Young Feminist Men Finding their Way

Robin Ekelund

doi:10.3384/cu.v12i3.3241

Abstract

Men and feminism is a contentious topic. In theoretical discussions as well as in previous studies, men and feminism have been described as an oxymoron, that being a man and a feminist is a border land position and that it entails experiences of so-called gender vertigo or gender limbo. Still, there are men who identify themselves as feminists and engage in feminist settings, parties and organizations. In this article, I aim to explore how masculinity is constructed and shaped within feminism. The article is based on qualitative interviews with nine young feminist men in Sweden. Using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology and the concepts of disorientation and reorientation, I analyse how the interviewees experience themselves as men and feminists and how they navigate within their feminist settings. The analysis illustrates that in contrast to previous research, the interviewees articulate an assuredness in their position as men and feminists. However, being a man and a feminist is still a somewhat disorienting position that promotes reflexive journeys through which the interviewees seek to elaborate a sensitive, perceptive and “softer” masculinity. Feminism can be seen as a way of doing masculinity, and the ways in which the interviewees (re)orient themselves in their feminist settings can be understood as processes of masculinity construction. These reorientations position the interviewees in the background of their feminist settings, where they carry out what I call political housekeeping and men-feminism. From this position, they also adopt a perspective of a theoretical as well as temporal distance and articulate themselves as actors in the history of feminism. Thus, the article highlights that feminist men can seek out a masculinity that is positioned in the background yet still experience themselves as subjects in the feminist struggle.

Highlights

Can men really be feminists? This is a question that has been asked and discussed ever since second wave feminism and the women’s movement of the 1960s and 70s
Discussing her interviews with Swedish feminist men, Linn Egeberg Holmgren (2011:96) writes that she found it difficult to get them to talk about their experiences and feelings: “When such stories came up, they seemed full of theoretically informed reflexivity, that is, the interviewees used theory to analyse what they were telling”
Exploring how young feminist men experience themselves as feminists and how theyorient themselves in their feminist settings, this article has shown that being a man in a feminist setting is a complex and somewhat disorienting position

Summary

Introduction

Can men really be feminists? This is a question that has been asked and discussed ever since second wave feminism and the women’s movement of the 1960s and 70s. My study departs from Egeberg Holmgren’s (2011 & 2007) analysis on feminist men in Sweden She argues that masculinity and feminism are understood as contradictory and that one way of passing as man and feminist is to occupy a rebellious position and perform a symbolic gender suicide, i.e. trying to abolish one’s masculinity (Egeberg Holmgren 2007). An assuredness in identifying as man and feminist can still bring with it uncertainties and experiences of disorientation which we will begin to explore in the subsection, where I ask how the interviewees experience the feedback they get within their feminist settings

A Pedestal Effect?

Conclusion