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Weiye Loh

No, Seriously, What About the Men? - The Good Men Project - 0 views

goodmenproject.com/...o-seriously-what-about-the-men

Feminism Gender Equality Gender Studies

shared by Weiye Loh on 22 Oct 11 - No Cached

  • 1) Whatabouttehwimmin?

    Any academic treatment of gender has been focused on the disadvantages faced by women and how women have been “omitted” from research, arts, literature, history, etc.

    An example of this assumption can be found in another book published in 1994, Angela McRobbie’s Postmodernism and Popular Culture. The book has many discussions of women, girls and “femininity,” but look for “masculinity” in the index, and you will draw a blank. She justifies this glaring omission with statements such as this one:

    It is in buying and selling clothes that girls and young women have been most active. The male bias of subcultural analysis has relegated these activities to the margins (McRobbie 1994:163). [My emphasis.]

  • when I have looked at contemporary books, journals, and web-based media that deal with the subject of gender, I have found no evidence of this so-called “male bias” at all. In the Internet age, there are large numbers of websites/online publications in particular, such as Jezebel, Sociological Images Feministing, Feministe and The Frisky, which look at representations of women in popular culture, for example. But there is no comparable critical consideration of how men and masculinity are portrayed in the media and culture. If anyone dares to question this imbalance, and the fact that feminist “gender studies” analyses of the media tend to only consider women as subjects, they are often met with the playground style taunt: whatabouttehmenz?

  • 2) Men are Monsters

    Heterosexual masculinity, in particular, has been “pathologized” by some feminist gender academics—with heterosexual men being portrayed as the oppressors of everyone else: hetero women, queer women, queer men.

    The idea that straight men have power that they use to oppress women, in particular, has been used by feminist writers such as Elaine Rapping, an American media and film analyst, to justify statements such as this:

    Everywhere you look there are books, movies, discussions and news reports about male violence … faced with the deadly serious question: “why are men such creeps?” (Rapping, 1993:114).

    This idea that men are “such creeps” is born out by the fact there is so much research and data on men’s violence against women, but very little about men as victims of violence, especially not at the hands of women. Is this because men are just thugs? Or is it due to the bias of gender academics?

    Even the name of this website, The Good Men Project, suggests to me that men are not ‘naturally’ good, but that they have to work hard to overcome the negative aspects of their ‘masculinity’ in order to become ‘Good Men.’

  • ...2 more annotations...

  • 3) “Masculinity” is Gay

    The only aspect of masculinity that gender studies seems to have allowed to be considered, without completely dismissing its value, has been “queer” masculinities, and this has been left to “queer theory.” Simpson, for example, tends to be categorized as a “gay” writer on “gay” men’s issues, and when he is mentioned in books about masculinity, it is often in relation to his work on gay pornography. Some feminist writers have suggested that there is a definite line between “straight” and “gay” men, and in doing so they are endorsing “gay” men as somehow better than straight men, suggesting they deserve consideration as people, not just “oppressors.” But at the same time, they are marginalizing any positive representation of masculinity into the box of “queer theory.” In other words, this suggests that taking an active interest in men and masculinity is “gay” in itself.

  • Male Impersonators is an interesting case study then, because, far from actually ignoring it, certain feminist academics have, in fact, taken its ideas, and co-opted and manipulated them and then failed to cite his work in their bibliographies. A number of feminist academics have made it clear they must have read Male Impersonators, but have not acknowledged just how much the book has “inspired” them, and in some cases have not mentioned Simpson at all.

    The most well-known of these is probably Susan Faludi. Her book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, published in 2000, certainly draws on the themes introduced by Simpson in Male Impersonators. In particular, Faludi’s chapters on “hood ornaments”—men’s newfound “decorative” role in culture—and “waiting for wood”—on men in pornography—seem to owe a great deal to Simpson’s Male Impersonators. Anecdotal evidence tells of an interview with Faludi, where Simpson’s name was brought up, and she declared, ‘Oh, Mark Simpson. I’m his biggest fan!’ But not such a big fan that she could include his book in her huge bibliography.

