After seeing the video below, I'm starting to think what happened at Yale University is in response to the pain men are feeling as the role of women in our society has changed and their role as men have stayed the same. If this is the case, our goal then is to show men how to acknowledge their pain without taking it out on women.
I'll be honest - I am having a hard time resisting saying this is nothing but a steaming pile of dog poo.
ReplyDeleteRosin really frustrates me because she came up with this whole "end of men" thing without thinking through the consequences of how it will be interpreted (i.e., poor men, rather than omg its the 21st century and there is still a gender pay gap). While I know she might be speaking to some kind of "pain" felt by men (it's so disorienting and confusing to suddenly have to consider conceding power to women!), I feel as though her framework is doing far more harm than good.
Statement after statement she makes need to be thought through with greater feminist insight. For example, she needs to consider WHY more women are going to college? (Why might women feel they need a BA to compete with men in the paid labor force?) What really happens when women 'dominate' occupations? In a patriarchal society, how might parodies of masculinity actually be a means of diffusing tension about persistent inequality? And it's true that women are afforded more jobs as our economy increasingly becomes a service economy, but that's only because service labor exploits women's carework and socialized gender expectations (i.e., "sit still" and "listen carefully). None of these things are even close to the 'end of men,' nor are they changing gender hierarchies themselves.
Where Rosin insists dramatic gender upheavals have occurred, I just see the same patterns of male dominance and sexist oppression happening in altered or new, inventive ways.
As I've further reflected on both the video and now your comment I think I agree with you. I think that it is more helpful to think about how men oppress other men and why the men at Yale felt that it was okay to say offensive things to women then it is to explain these events as resulting from the pain men feel in regards to the changing role of women. I still think it is important to explore men's thoughts in regards to the fact that the role of women has changed and the role of men has not changed but now am not so sure I should explore this in regards to pain.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, it helped affirm the thoughts I have had regarding Rosin after I wrote the blog post above.