Masculism
Encyclopedia
Masculism may refer to political, cultural, and economic movements
Men's movement
The men's movement is a social movement that includes a number of philosophies and organizations that seek to support men, change the male gender role and improve men's rights in regard to marriage, child access and victims of domestic violence...

 aimed at establishing and defending political, economic, and social rights and participation in society for men and boys. These rights include legal issues, such as those of conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

, child custody
Child custody
Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.Following ratification of the United...

, alimony
Alimony
Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...

, and equal pay for equal work
Equal pay for equal work
Equal pay for equal work is the concept that individuals doing the same work should receive the same remuneration. In America, for example, the law states that "employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility,...

. Its concepts sometimes coincide with those of men's rights
Men's rights
Men's rights is an umbrella term, encompassing the political rights, entitlements, and freedoms given or denied to males within a nation or culture....

, father's rights, and men's liberation
Men's liberation
The consciousness and philosophy of men's liberation is split into two factions. One is critical of the restraints which a patriarchal society imposes on men. This faction is informed by feminism. The other, critical of the restraints matriarchal society imposes on men, is informed by masculinism...

.

The term masculinism was coined as the counterpart of feminism in the early 20th century. The shortened form masculism appeared shortly after, and became more common in the 1980s. The masculist political movement originated with E. Belfort Bax's 1913 The Fraud of Feminism. The term masculism itself gained currency in the late 20th century, particularly in the 1990s as advocated by authors such as Warren Farrell
Warren Farrell
Warren Farrell is an American author of seven books on men's and women's issues. His books cover twelve fields: history, law, sociology and politics ; couples’ communication ; economic and career issues ; child psychology and child custody ; and...

 and Jack Kammer, in the context of changing gender role
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...

s in society.

Masculist concerns

Masculists cite one-sided legislation, selective enforcement, and neglected civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 as examples of discrimination against men and boys. Examples of questions raised by masculists may include:

Violence

Masculist concerns focus on societal acceptance of violence harming men paired with the stigma against violence harming women, as well as males being taught or expected to take on violent roles and implying all males of all ages are expendable.
  • Violence against men minimalized or taken less seriously than violence against women otherwise completely ignored.
  • Women are more violent than men in some research studies asking both men and women.
  • Depiction of violence against men as humorous, in the media and elsewhere (see Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them!), when women are also violent.
  • Assumption of female innocence or sympathy for women, which will always result in problems such as disproportionate penalties for men and women for similar crimes, lack of sympathy for male victims in domestic violence
    Domestic violence
    Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...

     cases, and dismissal of female-on-male rape
    Rape
    Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

     cases.
  • Societal failure to address prison rape
    Prison rape
    Prison rape commonly refers to the rape of inmates in prison by other inmates or prison staff.In 2001, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 140,000 inmates had been raped while incarcerated. and there is a significant variation in the rates of prison rape by race...

    , including issues such as prevention (e.g., reducing prison crowding that requires sharing of cells), impunity for prison rapists, and even correctional staff punishing prisoners by confining them with known rapists. Prison rape is often used as a subject of humor in films such as Let's Go to Prison
    Let's Go to Prison
    Let's Go to Prison is an American comedy that was released in theatres November 17, 2006, starring Dax Shepard, Will Arnett and Chi McBride, and directed by Bob Odenkirk....

    .
  • Only men are called up during a military draft.
  • In American popular culture, sex between a boy coerced by an older woman is generally considered not to be a big deal- Time has remarked that it is "viewed with a wink"- even though this form of child molestation can have serious repercussions for the male victim, including clinical mental illness
    Mental illness
    A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

    .
  • A 1992 study found that boys are subject to the stereotype that they need significantly less protection against sexual abuse compared to girls. It also found that this leads to less reporting of abuse and to discrimination in which victims receive less treatment and less support from others if they are male.
  • Controversy exists that laws that criminalize rape of men when perpetrated by women are not properly enforced. Research has shown that when men are raped (by either women or other men), the rapists will use their bodys' unconscious natural responses- erections, feelings of dizziness, ejaculation, et cetera- to make them think they "actually wanted it". Psychologist Helen Smith has written, "Our society [in the U.S.] shames men who are abused by women just as it shamed and blamed women many years ago who were abused by men. Neither strategy is a good one for a society that purports to promote justice and fairness."

