Framing “men in and out of feminism”

Year 2017, , 84 - 101, 01.06.2017

Linn Egeberg Holmgren Jeff Hearn Gökçesu Akşit Berfin Varışlı

https://doi.org/10.1501/Fe0001_0000000191

Abstract

Framing “men in and out of feminism” This article addresses some aspects of the “Man Question” in feminism, by way of the analysis of men’s diverse gender-conscious positionings in relation to gender, gender equality and feminism. It builds on earlier work, making use of theoretical models in feminist literature combined with the micro-sociological concept of passing. Consideration is also given to men’s non-gender-conscious positionings. The article is primarily concerned with the theoretical and empirical complexities, contradictions and ambiguities of men’s positionings, as when they are self-defined as “feminists” or similar identifications in radical or deconstructive ways. In this, a Swedish interview data is used. Sweden is considered particularly interesting, with a qualified societal consensus on gender equality and a broadly positive place accorded to men’s relations with feminism. The authors argue in the final section that there is a need to further dialogue between analyses of men/masculinities and the multidimensionality of feminisms, as well as a need for more empirical studies of men’s different pro feminist positionings in order to elaborate the theoretical implications of different social contexts. The framing presented seeks to provide greater possibilities for such complex, nuanced and situated understandings of men’s relation to feminism, theoretically, analytically and politically

Keywords

Feminism, Gender Equality, Men, Masculinity, Passing, Position

Erkekleri feminizm içinde ve dışında çerçevelemek

Abstract

Bu makale toplumsal cinsiyet, cinsiyet eşitliği ve feminizmle ilgili erkeklerin değişen cinsiyet-bilinçli pozisyonlarının analizi ile feminizmdeki “Erkek Sorunu”nun bazı bağlamlarını anlatmaktadır. Önceki çalışmaların üzerine feminist literatürdeki teorik modellerin birleşimleri, mikro-sosyolojik bir kavram olan “geçiş”le passing birlikte konulmuştur. Ayrıca erkeklerin cinsiyet-bilinçli-olmayan pozisyonları da incelenmiştir. Makale en temelde erkeklerin kendilerini radikal yahut yapıbozumcu yollarla “feminist” ya da benzeri olarak tanımladıkları pozisyonlarındaki teorik ve pratik karmaşalar, çelişkiler ve muğlaklıklar üzerinde durmaktadır. Bunu yaparken bir İsveç görüşme verisi kullanılmıştır. İsveç, cinsiyet eşitliği meselesinde nitelikli toplumsal fikir birliği olması ve erkeklerin feminizmle ilişkilerinin geniş bir şekilde olumlu yer tutması nedeniyle özellikle ilgi çekici görülmüştür. Son bölümde yazarlar, erkekler\erkeklikler analizleri ile feminizmlerin çok boyutluluğu arasında ileri diyaloğun gelişmesine olan ihtiyacı ve erkeklerin farklı pro feminist pozisyonlarının değerlendirilmesi için farklı sosyal çevrelerin teorik etkilerini inceleyen ampirik çalışmaların sayısının daha fazla olmasının gereğinisavunmuşlardır. Burada sunulan çerçevenin amacı, erkeklerin feminizmle ilişkileri gibi anlaşılması oldukça zor, nüansları olan ve yerleşik bir anlayış için teorik, analitik ve politik anlamda ileri olanaklar sunmaktır

