Chapter 12 readings

CHAPTER 12 READINGS

MICHAEL KIMMEL

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS  Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinity (1987)  Men Confront Pornography (1990)  Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776-1990 (1992) –

documentary history that chronicles men who supported women’s equality since the founding of the country  The Politics of Manhood (1996)  The Gender of Desire (2005)  The History of Men (2005)  Guyland: The Perilous World Where Guys Become Men (2008)

REAL MEN JOIN THE MOVEMENT  Profeminist men: actively supporting women’s equality and changing

their own lives to help create that equality (transforming the definition of masculinity)  Profeminist men are helping to rethink identities and relationships  For profeminist men, it isn’t about what men shouldn’t do or can’t do;

it’s about what men should do, can do, and want to do  Feminism as an identity involves the felt experience of inequality  Many profeminist men have had some personal experience that made

gender inequality more concrete

REAL MEN JOIN THE MOVEMENT  Men Acting for Change  Men Opposed to Sexist Tradition  Men Against Sexual Harassment  Men Against Sexual Assault  Men Against Rape and Sexism  Men Standing Up

WHITE RIBBON CAMPAIGN  The White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) is the largest effort in the world of

men working to end violence against women (VAW). In over fifty-five countries, campaigns are led by both men and women, even though the focus is on educating men and boys. In some countries it is a general public education effort focused on ending violence against women.  The Montréal Massacre of December 6, 1989, in which 14 women

students at the École Polytechnique were systematically killed and 13 other students wounded by a lone gunman, is indelibly imprinted on the minds of Quebeckers and others who struggled to comprehend the worst single-day massacre in Canadian history.

REAL MEN JOIN THE MOVEMENT  Men must learn to confront and challenge other men with care and

commitment  Goal is to live lives of intimacy, integrity, and individual expression  Profeminist men believe men will live healthier, happier, and more

emotionally enriched lives by supporting women’s equality  “This cause is not altogether and exclusively woman’s cause. It is the

cause of human brotherhood as well as human sisterhood, and both must rise and fall together” (Frederick Douglass, 1848)

RUTH ROSEN

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS  The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America 1900-1918  The Maimie Papers: Letters from an Ex-Prostitute  The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed

America

EPILOGUE: BEYOND BACKLASH  Backlash: A strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people,

especially to a social or political development  Backlash can be seen on many fronts:  Women of the Right (Phyllis Schlafly, Ann Coulter)  Men of the Right (religious, political – Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh

 Media (repentant career woman comes to believe feminism has ruined her life)

FEMINIST RESPONSE TO BACKLASH  Literature: Woman on the Edge of Time, The Left Hand of Darkness,

The Handmaid’s Tale  Effective Political Force  Gains in education and workforce  Third Wave Feminism/Global Feminism (addressing the world’s

problems as if women mattered)  World Conference on Women (1st in Mexico 1975; 2nd at Copenhagen

in 1980; 3rd in Nairobi in 1985; 4th in China in 1995 – cannot obtain support/sponsorship for a 5th)

THE FUTURE  Each generation leaves an unfinished agenda for the next  I will leave mine to you  What will you do with it?