Male readings of feminist theory: The psychologization of sexual politics in the masculinity literature

Abstract

The concept of masculinity dominates recent academic work on men and gender. It is now also widely employed in popular accounts of men, where phrases such as "changing masculinity" and "the crisis of masculinity" have become clich6s. To study men, it would seem, is to study masculinity. Thus, Men's Studies is defined by one of its key advocates, Harry Brod, as "the study of masculinities and male experience."1 Cynthia Cockburn argues that even men whose analysis includes a critique of patriarchy often fail to see "masculinity and their own part in expressions of masculinity as a problem."2 The implication is that a focus on masculinity can reveal the ways in which the personal practices of men are sexual-political practices, and that the problem with gender relations is not just "the structure of patriarchy." I suggest that the masculinity literature does not, in the main, have this effect.