Keywords

Feminizm, Cinsiyet Eşitliği, Erkekler, Erkeklik, Geçiş, Pozisyon

References

• Ashe, F., 2004. Deconstructing the experiential bar: Male experience and feminist resistance. Men and masculinities, 7 (2), 187-204.
• Ashe, F., 2007. The new politics of masculinity: Men, power and resistance London: Routledge.
• Bergqvist, C., 1999. Equal democracies?: Gender and politics in the Nordic countries Oslo: Scandinavian
• Univ. Press in co-operation with the Nordic Council of Ministers. Bradley, M. & Danchik, L., 1971. Unbecoming men: A men's consciousness-raising groups writes on and themselves New York: Times Change Press. oppression
• Christian, H., 1994. The making of anti-sexist men London: Routledge.
• Clatterbaugh, K.C. 1990. Contemporary perspectives on masculinity: men, women and politics in modern society. Boulder: Westview.
• Collins, P.H., 1990. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment Boston: Unwin Hyman.
• Connell, R. (f.k.a. R.W.), 1987. Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics Cambridge: Polity association with Blackwell. in
• Dansky, S., Knoebel, J. & Pitchford, K., 1977. Effeminist manifesto. Double-f: A magazine of effeminism 3, winter 1975-1976. In Snodgrass, J. ed. For men against sexism: A book of readings. Albion Calif.: Times Change Press.
• Digby, T. ed. 1998. Men doing feminism, New York: Routledge.
• Egeberg Holmgren, L., 2007. Killing bill: Men as rebellious feminists in the politics of passing. Norma, 2 (1)
• Egeberg Holmgren, L., 2008. Performing feminist affinity: Interviewing feminist men in Sweden. Atenea: a bilingual journal of the humanities and social sciences, XXVIII (2), 107-120.
• Egeberg Holmgren, L. (2011a). Ingenmansland: om män som feminister, intervjuframträdanden och politik [No Man’s Land: on Men as Feminists, Interview Performances and the Politics of Passing]. Uppsala:Acta
• Universitatis Upsaliensis. passerandets Egeberg Holmgren, L. (2011b). Co-fielding in qualitative interviews: gender, knowledge and interaction in a study of (pro)feminist men. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(4):364-378.
• Egeberg Holmgren, L. (2012). Feministiska män: från i-princip till i praktik [Feminist Men: From ”In
• ”In Practice”]. In: Gottzén, Lucas. and Jonsson, Rickard. (eds.). Andra Män: maskuliniteter och normskapande i det ”jämställda” Sverige [Other Men: Masculinities and Norms in Principle” to the ”Gender Equal” Sweden], Malmö: Gleerups. Egeberg Holmgren, L. (2013). Gendered Selves, Gendered Subjects: Interview Performances and Situational
• Contexts in Critical Interview Studies of Men and Masculinities I: Pini, Barbara & Pease, Bob. (eds.). Men, Masculinities and Methodologies. Palgrave Macmillan. Eriksson, M. & Pringle, K., 2006. Gender equality, child welfare and fathers’ rights in Sweden. In Collier, R. &
• Sheldon, S. eds. Fathers' rights activism and law reform in comparative perspective. Oxford: Hart Publishing. Essed, P. & Goldberg, D.T., 2002. Cloning cultures: The social injustices of sameness. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25 (6), 1066 – 1082.
• Fehr, D.V.D., Rosenbeck, B. & Jónasdóttir, A.G. eds. 1998. Is there a Nordic feminism?: Nordic feminist thought on culture and society, London: UCL Press.
• Ferguson, H., Hearn, J., Jalmert, L., Kimmel, M., Lang, J., Morrell, R. & De Vylder, S., 2004. Ending gender- based violence: A call for global action to involve men - a summary of research Stockholm: Sida.
• Friedman, S. & Sarah, E. eds. 1982. On the problem of men: Two feminist conferences, London: Women's Press.
• Gardiner, J.K. ed. 2001. Masculinity studies & feminist theory: New directions, New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
• Gelb, J., 1989. Feminism and politics: A comparative perspective Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Goffman, E., 1990. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Goldrick-Jones, A., 2002. Men who believe in feminism Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
• Gottzén, L. 2014. Män, våld och jämställdhet [Men, Violence and Gender Equality]. In: Dahl (ed.) Män och jämställdhet. Betänkande av Utredningen om män och jämställdhet. SOU 2014:6. Stockholm: Fritzes.
• Hanmer, J., 1990. Men, power and the exploitation of women. In Hearn, J. & Morgan, D. eds. Men, masculinities & social theory. London: Unwin Hyman.
• Hearn, J., 1987. The gender of oppression: Men, masculinity and the critique of Marxism Brighton: Wheatsheaf.
