I was reading the NYTimes today and ran across an article about the establishment of the first Master's Degree in Masculinities Studies at SUNY at Stony Brook. Dr. Michael Kimmel is the founder of this egalitarian area of masculinities studies, and has been an advocate for rethinking scholarship on gender and masculinity in the light of feminism, having established
The Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities a number of years ago. Read the NYTimes article here:
All of this lead me to explore, once again, what our culture says about "being a man" today. I'm amazed at the conversation that has formed in the past decade or so around the definition of masculinity and maleness. The American conversation, in particular, seems to signal a kind of crisis, as if the headlines of the news do not remind us on a daily basis that we have no idea what it means to be a man, much less human. Dr. Kimmel's argument is that we need multiple definitions of masculinity if we are to have a more holistic view of what it means to be a man.
For example, (get ready for a small rant...) it is disturbing to me that a bully and misogynist, such as Donald Trump, can come out of the first Republican Presidential debate as the most anticipated and talked about candidate. In the coverage these past few days, I almost forgot that experienced politicians like Jebb Bush and Chris Christy were running. Regardless of anyone's opinion of their tenure as leaders, they have both been governors of large states at key moments of chaos and tragedy. At least we can debate their records and their experience leading their states. Trump, on the other hand, is congratulated for his business acumen and lack of political experience, yet he has no real sense of how to create or nurture community in such a complicated and diverse country as the USA. He wants to make America great again, but I'm not quite sure what he means by that. He seems to have an antiquated view of success and the "great American way." Sure, it has worked for him, but I would love to have a conversation about the true human and environment costs of his successes. A true political leader thinks of more than money and power, he thinks about future generations and the consequences of his actions for communities other than one's own. All that to say, even when it comes to politics, it seems that we Americans don't quite know how to assess masculinity and leadership capacity and quality. We would much rather savor the spectacle of "plain-spoken" bravado and condescending swagger. (OK, rant over... oh, I just love presidential election years...)
In this light, I found a few provocative videos about masculinity in America. More thoughts will follow in the days and months ahead, as they always do, but most likely in fragments as time allows...
The first video is a trailer for documentary made by the same team that created "Miss Representation" a few years back: "The Mask You Live In."
The second video is of a TEDx Baltimore talk by Joe Ehrmann, "Be A Man!!" This is a thought provoking talk in the language of sports.
