Critical Masculinity Studies

Welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely, relaxing and productive Reading Week.

During our last class, we took it a bit easy. The WMST librarian, Jessie Loyer (jloyer(at)mtroyal.ca) led a workshop specifically focused on your ‘Zine Project, and then, having got off to a good start there by organizing yourselves into research groups and starting to brainstorm about your topic(s), we reconvened in our regular classroom to finish up our unit on constructing femininity. We continued our discussion of The Waiting Room, focusing on the DISCIPLINARY PRACTICE of body modification in the quest for perfect femininity. But we also took a look at BODY PRACTICES that can be empowering as some women engage in body modification to (re)take control of their bodily sovereignty and actively resist notions of femininity.

On Thursday, we’re going to jump right on into the next part of our course, “’Act Like a Man:’ Constructing Masculinity.” But before I talk about that, let’s clear up some administrative loose ends:

1. I’ve posted the list of groups and tentative topics for the ‘Zine Project under the “Assignments” tab on Bb; please be sure to be in touch with your group members ASAP in order to finalize your topic.
2. Your group project proposal is due next week, Thursday, March 7^th. Please be sure to adhere to the directions as laid out in the ‘Zine Project assignment, which is posted on our course blog.
3. If you’d like to meet with me to brainstorm about the project—or for any other reason—please don’t hesitate to stop by during my office hours. Or, if that doesn’t work, e-mail me and we can arrange an alternative appointment.
4. Also, don’t forget that next week we have a guest lecturer coming in to talk to us about trans issues. The first part of our class next week, from 2-3:30, is open to the MRU campus community, so please invite your friends!

Now, down to business:

Critical Masculinity Studies

I’m sure that those of you who have taken Women’s Studies courses before have all heard at least one Women’s Studies “newbie” ask, “But why aren’t there men’s studies?” Sometimes the question comes from a place of genuine curiosity, but more often than not (in my experience, at least), it comes out of political antagonism to the questions about power and inequality that Women’s Studies and feminist scholars seek to address.

I love when students ask me this question. I usually don’t have to answer it, because there are invariably students in the room who, as a result of their previous coursework in Women’s Studies, are very capable of answering it for me. But the question is an excellent one, because the sheer ubiquity of (white, heterosexual) men’s studies at every stage and in every aspect of the education system points explicitly to the necessity of Women’s Studies—as well as to other allied critical spaces of inquiry, such as indigenous studies, critical race studies, and LGBTQ studies.

R.W. Connell’s book, Masculinities, which we’re returning to this week after having already read chapter 1, is exemplary of CRITICAL MASCULINITY STUDIES in that it incorporates the perspectives and approaches of feminist and queer theorists to study men as a product of and influenced by the processes of gender construction. In fact, Connell is considered one of the founders of this relatively new field of scholarship and analysis, which developed in the wake of the conservative men’s rights movement of the late 1980s and 1990s. This movement argues that while the rights of women, girls, homosexuals, people of color, and other historically marginalized groups have been protected through civil and human rights legislation, the traditional rights of (white, heterosexual) men have been eroded. 

Obviously, this way of thinking is in opposition to the perspectives and approaches of feminist and queer theorists, but it has resulted in some interesting new research that studies and celebrates the activities and experiences of men. This research is generally referred to as MEN’S STUDIES, which Connell notes is a POSITIVIST study of men as a coherent group constitutive of anyone who has “a penis, a Y chromosome and a certain supply of testosterone” (43). CRITICAL MASCULINITY STUDIES scholars argue, though, that this research on men is flawed because it (1) not only excludes, but is hostile to, feminist and queer theoretical approaches to gender, and (2) ignores the social, cultural, and political causes and consequences of the SEX/GENDER SYSTEM. In other works this research studies men, but not masculinity. As a result, the causes and consequences of (some) men’s power and privilege remain unexamined. 

Interestingly, this “new” MEN’S STUDIES looks and sounds an awful lot like the same old study of great wars and great (white, heterosexual) men that comprises the overwhelming majority of most peoples’ educational experiences. (***Remember: the education system is part of the GENDER POLICE! Think about this as you read Martin’s article in Weitz this week.)

This is why CRITICAL MASCULINITY STUDIES scholars, who come from a wide array of academic locations, insist on being accountable to feminist theorists: The field of CRITICAL MASCULINITY STUDIES very literally wouldn’t exist without the work on interrogating power and privilege and the construction of gender done originally in Women’s Studies by feminist scholars.

Take a look at this teaser featuring an excerpt from a lecture by Michael Kimmel, another founder of CRITICAL MASCULINITY STUDIES.

This is the conversation/debate that Connell is part of. If you remember from our first encounter with his ideas from chapter 1, he is generally concerned that the academic and scientific study of men and masculinity has been historically flawed—largely because each area (psychology, anthropology, history and sociology) has only recently started to think about men as gendered subjects, but has yet to widely embrace the work of feminist theorists.

He returns to this point again in chapter 2, “Men’s Bodies,” which you’re reading for this week. In this chapter, he takes up the task of thinking about men’s bodies in relation to masculinity by reviewing the three general approaches to THE BODY in the sciences, social sciences and humanities (***Remember from chapter 1 that he’s concerned with how, why and by whom knowledge about masculinity has been constructed (6)), arguing that none of these approaches is all that effective. He concludes by offering his own approach/theory/analytical tool for making sense of how masculinity is constructed. He calls this BODY-REFLEXIVE PRACTICES, which calls attention to the circuit of social relations and institutions that affect the construction of masculinity/ies, acknowledge the materiality of the body and take into account the domain of gender politics.

In chapter 3, Connell “set[s] out a framework based on contemporary analyses of gender relations” in order to “provide a way of distinguishing types of masculinity, and of understanding the dynamics of change” in gender over time (67).

Chapter 8, as is clear from the title, is all about the history of Western masculinity. In this chapter, Connell draws attention to the specific times and places at which particular forms of masculinity became salient. Not surprisingly, this chapter is my favorite because it contextualizes the always dynamic process of masculinity within the histories of the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution (15^th and 16^th centuries), colonial conquest (15^th through 19^th centuries), the Industrial Revolution (18^th through early 20^th centuries) and contemporary globalization (late 20^th century to the present). For those of you who often ask, “How did all this gender inequality—not to mention other forms of social injustice—start,” this chapter’s for you!

For this week, I also recommend that you review Connell, chapter 1. You might also be interesting in checking out NOMAS, the organization Michael Kimmel started in the late 1970s to enhance men's lives.

Please remember that the best part of my job is getting to know my students, so please don’t hesitate to come on by during my office hours if ever you have any questions or just want to chat! If you can’t make my office hours, then just e-mail me, and we can arrange an alternative meeting time.

Happy reading, and I’ll see you in class!