• Hearn, J., 1993. The politics of essentialism and the analysis of the `men's movement(s)'. Feminism (3), 405-409. Psychology
• Hearn, J., 1998. Theorizing men and men's theorizing: Varieties of discursive practices in men's theorizing of men. Theory and Society, 27 (6), 781-816.
• Hearn, J., 2002. Critical studies on men in 4 parts of the world. NIKK magasin, (3), 12-15.
• Hearn, J., 2004. From hegemonic masculinity to the hegemony of men. Feminist Theory, 5 (1), 49-72.
• Hearn, J. & Holmgren, L.E., 2006. Männliche positionerungen zur gleichstellung der geschlechter und zum feminismus: Theoretische bezüge und praktische passings. Feministische Studien, 24 (2), 224-242.
• Hill, H., 2007. Befria mannen : Idéer om förtryck, frigörelse och förändring hos en svensk mansrörelse under och tidigt 1980-tal [Liberate the Man : Ideas of Oppression, Emancipation and Change in a
• Swedish Men’s Movement during the 1970s and early 1980s]. Umeå: h:ström - Text & kultur.
• Hobson, B. & Morgan, D., 2002. Introduction: Making men into fathers: Men, masculinities and the social politics of fatherhood. In Hobson, B. ed. Making men into fathers: Men, masculinities and the social politics of fatherhood. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
• Holli, A.M., Magnusson, E. & Rönnblom, M., 2005. Critical studies of nordic discourses on gender and gender equality. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 13 (3), 148 – 152.
• Holter, Ø.G., 1989. Menn [Men]. Oslo: Aschehoug.
• Holter, Ø.G. & Aarseth, H., 1993. Menns livssammenheng. [Men’s Lives] Oslo: Ad Notam Gyldendal.
• Jalmert, L., 1984. Den svenske mannen [The Swedish Man]. Stockholm: Tiden i samarbete med Arbetsgruppen om mansrollen.
• Jardine, A.A. & Smith, P. eds. 1987. Men in feminism, New York: Methuen.
• Kessler, S.J. & Mckenna, W., 1978. Gender: An ethnomethodological approach New York: Wiley.
• Klinth, R., 2002. Göra pappa med barn: Den svenska pappapolitiken 1960-1995, [Making Daddy Pregnant: The Swedish Father Politics 1960-1995] first ed. Umeå: Boréa förlag.
• Lipman-Blumen, J., 1976. Toward a homosocial theory of sex roles: An explanation of the sex segregation of social institutions. In Blaxall, M. & Reagan, B. eds. Women and the workplace: The implications of occupational segregation. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago P.
• Lorber, J., 1994. Paradoxes of gender New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Lorber, J., 2000. Using gender to undo gender: A feminist degendering movement. Feminist Theory, 1 (1), 79-95.
• Lorber, J., 2005a. Breaking the bowls: Degendering and feminist change New York: W.W. Norton.
• Lorber, J., 2005b. Gender inequality: Feminist theories and politics Los Angeles, Calif.: Roxbury Pub.
• Magnusson, E., 2000. Party-political rhetoric on gender equality in Sweden: The uses of uniformity and heterogeneity.
• NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 8 (2), 78 – 92. Martin, P.Y., 2001. ‘Mobilizing masculinities’: Women's experiences of men at work. Organization, 8 (4), 587-618.
• Mellström, U., 2004. Doing critical men’s studies in a state feminist country. Duisburg & Essen: Institut für
• Geschelterforschung Netzwerk Frauenforschung Universität Duisburg-Essen. Mellström, U., Hearn, J. and Pringle, K. 2014. Översikt kring svensk, nordisk och internationell maskulinitetsforskning
• Overview of Swedish, Nordic and International Masculinity Research]. In: Dahl (ed.) Män och jämställdhet. Betänkande av Utredningen om män och jämställdhet. SOU 2014:6. Stockholm: Fritzes.
• Messner, M.A., 1997. Politics of masculinities: Men in movements Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
• Pease, B., 2000. Recreating men: Postmodern masculinity politics London: Sage.
• Schacht, S.P. & Ewing, D.W. eds. 1998. Feminism and men: Reconstructing gender relations, New York: New
• York University Press. Schubert, G. 1959. The public interest: A critique of the theory of a political concept. New York: The Free Press Glencoe. of
• SOU 2014:6. Män och jämställdhet. Betänkande av Utredningen om män och jämställdhet. [Men and Gender
• Equality. Report from the Comission on Men and Gender Equality] Stockholm: Fritzes. Stetson, D.M. & Mazur, A. eds. 1995. Comparative state feminism. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.
• Stoltenberg, J., 1989. Refusing to be a man: Essays on sex and justice. Portland, Or.: Breitenbush Books.
• Varanka, J., Närhinen, A. & Siukola, R., 2006. Men and gender equality: Towards progressive policies. Helsinki
• Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.