected to through the ages due to stereotyping and discrimination on par with that imposed upon women…by men.
I’m proud to be called a feminist.
Call me a masculist and I just might punch you in the nose.
Ha! How’s that for some kyriarchal conditioning?
Maybe I should read that essay again. But I think I’ll have a snack first.
Call me a masculinist and I might punch myself in the nose.
The article was long and somewhat over thought/wrought but I can’t disagree with the argument of the effect of gender stereotypes on males. As a guy, being a feminist has worked to help me work out those issues just fine. Maybe it’s because those stereotypes are enforced by the same group, men. To me, nothing is more manly than standing up for women’s equality to other men (and women for that matter). To be fair, I know plenty of women who mine gender stereotypes for what they think is witty repartee and they would be the first to tell you they’re feminists.
Any way, I don’t need to organize a white people support group to understand the that damage racial stereotypes causes myself or a straight peoples group to understand the damage……..you get the idea. And I certainly don’t need to give it a name. Besides, oppressorist doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.