Parenting

  • Discrimination with regard to child custody
    Child custody
    Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.Following ratification of the United...

    .
  • Unfairness in the way the alimony
    Alimony
    Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...

     and child support
    Child support
    In family law and public policy, child support is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child following the end of a marriage or other relationship...

     systems are structured.
  • Related to both of the above, gynocentric divorce law.
  • Pregnancies
    Pregnancy
    Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

     carried to term despite agreements ahead of time that they would not be, subjecting men to unwanted parental responsibilities and/or child support expectations. (see Dubay v. Wells)
  • The opposite of the above, where a man who wants to have a child has no say in whether his partner aborts their child and is not even notified if the abortion takes place. (see paternal rights and abortion
    Paternal rights and abortion
    The paternal rights and abortion issue is an extension of both the abortion debate and the fathers' rights movement. Countries recognizing father's legal rights on abortion have laws requiring that the male who impregnated the pregnant female either consent or be informed before she has an...

    )
  • Equality in adoption rights allowing either unmarried males or females to adopt.

Discrimination

  • Legislation that addresses women's needs without considering the corresponding need in men. (e.g., Women, Infants, and Children Act; Violence Against Women Act)
  • Biases in the justice system against men, such as higher incarceration rates and longer sentences for men (compared to women) for the same crimes.
  • Statutory rape
    Statutory rape
    The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...

     laws enforced more vehemently in instances where the victim is female and/or the perpetrator is male.
  • Rape shield law
    Rape shield law
    A rape shield law is a law that limits a defendant's ability to cross-examine rape complainants about their past sexual behaviour. The term also refers to a law that prohibits the publication of the identity of an alleged rape victim.-In Canada:...

    s, which may prevent some men from adequately challenging their accuser.
  • Cathy Young
    Cathy Young
    Cathy Young is a Russian American journalist and writer whose books and articles, as well as columns which appear in the libertarian monthly Reason, and also weekly in The Boston Globe, primarily espouse equality feminism and libertarianism.-Life and Career:Born in Moscow, the capital of what was...

    , who does not consider herself a "masculinist," argues that in rape cases, "the dogma that 'women never lie' means that there is, for all intents and purposes, no presumption of innocence for the defendant".
  • Women are allowed to marry at younger ages than men in several countries e.g., Argentina
    Argentina
    Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

    , Uruguay
    Uruguay
    Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

     and some U.S. states.
  • Men pay higher premiums for auto, life and disability insurance, though discrimination according to race or other criteria is prohibited.
  • In some countries, men have to pay more income tax than their female counterparts. E.g. in India the income tax exemption limit for men is Rs 150,000 per annum while that for women is Rs 180,000 per annum.

Social concerns

  • Increasing suicide
    Suicide
    Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

     rate among young men, four times higher than among young women.
  • Men have a lower average lifespan than women.
  • Men constitute the majority of the prison population.
  • It's usually seen as socially acceptable for a female to try out or follow masculine social norms, whereas if a male does the same for feminine social norms they often attract unwanted attention and are victims of ridicule, insult, harassment, and threatening behavior. For example, stay-at-home dads, men who want to be nannies or babysitters, men who cry or express emotions can all be treated poorly.
  • Similarly to the previous point, female homosexuality is more accepted than male homosexuality, the latter resulting in a higher degree of homophobia
    Homophobia
    Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

    .
  • Lack of advocacy for men's rights; little domestic abuse support for men.
  • Prostate cancer funding disproportionately lower than breast cancer funding.
  • Incarceration for not paying child support, particularly for unwanted children, in contrast to women's right to abort. (see Male abortion)
  • Special government agencies for women's affairs with no corresponding agencies for men's affairs.
  • Lack of legal ramifications or enforcement for paternity fraud
    Paternity fraud
    Paternity fraud refers to a paternal discrepancy or a non-paternity event, in which a mother names a man to be the biological father of a child, particularly for self-interest, when she knows or suspects that he is not the biological father. The term entered into common use in the late 1990s. It...

