Masculism

A claimed Men's rights movement symbol.

Masculism or masculinism may variously refer to advocacy of the rights or needs of men and boys; and the adherence to or promotion of attributes (opinions, values, attitudes, habits) regarded as typical of men and boys.

Definition and scope

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines masculism, or synonymously masculinism, as the "advocacy of the rights of men; adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men; (more generally) anti-feminism, machismo."

However, philosopher Ferrell Christensen differentiates "masculism" from "masculinism", defining the latter as promoting the attributes of manliness. Political scientist Georgia Duerst-Lahti also distinguishes the two terms, with masculism expressing the ethos of the early gender-egalitarian men's movement, while masculinism refers to the ideology of patriarchy.

Christensen differentiates between "progressive masculism" and an "extremist version". The former welcomes many of the societal changes promoted by feminists, while believing that some measures reducing sexism against women have increased it against men. The extremist version promotes male supremacy to some degree, and is generally based on a belief in women's inferiority. Nicholas Davidson, in his book The Failure of Feminism, describes an extremist version of masculism which he termed "virism": "What ails society is 'effeminacy'. The improvement of society requires that the influence of female values be decreased and the influence of male values increased…."

Gender theories, which have frequently focused on woman-based or feminist approaches, have come to examine oppression in a masculist society also from the perspectives of men, many of whom are also subjected by that society. From a feminist perspective to philosophy, masculinism seeks to value and include only male views, and claim "that anything that cannot be reduced or translated in men's experience should be excluded from the subject-matter of philosophy.

Topic areas of interest

Main article: Men's rights movement

Education and employment

Many masculists oppose co-educational schooling, believing that single-sex schools better promote the well-being of boys. Other masculists and equity feminists say that boys lag behind girls in educational achievement.

Data from the U.S. in 1994 reported that men suffer 94% of workplace fatalities. Masculist Warren Farrell has argued that men do a disproportionate share of dirty, physically demanding, and hazardous jobs.

Violence and suicide

See also: Violence against men

Masculists cite higher rates of suicide in men than women. Masculists express concern about violence against men being depicted as humorous, in the media and elsewhere.

They also express concern about violence against men being ignored or minimized in comparison to violence against women, some asserting gender symmetry in domestic violence. Another of their concerns is that traditional assumptions of female innocence or sympathy for women, termed benevolent sexism, may lead to unequal penalties for women and men who commit similar crimes, to lack of sympathy for male victims in domestic violence cases, and to dismissal of female-on-male sexual assault and sexual harassment cases.

Custody

Main article: Fathers' rights movement

According to David Benatar, head of philosophy at the University of Cape Town, "Custody law is perhaps the best-known area of men's rights activism", as it is more likely in most parts of the world for the mother to obtain custody of children in case of divorce. He argues: "When the man is the primary care-giver his chances of winning custody are lower than when the woman is the primary care-giver. Even when the case is not contested by the mother, he's still not as likely to get custody as when the woman's claim is uncontested".

South African masculist evangelical movements

In the wake of the abolition of apartheid, South Africa has seen a resurgence of masculist Christian evangelical groups, led by two complementary men's and women's movements, the Mighty Men movement and the Worthy Women movement. The Mighty Men movement harkens back to the Victorian idea of Muscular Christianity and the movement does not lead discussions about institutionalized racism. Feminist scholars argue that the movement's lack of attention to women's rights and their historical struggle with racial equality makes it a threat to women and to the stability of the country. Scholar Miranda Pillay argues that the Mighty Men movement 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.

The Worthy Women movement is a women's auxiliary to Mighty Men in advocating menism, a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women. Their leader Gretha Wiid She blames South Africa's disorder on the liberation of women, and aims to restore the nation through its families, making women again subservient to their men. Her success is attributed to her balancing claims that God created the gender hierarchy, but that women are no less valuable than men, and that restoration of traditional gender roles relieves existential anxiety in post-apartheid South Africa.

Reactions

Criticisms and responses

Some critics believe masculism focuses on male superiority or male dominance (i.e. androcentrism) to the exclusion of women. Some masculinists believe that differentiated gender roles are natural. There is some evidence for social influences (e.g. gender division of labor, socialization) as the sole or primary origin of gender differentiation. Some parts of the masculinist movement have to some extent borrowed concepts from evolutionary psychology: this theory argues that adaptation during prehistory resulted in complementary but different roles for the different genders, and that this balance has been destabilized by feminism since the 1960s.

Feminism

Some masculinists have been described as explicitly antifeminist by feminist activists. According to Blais and Dupuis-Déri, "the contents of [masculinist] websites and the testimony of feminists that we questioned confirm that masculinists are generally critical of even moderate feminists and feminists at the head of official feminist organizations." Some masculinist activism has involved disruption of events organized by feminists and lawsuits against feminist academics, journalists, or activists. Furthermore, masculinist actions are sometimes extreme; father's rights activists have bombed family courts in Australia and have issued bomb threats in the UK, although it is ambiguous whether there was public and organized militant group involvement. They have also engaged in "tire-slashing, the mailing of excrement-filled packages, threats against politicians and their children." Spokesmen for these groups have also spoken out against public awareness campaigns to prevent sexual assault, arguing that they portray a negative image of men, and one masculinist group harassed administrators of dozens of battered women's shelters and women's centers.

