This essay deals with the issue regarding male feminism and men’s movement. The main purpose of this essay is to answer main questions regarding male feminism and provide the information about men’s movement. In order to achieve the purpose successfully, appropriate sources of information were analyzed and examined.
Firstly, men’s reaction to women liberation movements was quite negative and derisive. Conservative men did everything in order to attack and destroy feminist ideas and writings. Early works against feminism were based on arguments that man and women are biologically different and have different needs. Man must be the head of the family because it is natural and every movement, which challenges traditional roles of men and women, must be stopped. However, despite those conservative men were also those who supported feminist movements. In the 1960s, feminism found a great support among many men who formed different groups. A Male feminist is a man who supports feminism and takes part in fighting women’s rights. Those different groups were divided because they reflected and supported different feminist perspectives. However, men who supported feminism could not be called feminist because many believed that this word could be used only for women. Instead, a lot of other terms appeared and were defended by different groups. Among these terms were antisexism and profeminism. The term antisexism was mainly connected with the radical feminist movement. However, men’s liberation was more liberal and the term antisexism did not fit. That is why the term profeminism is more accepted because it clearly refers to the set of beliefs, which support women and female ideologies (Clatterbaugh, 2000).
If to speak about strategies used by profeminist movements, it must be revealed that they were quite similar to those, which were used by feminist ones. When feminist movements began to deal with such issues as liberalism and radical feminism, profeminist movements also started to fractures along these lines. Profeminist movements also began to spread among different university communities. Moreover, their impact on the universities was quite great. Representatives of profeminist movements teach men studies at the universities. They also wrote a lot of literature on the topic profeminism. Actually, there are two journals, which deal with profeminist concerns connected with men ad masculinity. Both these journals include a number of articles dealing with such topics as violence and representations of men in media (Clatterbaugh, 2000).
As it was mentioned previously, a lot of men’s groups were forming in North America. These groups had different goals, such as meeting regularly, discussing different male concerns of feminism, and reading various feminist literature. However, there were groups, which had very large ambitions. Among their main goals was to organize regional conferences. Topics, which were discussed at the conferences, included sexuality, sex roles, and power relations. Men’s conferences provided different sessions on such topics as violence against women, issues regarding women’s equality, or men’s relationship with feminism. One of the most famous conferences is Men and Masculinity conference. There was no clear information about how many people visited the first Men and Masculinity conference, but it was obvious that organizers hoped for hundreds of visitors because conference offered a great variety of sessions. The first Men and Masculinity conference was held at the University of Tennessee in 1975. It was announced as the first national conference. The main topics, which were discussed at the conference, were feminism, violence against women, rape, and others. Moreover, the first Men and Masculinity included feminist principles. The main discussions were about creating a national men’s organization, which will support women and their roles. Men and Masculinity still takes place every year. Moreover, it is connected with NOMAS (Goldrick-Jones, 2002).
In order to educate men about antisexism, profeminist representatives used entertainment. In the 1970s, there was a theater called Isla Vista Gorilla Theater. It was considered to be men’s feminist theater. The troupe regularly exhibited play on such topics as sexism, rape, and violence against women. The representatives of the theater said that they were performing material, which was based on their experience concerning sexism and violence. Moreover, many profeminists believed that humor was the most effective way of getting men to realize the aftermaths of sexism. Moreover, humorous articles, which were published in mainstream magazines, could have a greater impact on men than articles published in radical newspapers (Goldrick-Jones, 2002).
NOMAS started its existence as the result of Men and Masculinity conferences. It includes about one hundred male activists and other people who are interested in gender issues. The Men and Masculinity conference, which was held in 1977, was the first one that was visited primarily by men. At the fifth conference, which was held in Los Angeles, the presenters of men’s rights wanted to reveal the ways in which women oppress men. However, those activists did not manage to do that because of a great number of controversies and discussion. Firstly, NOMAS was called the National Organization for Men, but it changed the name in 1982. The main goal of this organization was to men, but it also aimed at changing institutions, which create inequality. Finally, in 1990, the organization changed its name and from that time, it is called NOMAS. It had a great connection with Men and Masculinity conference as they both searched for changing men and institutions, which created inequality (Parrish, 1992).
References
Clatterbaugh, K. (2000). Literature of the U.S. Men's Movements. Signs, 25(3), 883-894.
Goldrick-Jones, A. (2002). Men who believe in feminism (pp. 1-60). Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Parrish, G. (1992). Male Supermacy and the Men's Pro-feminist Movement: Part I. Nostatusquo.com. Retrieved 30 March 2016, from http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/ohBROTHER/retrogeov1.html