    .

Education

  • Some studies have indicated that because boys attract more teacher attention in classrooms compared to girls, boys also receive harsher forms of punishment as well as more frequent punishment than girls for the same offences.Elementary school staff is dominated by women, meaning a lack of male role models for boys. Education systems favour girls as classes mostly involve physically passive activities, whilst boys are more likely to be kinaesthetic learners, for whom optimal learning takes place through physical activity.

Employment

  • Harder physical entrance criteria for men in many occupations, such as the army, police and fire service. Requiring men to be physically stronger than women in these occupations leaves men responsible for a greater share of the physical work, for no more pay.
  • Legal inequality and protections of paternal vs. maternal leave
    Parental leave
    Parental leave is an employee benefit that provides paid or unpaid time off work to care for a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare. Often, the term parental leave includes maternity, paternity, and adoption leave...

     in most countries.
  • Data from 1994 in the U.S. reported that 94% of workplace fatalities occur to men. Masculist Warren Farrell has argued that men are often clustered in dirty, physically demanding and hazardous jobs in an unjustifiably disproportionate manner.

Differences in masculist ideology

There is no consensus as to what constitutes masculism. Some, like Robert Bly
Robert Bly
Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...

 of the Mythopoetic men's movement, feel the word describes a belief that the male and female genders should be considered complementary and interdependent by necessity. Such expressions of masculism are built around the belief that differentiated gender role
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...

s are natural and should be exempt from government interference. Other masculists, such as Warren Farrell
Warren Farrell
Warren Farrell is an American author of seven books on men's and women's issues. His books cover twelve fields: history, law, sociology and politics ; couples’ communication ; economic and career issues ; child psychology and child custody ; and...

, support an ideology of equivalence between the sexes, rather than a belief in unchangeable gender differences. A more encompassing definition might be "a movement to empower males in society, and to redress discrimination against men."

Because it is the name of a political and social movement, masculism is sometimes considered synonymous with the men's rights
Men's rights
Men's rights is an umbrella term, encompassing the political rights, entitlements, and freedoms given or denied to males within a nation or culture....

 or fathers' rights
Fathers' rights
The fathers' rights movement is a movement whose members are primarily interested in issues related to family law, including child custody and child support that affect fathers and their children. Many of its members are fathers who desire to share the parenting of their children equally with their...

 movements. However, many of the fathers' rights movement make a clear distinction between masculism and their own often quite varied approaches to gender relations.

Gender roles in religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 are a source of disagreement among masculists: some support a general leadership role for men, while others argue for relative equality between the genders. Liberal masculists such as Warren Farrell tend to favor a secular
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

, gender-neutral stance, whereas conservatives tend to prefer a religious approach, such as represented in The Inevitability of Patriarchy by Steven Goldberg
Steven Goldberg
Steven Goldberg is a native of New York City and was president of the sociology department at City College of New York from 1988 until his retirement...

. Conservatives, like Goldberg, promote a "New Patriarchy," in which men are dominant over women. Such liberal-conservative dynamics illustrate the diversity of a movement that nonetheless has a unified purpose of promoting men's welfare.

There are some groups, especially at colleges and universities, which simply see masculism as an embodiment of the fact that they enjoy being men with no political or social philosophy attached.

Literary theory

Masculist literary theory is a response to feminist literary theory. The term was coined by Rachel Bishop in "The Masculinist Manifesto".

Feminism

Feminists respond to the different ideologies of Masculism in different ways. Masculists who promote gender equality are often considered male feminists. It is the general opinion of modern feminists
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 that masculism, when defined as "male superiority or dominance", is inherently opposed to the equality cause and is considered a form of misogyny
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...

.

Some feminists are actively involved in promoting men's rights, especially father's rights and social equality, arguing that this position is necessary for feminism and women's equality.

See also

  • Misandry
    Misandry
    Misandry is the hatred or dislike of men or boys.Misandry comes from Greek misos and anēr, andros . Misandry is the antonym of philandry, the fondness towards men, love, or admiration of them...