Philosopher Ferrell Christensen states 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.

See also

• Antifeminism
• Hegemonic masculinity
• Hypermasculinity
• Heteropatriarchy
• Identity politics
• Machismo
• Male privilege
• Manosphere
• Masculine psychology
• Masculinity
• Matriarchy
• Men's liberation
• Men's movement
• Men's rights movement
• Men's studies
• Misandry
• Misogyny
• Patriarchy
• Toxic Masculinity

Men's organizations

• Fathers 4 Justice
• International Men's Day (19 November)

Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Australia, India, United States, Singapore, United Kingdom, Malta, South Africa, Hungary, Ireland, Ghana and Canada

• Save Indian Family

Notable people associated with masculism

• Warren Farrell
• Robert Bly

Books

• Manliness (2006)

Bibliography

Books

• August, Eugene (1994). The new men's studies: a selected and annotated interdisciplinary bibliography (2nd ed.). Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 9781563080845.
• Baumeister, Roy (2010). Is there anything good about men?: How cultures flourish by exploiting men. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195374100.
• Bax, Ernest Belfort (1908). The legal subjection of men . London: New Age Press. OCLC 33295675.

Antithesis of: Mill, John Stuart (1869). The subjection of women. New York: D. Appleton & Co. OCLC 15643538.

• Bax, Ernest Belfort (1913). The fraud of feminism . London: Grant Richards. OCLC 33342327.
• Benatar, David (2012). The second sexism: discrimination against men and boys. Malden, MA Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780470674512.

• Christen, Yves (2017). Sex differences: modern biology and the unisex fallacy. Routledge. ISBN 9781315129228.
• Cose, Ellis (1995). A man's world: how real is male privilege and how high is its price. New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 9780060172060.
• Farrell, Warren (2001). The myth of male power: why men are the disposable sex. New York: Berkley Books. ISBN 9780425181447.
• Fekete, John (1994). Moral panic: biopolitics rising. Montréal: Robert Davies Publishing. ISBN 9781895854091.
• Gordon, John (1982). The myth of the monstrous male, and other feminist fables. New York: Playboy Press. ISBN 9780872237582.
• Hoff Sommers, Christina (1995). Who stole feminism?: how women have betrayed women. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684801568.
• Hoff Sommers, Christina (2000). The war against boys: how misguided feminism is harming our young men. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684849560.
• James, Thomas B. (2003). Domestic violence: the 12 things you aren't supposed to know. Chula Vista, California: Aventine Press. ISBN 9781593301224.
• Kammer, Jack (1994). Good will toward men: women talk candidly about the balance of power between the sexes. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312104719.
• Kimbrell, Andrew (1995). The masculine mystique: the politics of masculinity. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 9780345386588.
• Mansfield, Harvey (2006). Manliness. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300129939.
• Moir, Anne; Moir, Bill (2003). Why men don't iron: the fascinating and unalterable differences between men and women. New York: Citadel Press/Kensington Pub. ISBN 9780806524733.
• Nathanson, Paul; Young, Katherine K. (2001). Spreading misandry: the teaching of contempt for men in popular culture. Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773522725.
• Phoenix, Ann; Frosh, Stephen; Pattmann, Ro (2002). Young masculinities: understanding boys in contemporary society. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 9780333779231.
• Podles, Leon J. (1999). The church impotent: the feminization of Christianity. Dallas, Texas: Spence Pub. OCLC 894557106.

The title is a play on the Christian theological terms church militant and church triumphant.

• Synnott, Anthony (2009). Re-thinking men: heroes, villains and victims. Farnham, England Burlington, VT: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754677093.
• Thomas, David (1993). Not guilty: the case in defense of men. New York: William Morrow and Co. Inc. ISBN 9780688110246.
• Webb, Robert (2017). How not to be a boy. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 9781786890085.
• Wilson, Robert (2005). Email to the universe: and other alterations of consciousness. Tempe, Ariz: New Falcon Publications. ISBN 9781561841943.
• Young, Cathy (1999). Ceasefire!: why women and men must join forces to achieve true equality. New York, New York: Free Press. ISBN 9780684834429.
• Zeff, Ted (2010). The strong sensitive boy: help your son become a happy, confident man. San Ramon, California: Prana Publishing. ISBN 9780966074529.

Thesis

• Aerts, Gilles (1987). La condition masculine dans le Rouge et le Noir (mémoire de maîtrise) (PDF) (MA thesis). University of British Columbia. ISBN 9780315419100. WorldCat link.

Journal articles

• Hill, Darryl B. (March 2007). ""Feminine" heterosexual men: subverting heteropatriarchal sexual scripts?". The Journal of Men's Studies. 14 (2). Men's Studies Press via Sage: 161–172. doi:10.3149/jms.1402.145. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Websites

• Politics of Aristotle asserts excellence varies with social role, including gender.