    Other academics who have obviously drawn on Male Impersonators, with little or no reference to Simpson, include Susan Bordo, who wrote The Male Body (1999) (more on that here), Germaine Greer (2003), Ros Gill et al, (2005), Harris (2007), Eric Anderson et al (2009), and Hall (2010).

Weiye Loh

How sexists find love - Coupling: Dating, marriage and other relationships - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...index.html

Sexism Gender Stereotype Gender Studies

shared by Weiye Loh on 26 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 26 Sep 11
     
    it not only confirms that there are sexist ideas behind pickup artist strategies -- as has often been the criticism -- but it also shows that sexist women are complicit. "Women are not just sexual gatekeepers," he says. "It's not like they're helpless, non-participants in this interaction. Instead, sexist women are essentially choosing sexist men." This is what's called "assortative mating" in social psychology -- basically, people tend to unconsciously filter out dissimilar individuals. "Even though they don't know that they're using these strategies for these reasons and even though these strategies aren't used because you're inherently trying to show your sexist attitudes, what it essentially does is help sexist people find each other," he says.
Weiye Loh

Suing LSE for discrimination against men is silly and wrong « Another angry w... - 0 views

stavvers.wordpress.com/...against-men-is-silly-and-wrong

Feminism Gender Equality Gender Studies Education Academia

shared by Weiye Loh on 16 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • “defensive insecurity”, the process whereby the (post-)modern male is told by society that he is “priveleged”, and yet he does not feel that way. Broadly because he is bound by self-policed gender codes of conduct that are taken for granted e.g. antifemininity, status and toughness; because contemporary culture apparently criticises the white male as a either complicit in patriarchy, or as the only identity exempt from equality (e.g. “nobody says it’s sexist that TV ads make guys out to be stupid” – like that was all feminism was about); basically because he is not actually an “old white dude” who runs the world. Also, traditional femininity – marriage & motherhood – is still relatively sacrosanct, while traditional masculinity is generally frowned upon as oppressive or archaic. My personal take is that he feels Otherness through the alienating effects of capitalism, but lacks the means or power to articulate or fight it, and becomes complicit instead.
    The result: a reactionary compensation to assert personal identity rights in the face of imaginary insult, all generated by personal insecurity.

  • It is so naiive to say ‘write some academic papers’ when getting papers published in academia is so riddled with politics and power relations.

    If you actually read Foucault you would know what I meant.

    For me, the bias of feminism is not just ‘anti-men’ it is anti anything that isn’t feminist. Why should feminism dominate gender studies? I think that is a question worth asking.

    Also a lot of the male writers you mention are boxed into ‘queer theory’. It turns masculinity studies into ‘gay studies’.

  • If Martin believes that there is some sort of systemic bias against men, or that the gender studies literature is lacking in its discussion of men’s issues, he should write his dissertation about it. Essentially, that’s what academia is all about: one reads, one identifies gaps in the literature, one researches, one plugs the gap. The dissertation Martin didn’t write could have been really interesting. It could have been worthwhile. It could have been brilliant.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • a masters degree is independent research, not for the curriculum to contain everything you want it to contain. As I pointed out, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from challenging paradigms, critically thinking and writing a dissertation on the issues you find interesting. That is what a degree is for. Where is the link for this text–which, I presume was an LSE piece of guidance, the way you frame it–that such debates be “blocked”?
  • what can be said is that violence against men does exist, and there is less research into it than violence against women.
Weiye Loh

Let's get this straight. Gender studies isn't about 'women good, men bad' | Jonathan De... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...udies-anti-discrimination-case

Gender Studies Gender Equality Discrimination

shared by Weiye Loh on 08 Sep 11 - No Cached

  • The irony of attacking feminists by invoking a piece of legislation whose existence is largely down to the energy and commitment of feminist campaigners scarcely needs pointing out.


    That's life. People use Freedom of Speech to attack Freedom of Speech.

    You just have to put up with it.

  • A problem with gendered studies is the appalling level of scholarship. It's not so much an area of study and research as it is political advocacy.
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