When I initially saw on the syllabus the subject of this week’s readings, “interviewing men”, I was initially turned off. My reaction was the same to reactions I’ve had in class along the lines of “if women’s studies wants men they need to stop writing articles from the perspective of women engaging in feminist research”. Recently, however my thinking has shifted due to a comment that was made in class which explained to me the need for these kinds of article. The comment stated that these kinds of articles need to exist because we (women) will need to know how to conduct research of men and we need to learn strategies to understand the power dynamics inherent in those interview spaces. While I believe that thinking is totally valid, the readings this week also validates my thinking that there will be difficulties when I (a man) conduct research on men.
In Grenz’s article, “Intersections of sex and power in research on prostitution: a female researcher interviewing male heterosexual clients” she states that her female gender helped her in conducting her research and that her subjects would not be comfortable talking to a man about their experience in prostitution. According to Grenz, this occurred due to the men’s homophobia. Her research subject’s thought that since talking about sexual experience can lead to sexual arousal, they had to avoid talking about this subject with a man Grenz also points to being a good listener as a characteristic that is inherently female. This tells me that if I as a man would like to replicate her study or do any research regarding straight men and their sexuality I would have a lot of trouble getting male subjects to open up to me. I as a male researcher would have to develop my own methods to allow me to research this subject matter.
Taylor and Rupp also point to the advantages they had as lesbian researchers in their exploration of drag culture. This research showed me that as researchers we need to use our gender and sexuality to our advantage when conducting research and finding ways to use our gender and sexuality to our advantage. I believe that strategies I will create when conducting research will have to incorporate both my gender and sexuality. At the same time I believe that it is unfortunate that many straight men have homophobic tendencies that will force me to create strategies when conducting research on them.
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ReplyDelete(Whoops! Spelling error - sorry about that!) Women's studies does want men, but to stop writing articles from the perspective of women engaging in feminist research would abandon a core motivation for women's studies. Perhaps men should learn to be more okay with articles written from the perspective of women engaging in feminist research.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that there are certainly obstacles faced by male researchers who do not fully embody hegemonic masculinity. Homophobia will be a difficult barrier. It is interesting, too, how Taylor and Rupp note the advantages their gay male coworker had in being able to more easily conduct focus groups with gay men and heterosexuals.
MWSS,
ReplyDeleteI thought along the same lines of your criticism, especially about how there was no apparent way for men to research men concerning prostitution because it would always and forever be laced with homophobia. The nit occurred to me that the research sample is self-selected. They had no relationship with the researcher prior to calling her from ads she put in the paper. I wonder what the means for the similarities in the men who did respond, and whether some men would feel comfortable discussing sex acts with other men. I also agree with TSB. Regardless of what problems arose during this specific research, and any praise or critiques we may have of it, we do need to keep in mind that homophobia does exist institutionally. Great post.