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Masculism ormasculinism[a] may variously refer to ideologies and socio-political movements that seek to eliminatediscrimination against men,[6][7] or the promotion ofmasculine ideals.[8][9][7] The terms may also refer to themen's rights movement ormen's movement,[b] as well asantifeminism ormachismo.[11][4]
According to the historian Judith Allen,Charlotte Perkins Gilman invented the termmasculism in 1914,[12] when she gave a public lecture series in New York entitled "Studies in Masculism". Allen writes that Gilman usedmasculism to refer to the opposition ofmisogynist men to women's rights and, more broadly, to describe "men's collective political and cultural actions on behalf of their own sex",[13] or what Allen calls the "sexual politics ofandrocentric cultural discourses".[14] Gilman referred to men and women who opposedwomen's suffrage as masculists—women who collaborated with these men were "Women Who Won't Move Forward"[15]—and describedWorld War I as "masculism at its worst".[16]
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (2011) definesmasculinism (ormasculism) as "[a] male counterpart to feminism. [...] Like feminism, masculism reflects a number of positions, from the desire for equal rights for men (for example, in cases of child access after divorce), to more militant calls for the total abolition of women's rights."[6] According to Susan Whitlow inThe Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory (2011), the terms are "used interchangeably across disciplines".[2] Sociologist Robert Menzies wrote in 2007 that both terms are common inmen's rights andanti-feminist literature: "The intrepid virtual adventurer who boldly goes into these unabashedly mascul(in)ist spaces is quickly rewarded with a torrent of diatribes, invectives, atrocity tales, claims to entitlement, calls to arms, and prescriptions for change in the service of men, children, families, God, the past, the future, the nation, the planet, and all other things non-feminist."[3]
The gender-studies scholarJulia Wood describesmasculinism as an ideology asserting that women and men should have different roles and rights owing to fundamental differences between them, and that men suffer from discrimination and "need to reclaim their rightful status as men".[17] Sociologists Arthur Brittan and Satoshi Ikeda describe masculinism as an ideology justifying male domination in society.[c][19] Masculinism, according to Brittan, maintains that there is "a fundamental difference" between men and women and rejects feminist arguments that male–female relationships are political constructs.[18][1]
The political scientist Georgia Duerst-Lahti distinguishes betweenmasculism, which expresses theethos of the early gender-egalitarianmen's movement, andmasculinism, which refers to the ideology ofpatriarchy.[5] Sociologists Melissa Blais andFrancis Dupuis-Déri describe masculism as a form ofantifeminism;[20] they equatemasculist andmasculinist, attributing the former to authorWarren Farrell. The most common term, they argue, is the "men's movement"; they write that there is a growing consensus in the French-language media that the movement should be referred to asmasculiniste.[10] Dupuis-Déri writes that members of the men's movement refer to themselves as bothmasculinist andmasculist.[21] According to Whitlow, masculinist theory such as Farrell's and that of gender-studies scholarR.W. Connell developed alongsidethird-wave feminism andqueer theory, and was influenced by those theories' questioning of traditionalgender roles and the meaning of terms such asman andwoman.[2]
Ferrel Christensen, a Canadian philosopher and president of the former Alberta-based Movement for the Establishment of Real Gender Equality,[3][22] writes that "Defining 'masculism' is made difficult by the fact that the term has been used by very few people, and by hardly any philosophers." He differentiates between "progressive masculists", who welcome many of the societal changes promoted by feminists, while believing that some measures to reduce sexism against women have increased it against men, and an "extremist version" of masculism that promotesmale supremacy. He argued that if masculism and feminism refer to the belief that men/women are systematically discriminated against, and that this discrimination should be eliminated, there is not necessarily a conflict between feminism and masculism, and some assert that they are both. However, many believe that one sex is more discriminated against, and thus use one label and reject the other.[9]
According to Bethany M. Coston andMichael Kimmel, members of themythopoetic men's movement identify as masculinist.[23] Nicholas Davidson, inThe Failure of Feminism (1988), callsmasculism "virism": "Where the feminist perspective is that social ills are caused by the dominance of masculine values, the virist perspective is that they are caused by a decline of those values. ..."[24] Christensen calls virism "an extreme brand of masculism and masculinism".[9]
SociologistAndreas Kemper describes masculism as a variation of masculinism whose goal is to oppose what its adherents see as female domination, making it fundamentally anti-feminist.[4][25]
Masculism is sometimes termedmeninism.[26][27][28][29]
Many masculists oppose co-educational schooling, believing that single-sex schools better promote the well-being of boys.[30]
Data from the U.S. in 1994 reported that men suffer 94% of workplace fatalities. Farrell has argued that men do a disproportionate share of dirty, physically demanding, and hazardous jobs.[7]
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Masculists cite higher rates of suicide in men than women.[30] Farrell expresses concern about violence against men being depicted as humorous, in the media and elsewhere.[31][independent source needed]
They also express concern about violence against men being ignored or minimized in comparison to violence against women,[30][32] asserting gender symmetry indomestic violence.[30] Another of Farrell's concerns is that traditional assumptions of female innocence or sympathy for women, termedbenevolent sexism, do lead to unequal penalties for women and men who commit similar crimes,[31]: 240–253 [independent source needed] to lack of sympathy for male victims indomestic violence cases when the perpetrator is female, and to dismissal of female-on-malesexual assault andsexual harassment cases.[citation needed]
A masculist approach togender studies, which have frequently focused on woman-based or feminist approaches, examines oppression within a masculinist, patriarchal society from a male standpoint.[33] According toA Dictionary of Media and Communication (2011), "Masculists reject the idea of universal patriarchy, arguing that before feminism most men were as disempowered as most women. However, in the post-feminist era they argue that men are in a worse position because of the emphasis on women's rights."[6]
In the wake of the abolition ofapartheid, South Africa saw a resurgence of masculinistChristian evangelical groups, led by theMighty Men Conference (MMC) and the complementaryWorthy Women Conference (WWC). The latter saw the development of what theologianSarojini Nadar and psychologist Cheryl Potgeier callformenism: "Formenism, like masculinism, subscribes to a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women (in other words, only men can be leaders), but unlike masculinism, it is not an ideology developed and sustained by men, but one constructed, endorsed and sustained bywomen" [emphasis in original].[34]: 143 The Mighty Men movement harkens back to the Victorian idea ofMuscular Christianity. Feminist scholars argue that the movement's lack of attention to women's rights and the struggle for racial equality makes it a threat to women and to the stability of the country.[35][36] Scholar Miranda Pillay argues that the Mighty Men movement's appeal lies in its resistance to gender equality as incompatible with Christian values, and in raising patriarchy to a "hyper-normative status", beyond challenge by other claims to power.[37]
The Worthy Women Conference is an auxiliary to the MMC in advocating a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women.[34]: 142–143 Its leader,Gretha Wiid, blames South Africa's disorder on the liberation of women, and aims to restore the nation through its families, making women again subservient to men.[38] Her success is attributed to her balancing claims that God created the gender hierarchy, but that women are no less valuable than men,[39] and that restoration of traditional gender roles relieves existential anxiety in post-apartheid South Africa.[34]: 148
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Masculism (mas'kye liz*'em), n. 1. the belief that equality between the sexes requires the recognition and redress of prejudice and discrimination against men as well as women. 2. the movement organized around this belief.
Advocacy of the rights of men; adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men; (more generally) anti-feminism, machismo.(Subscription orparticipating institution membership required.)
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