The new wave of feminism in the UK needs to pay attention to the increasing crisis in masculinity, argues Siobhan Bligh.
Siobhan Bligh is interested in social equality, and volunteers with LGBT rights groups in Sheffield. She is a feminist and civil-rights campaigner.
The new wave of feminism in the UK needs to pay attention to the increasing crisis in masculinity. It should not only pay attention to this crisis, but make efforts to combat problems men face with masculinity in society and culture. This is because feminism, and the egalitarian goals it seeks, will benefit from a healthier cultural attitude towards men and masculinity.
This is not to say that feminists focusing on the institutional and structural oppression of women should simply shift their gaze from female to male oppression. But, feminists should offer support for groups and organisations that aim to construct a psychologically and socially healthy masculinity for men to work within. A healthy masculinity is one which is not based upon the belittlement of femininity and women.
Whilst femininity is a construct that many women do not relate to, it bears an intimate relationship with attitudes towards women, and thus affects attitudes towards women. It is true to say that when femininity is respected by both men and women then feminism will be closer to its goal of gender equality.
Whilst “men’s rights” groups perpetuate misogyny and male power, feminists can help both genders, by shifting a small amount of focus to men. This crisis in masculinity manifests itself in several ways. Initially one can look at the cold hard statistics surrounding men’s lives in modern Britain. According to a 2012 report from the Office For National Statistics, men in Britain are more likely to be involved in substance abuse, be homeless, commit suicide, or have broken and shallow relationships.
Some men’s rights groups have linked this to an increase in women’s rights and the feminist movement, but this is an argument which is as poor as it is absurd. Men are not suffering because women are facing less oppression. Rather, men are suffering from a rigid, gendered world, in which an unachievable masculine identity is constantly reinforced to men from a young age. This ideal is one on which physical strength, emotional stoicism, wealth and power are idolised. Importantly for feminist, this masculine ideal also ridicules feminity, and thus contributes to women’s oppression. The MP Diane Abbott is right to say that in Britain there is a:
“culture of hyper-masculinity – a culture that exaggerates masculinity in the face of a perceived threat to it. At its worst, it’s a celebration of heartlessness; a lack of respect for women’s autonomy; and the normalisation of homophobia.”
To understand the importance of combating the crisis in masculinity, we must look at the role of cultural prescriptions of gender, and how it tailors men to act in our society. This affects the way that men act, the way they think about themselves, their identities, and it affects the way they relate to women. The more we look at societal expectations and demands of men, the more we realise that these ideals must be relaxed, and that cultural representations and expectations of men must change.
Men are constantly told from a young age to “man-up”. This means to remain strong, emotionless, cruel and often self-serving. As the American psychologist Judy Chu argues, young men will often be confused and alienated from both themselves and their loved ones, by an ideal that ridicules any form of feminity and emotions. What we must aim for is a healthy masculinity, in much the same way feminists would want women to have a healthy femininity. Whilst these ideals may be social constructions, they still guide people in the way they see themselves and others, and therefore it is imperative to promote a healthy gender culture for both men and women.
55 Responses to “Opinion: “Man-up” – The need for feminists to tackle the crisis in masculinity”
Pat E
There is undeniably a harmful and unrealistic persona and appearance of the ‘ideal man’ or a ‘strong man’ if you like, that we are all seemingly pushed to adhere to by society in much the same way that women are pushed toward and compared against the ‘ideal woman’. Men’s fitness magazines, fragrance adverts, celebrity culture, it’s all right out there in the open being presented and reinforced to us daily, and the flip side of it is this ‘hyper-masculinity’ to which Abbott (who I really dislike, for the record) alludes to which encourages men to be ridiculously touch, macho, domineering, and snide and oppressive toward feminist it ad ‘weakness’ in males. Such attitudes obviously and blatantly go hand in hand with the reinforcement of oppression of women in society. Thus, feminism – which seeks to bring down gender barriers, norms, and oppression, naturally is and should be interested in combating this ‘hyper-masculinity’ for both the benefit of stopping its oppression of women and depression of us men.
On another note, for a supposedly left-wing and evidence and rationally based platform, I am appalled at some of the comments and arguments thus appearing on this comment feed. Attacking and labelling someone you don’t know based on one article as a “man hater”, “ignorant”, and ridiculing her for her opinions and arguments makes you a very pathetic and weak person. Insecurity springs to mind.
Pat E
The article pins blame squarely on culture and societal norms. At no point does it “BLAME TEH MENZZZ” or condemn males world wide for actively creating, asserting, and maintaining this ‘hyper-masculinity’. It’s a result of gender norms and barriers and oppression which feminism naturally seeks to bring down, which is why we as men need to get behind it. Such immature dismissal and false criticism of the article based on that “omg wow men what an awful man-hater she is” is just lame and pathetic.
SixtySixPixiStix
I’ve read through a few angry male comments, and I have to laugh. As a man, I laugh.
These women don’t bother me; they are ineffective, and harmless. If me and my kind stopped working for a week, New York would starve. If we stopped for a year, all of our children would be speaking Chinese.
Let them say what they will, we all know who does the heavy lifting.
LF
Why would we trust the movement to take care of masculinity? I mean, it eroded social values, devalued the family unit, emasculated little boys, perpetuates lies and misrepresents issues. The movement does only one thing now, seek to destroy what little rights and dignity men have left. Let’s face it, women don’t know what they want, it is said time and time again: “I want a nice guy” but those nice guys are moved to the friend category immediately. However, be an asshole and instead of being nice and then you get stalked… It is bad enough women have spent a century lying to the world, the real problem is that they continue to lie to themselves.
edtastic
“This is not to say that feminists focusing on the institutional and structural oppression of women should simply shift their gaze from female to male oppression. ”
Neither gender is oppressed because oppression is a severe denial of equality. The language needs to change to reflect the times. Just because in the past we could arguable claim a group was oppressed doesn’t mean that going forward you can use that term as accurate description of their condition. You can’t define oppression as being the existence of any slight or discrimination in a culture or the word becomes meaningless in that it would apply to nearly everyone.
Your attack on Men’s Rights groups was shallow and self serving. Clearly it’s their existence which prompted you to right this article in the first place so why are you tearing down the source of awareness that brought you to the crisis of masculinity? If we are to deal with men in crisis you don’t start by treating male power as something evil. Men need to be respected just like women and hostility towards successful doesn’t help that because it would discourage boys who are already on the margins.
We need to see an end to gender hate in our society and that means feminism needs a make over. It’s too focused on finding reasons to hate men and not focused enough on actually treating both sexes the same. For feminism that means vastly increasing its focus on male victimization and reducing it’s tendency to blame men for women’s problems. Feminists need to understand their approach to equality can’t revolve around tearing down men anymore. Men don’t have it to give.