Here's another perspective on femininity and masculinity. I think it's a facile treatment of complicated social trends, but I have a hunch not much research has been done to figure out what is going on, let alone why. However, these ideas are coming out more and more in the media...
I'm especially curious to hear a male reaction to this opinion piece about "Why Men Are in Trouble."
I'm somewhat skeptical of some of this article's uses of numbers. For example, while true, it is a bit misleading to say that the younger generation of men are less religious than older generations. The younger generation of Americans is less religious, but that is no more true of men than of women, so I'm not sure what it has to do with the rest of the article.
ReplyDeleteMy general reaction is that maleness isn't really a part of my identity in the way the author seems to think it should be. It is an empirical fact that I am a man, but I don't draw very many conclusions about how I should live my life from that fact. I don't measure my place in society by how men in general do in society. Masculinity just isn't a variable that I generally find myself consciously thinking about, except when I read things like this on your blog. So I guess I am simultaneously confirming the article's descriptive point while rejecting its normative point?
Thanks for the comments, Frank! I heard from another guy friend that the use of numbers is off -- basically that his statistics don't really support his point.
ReplyDeleteI think your lack of consciousness of your masculinity has more to do with the concept of normativity: if you are in the majority group, you tend to define yourself less by that identifier. Example: I define myself as female before I define myself as white. I'm part of the (arguable) minority as a female; the majority as a white person.
You make a good point about normativity, it is certainly part of it, but I don't think that's all of it. It's not just a matter of a male v female point off view, I think it's also a matter of a progressive v conservative point of view. I don't think it's an accident that the author of this article served in republican rather than democratic administrations. There are a number of statements in the article that I can't imagine coming out of a progressive's mouth/pen/keyboard. For example, the reference to "boys who have been abandoned by their fathers," as though mothers were less good at raising boys, or the claim that "Through all these different and conflicting signals, our boys must decipher what it means to be a man," rather than what it means to be a good person.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious if you have any thoughts on this: http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/147626/5_stupid%2C_unfair_and_sexist_things_expected_of_men/?page=entire
If my mom didn't read this blog, I might post that, but seeing how the language is ... not motherly, I will refrain. I know that gender norms constrain men as well; I just (obviously) don't experience them the same way. Did you think that article gave an accurate assessment of your experience as a man?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the combination of these articles points out the importance of intersectionality -- as a Catholic woman I feel different pressures than a woman who ascribes to a different, or no, faith. (Though there is obviously overlap.)