Michael Kimmel addresses conceptions of masculinity

by Amanda Barnes '12
NEWS CONTRIBUTOR

Over the past 40 years, women in America have made huge strides against the conditions they coped with and have revolutionized the world they inhabited. Men’s lives have been altered as a result, but, according to Professor of Sociology Michael Kimmel at SUNY Stonybrook in his lecture Tuesday, their “idea of masculinity” has not changed. In his lecture titled “Guyland,” Kimmel discussed the roadblocks to gender equality that arise because of the changes women’s lives have undergone and the simultaneous unchanged masculinity.

Kimmel tackled the issue of gender visibility. Women make their gender visible, he said, while men are blind to their gender because it is a societal privilege. Men define themselves in relation to women, so therefore masculinity can only be characterized as non-femininity.

Second, Kimmel addressed the conflict between men’s need to be “the big wheel,” and women’s advancement in the work place. For some, Kimmel relates, gender equality is a zero sum game – women’s achievement of equal status would result in the elimination of jobs and job opportunities for men. Kimmel described his appearance on an episode of Oprah titled, “A Black Woman Stole My Job.” On the show, Kimmel addressed men’s belief that they are entitled to a job over a qualified and capable woman, and he addressed the belief that the job was theirs.

Kimmel also analyzed the friction between women’s balance of work and family and men’s need to be “a sturdy oak.” Being the “oak” requires men to be the support of the family, but how steady can the support be if there is not a more egalitarian division of childcare and housework between partners? Men in modern society are expected to be involved fathers, which requires a great quantity of time, and as Kimmel suggested, is not necessarily hinged upon the quality of that time. “Nurturing and caring are not mystical states of being,” Kimmel said, but “sets of practices.” Men need to share the work and put the time in; when this happens, they can achieve the relationships with their families that they seek.

Finally, Kimmel talked about the discord between women’s advances in claiming their sexuality and sexual agency, and the last tenant of masculinity, “giving ’em hell.” Here, Kimmel largely addressed safe sex and rape. To men, based on masculine ideals, safe sex is an oxymoron. Sex, to men, is hot, passionate and explosive; safe sex, in the minds of men, takes away all of these ideas. According to Kimmel, the difference today between men’s and women’s sexuality is that for women, safe sex is a precondition.

Until this precondition is guaranteed and observed, “unless a woman knows that her bodily integrity will be upheld, she can’t get to a point where she is comfortable.” Men, Kimmel said, have a huge role to play in this issue: men control the use of their bodies, and can end date and acquaintance rape. Kimmel ended with the idea that gender equality is the only way men can have the type of relationships they desire with women and with their families.