It would be easy to point out
numerous exceptions to these generalizations, and many of us are angered by the gross
simplifications and stereotypes in this list. Nevertheless, surveys show that the
composite gender traits presented above have for the most part become accepted in our
society. When confronted with behavior that is overtly competitive, aggressive,
dangerous, violent, insensitive, abusive, selfish, unemotional,
hyperrational, or
ambitious, we respond with "Just like a man!" When viewing behavior that
is nurturing, selfless, overtly sensitive, passive, irrational, emotional, and intuitive,
we tend not to think of men but rather of women.
Many women have of course challenged the prevalent types of modern gender
consciousness. They have launched a three-decade-long assault on the "feminine
mystique." Feminists have attacked stereotypes that destroy the rich diversity
of feminine traits and archetypes They have relentlessly torn down defective modern
myths about women that they see as limiting women's aspirations and effectively excluding
women from personal growth and a share of power and financial opportunity.
Unfortunately few men or women have mounted a similar assault on the "masculine
mystique" of our times. There have been few ''masculinists" to defend
masculinity from the onslaught of the current stereotypical view of the male gender.
There has been a remarkable silence about the ongoing destruction of the diversity of
masculine traits and archetypes.
Yet the current masculine mystique reduces and limits male archetypes and potentialities
at least as much as the mystique did those of women. The wide variety of masculine
ideals of numerous past cultures have all but vanished. Gone is the premodern man,
whether hunter-gatherer, farmer, or craftsman, who was steeped in family, land, community,
and religion. The traditional masculine traits of generativity, stewardship
generosity, teaching, husbandry, honor, and even adventure are virtually ignored.
These traits have been largely replaced by self-interest, efficiency, power-seeking,
promiscuity, greed, insensitivity, competition, manipulation, and the numerous other
characteristics consistently listed as emblems of modern masculinity. Assuming these
current characteristics to be the of masculinity inevitably leads to the degradation of
men and an historic, if hidden, crisis in sustaining a wide viable and generative concept
of masculinity itself.
The crisis undermining masculinity has now reached alarming proportions. Under the
aegis of the masculine mystique, masculinity has become the "shadow"
gender. This is especially apparent in the general view that many men and women have
of male sexuality. Masculine sexuality has become routinely associated with
promiscuity, rape, and violence. Phallic penetration is most often analogized to the
destructive penetration of guns (bullets) and missiles. The concept of generative
penetration, the phallus as seed bearer, similar to the creative penetration of planting
seeds in the soil or communicating a penetrating idea, is almost never associated with
masculine power in our culture but was commonplace in virtually all prior cultures.
Men now hear that "the hurting of women is . . . basic to the sexual pleasure of
men," (Andrea Dworkin) as well as the hair-raising statement that "all men are
rapists and that's all they are." (Marlyn French)
Further, most of the world's woes, from violence and racism to war, the environmental
crisis, and poverty, are seen as the direct result of masculine values. Feminist
scholars and authors Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge document how the habit of blaming
masculinity and men for all the problems of women and society has become endemic in
Women's Studies courses at universities around the country. "Classical
psychotherapy (like traditional motherhood) is a very demanding endeavor," they
write. "But a sort of 'I'm OK-- you're OK, but men are horrible' variant of it
is--as we have seen-- very popular in the pedagogy of Women's Studies. On this model
women empower themselves by realizing that all their troubles result from
patriarchy." One female student interviewed by Patai and Koertge describes her
experience in a Women's Studies course:
The course
was Introduction to Women's Studies.... The class made me think of a skit on Monty
Python which involves a quiz show, except the answer to every question is
"pork." And what-ever the quiz show host asks--for example, "What's the
capital of Pennsylvania?"--the answer is "pork." In the class I took the
answer was always "men . . " Who contributes to all the violence in
the world?" "Men." "Who's responsible for everything we endure?"
"Men." . . . I was involved with a man at the time, and I
thought that he didn't fit their categories of what men were like. And I also saw
him as having been pressed into stereotypes of his own..
Author Sally Miller Gearhart, former
chairperson of the Department of Speech and Communication at San Francisco State
University, takes masculinity bashing to disturbing heights when she prescribes three ''strategies . . . to create and preserve a less violent
world, I) Every culture must affirm a female future. II) Species responsibility must
be returned to women in every culture. III) The proportion of men must be reduced to
and maintained at approximately 10 percent of the human race."
Clearly we have come a long way from the traditional view of the complementary creativity
of genders and seeing the phallus "tree" of creation. The
masculine-mystique view of masculinity has led society into a general
misandry, which
matches the misogyny of prior generations.
Misandry is the general assumption that masculinity is the source of all our social
ills. It is the sexist assumption that it is "natural" for any male person
to be dominating, oppressive, violent sexually abusive, spiritually immature, and
antagonistic to nature. It assigns blame solely to men for humanity's historic
evils. It naturally leads to a hatred of men and masculinity.
From the book flyleaf:
American men are in
crisis. We see the consequences all around us: the alarming increase in male unemployment
and homelessness, punitive custody laws that deprive men of their children, and
high-pressure competitive jobs that leave men vulnerable to stress-related diseases and
substance abuse. As Andrew Kimbrell brilliantly shows, these are not the problems of
"fringe"" groups or misfits, but of every man living and working in our
society.
How did this happen? How have downward mobility, negative male
stereotypes, and societal indifference converged to threaten men's very lives?
Andrew Kimbrell has seen the fear that men are living with and has
heard their anxious voices. From the corporate executive facing downsizing to the
disenfranchised African-American, Vietnam vet, and divorced father, men are in pain. In The Masculine Mystique, he traces the turbulent history that has
brought men to this crisis. From the laws of enclosure that first separated men from their
land centuries ago to the steep decline in real wages earned by American men in the last
twenty years, Kimbrell explains the shifts that have steadily undermined men and created a
destructive masculine mystique.
As a lawyer, activist, environmentalist, and father, Kimbrell urges men
to mount a campaign of social, political, and community action. In this fiercely reasoned,
deeply persuasive book, Kimbrell encourages men to stand up and demand a better life, a
better world. Through stories of men who are working to better their condition, he gives
us much-needed models. His political manifesto outlines the platform men need to adopt on
a personal, legislative, and societal level. Because the time has come for men to act.
Copyright 2005 Andrew
Kimbrell, all rights reserved