  • Antifeminism
    Antifeminism
    Antifeminism is opposition to feminism in some or all of its forms. Modern antifeminists say that the feminist movement has achieved its aims and now seeks higher status for women than for men.-History:...

  • Masculine psychology
    Masculine psychology
    Masculine psychology is a term sometimes used to describe and categorize issues concerning the gender-related psychology of male human identity, as well as the issues that men confront during their lives...

  • Masculinity
    Masculinity
    Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...

  • Men's spaces
    Men's spaces
    Men's spaces are separate social and cultural spaces, roles and norms available to men in some non-westernized societies. It is the membership of these spaces that determines a male's manhood, while failing to get a membership of this space amounts to being denied manhood, and to be liable to...

  • Patriarchy
    Patriarchy
    Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...

  • Kyriarchy
    Kyriarchy
    Kyriarchy is a neologism coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza to describe interconnected, interacting, and multiplicative systems of domination and submission, within which a person oppressed in one context might be privileged in another...

  • Reverse discrimination
    Reverse discrimination
    Reverse discrimination is a controversial term referring to discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group such as African Americans being slaves. Groups may be defined in terms of...

  • Complementarianism

Men's movements and organizations

  • Fathers 4 Justice
    Fathers 4 Justice
    Fathers 4 Justice began as a fathers’ rights organisation in the United Kingdom. It became prominent and frequently discussed in the media following a series of high-visibility stunts and protests often in costume. It was temporarily disbanded in January 2006, following allegations of a plot by...

  • Men's movement
    Men's movement
    The men's movement is a social movement that includes a number of philosophies and organizations that seek to support men, change the male gender role and improve men's rights in regard to marriage, child access and victims of domestic violence...

  • Promise Keepers
    Promise Keepers
    Promise Keepers is an international conservative Christian organization for men. While it originated in the United States, it is now world-wide...

  • Save Indian Family
    Save Indian Family
    Save Indian Family , founded in 2005, is a men's rights movement in India. It is a registered, non-funded, non-profit, non-governmental organisation headquartered at Bangalore...

  • International Men's Day
    International Men's Day
    International Men's Day is an annual international event celebrated on 19 November. Inaugurated in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago, the day and its events find support from a variety of individuals and groups in Australia, the Caribbean, North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the United...

     (19 November: Trinidad and Tobago
    Trinidad and Tobago
    Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

    , Jamaica
    Jamaica
    Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

    , Australia
    Australia
    Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

    , India
    India
    India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

    , United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

    , Singapore
    Singapore
    Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

    , United Kingdom
    United Kingdom
    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

    , Malta
    Malta
    Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

    , South Africa
    South Africa
    The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

    , Hungary
    Hungary
    Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

    , Ireland
    Ireland
    Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

    , Ghana
    Ghana
    Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

    , and Canada
    Canada
    Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

    )

People associated with masculism

  • Warren Farrell
    Warren Farrell
    Warren Farrell is an American author of seven books on men's and women's issues. His books cover twelve fields: history, law, sociology and politics ; couples’ communication ; economic and career issues ; child psychology and child custody ; and...

  • Harvey Mansfield
    Harvey Mansfield
    Harvey Claflin Mansfield, Jr. is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1962. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center; he also received the National Humanities Medal in 2004 and...

  • Henry Makow
    Henry Makow
    Henry Makow is a Canadian author, conspiracy theorist and the inventor of the boardgame Scruples.-Biography:Makow was born in Zürich, Switzerland and moved with his family to Canada as an infant, settling in Ottawa. At the age of 11, in 1960, he began to write the syndicated advice-to-parents...

  • Glenn Sacks
    Glenn Sacks
    Glenn Sacks is an American men's and fathers' issues columnist and media spokesperson. He is the first columnist specializing in men's and fathers' issues to be published regularly in Top 100 American newspapers...


Books

  • Manliness (book) (2006)
  • Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man
    Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man
    Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man is a 1999 book by feminist author Susan Faludi, her followup to Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women...

    (1999)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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