Customer Reviews

The Politics of Manhood: Profeminist Men Respond to the Mythopoetic Men's Movement (And the Mythopoetic Leaders Answer)

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Editor Michael Scott Kimmel (born 1951) is an American sociologist specializing in gender studies. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in New York and is a spokesperson of NOMAS (The National Organization For Men Against Sexism). He has written other books such as Men's Lives (8th Edition), The Gendered Society, The Gender of Desire: Essays on Male Sexuality, etc.

He wrote in the Preface to this 1995 book, "This book had its origins in rejection. Michael Kaufman and I had been working on an essay about Robert Bly's book Iron John: A Book About Men, trying to engage critically with the ideas of the mythopoetic men's movement. A friend had mentioned that Kay Leigh was editing a book to be called Women Respond to the Men's Movement: A Feminist Collection, and I thought that this might be an appropriate arena for Michael and me to publish such a critique."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"...I am always aware that my close childhood connection with my father is quite unusual among my men's movement friends." (Pg. 3)
"It should come as no surprise, then, to observe that the overwhelming majority of the men who are currently involved in the new men's movement are precisely middle class, middle aged, white and heterosexual." (Pg. 18)
"The mythopoetic men's retreats ... appeals not to men who want to be men, but rather men who want to re-become boys... So said Peter Pan. So say the men at wildman retreats." (Pg. 36-37)
"...the best strategy to promote war is to question the President's manhood." (Pg. 135)
"A generalisation I would make is that the majority of men have not gone soft but are confused about their identity as men." (Pg. 218)
"In this context, calling men Mama's boys, soft males and pussy whipped because they listen too much to women is quite counterproductive---the wrong male qualities are being stigmatized." (Pg. 228)
"First, it is necessary to consider what the mythopoetic men are seeking. For the most part they seek self-change, not social change." (Pg. 324)

Michael Kimmel is at the top of a very short list of profeminist male sociologists actively publishing today. His books are without exception well-researched, thoughtful, nuanced, and eminently readable. I wrote my senior thesis on the subject of the mythopoetic and Promise Keeper movements, and found Dr. Kimmel's work incredibly helpful - both academically and personally. The debate he presents in this book is an important one for men to embrace with an open mind... it is unfortunate that some other reviewers here have failed to do that, instead reducing his work into an inane (and misleading) soundbyte.

I met Michael S. Kimmel on the Bertice Barry show where he was representing the interests of blacks versus white men. (Like most "3rd generation" American Indians, I pretty much look like any other white guy.) His position was that white men are privileged from birth by virtue of being white and, in the interests of leveling the playing field it's time white men put themselves at a relative disadvantage. As a published college professor, he is one of the most privileged white men in the country. Since he didn't seem anxious to give that up, one would have to assume he belongs to that class of elitists who expect to receive special dispensation from sharing those disadvantages.