Miscellaneous

Long before Covid-19 forced an artificial isolation on me, loneliness has been my companion.  I became aware of this loneliness when surrounded by the men I had spent time with during the last thirty years.  The irony of this did not go unnoticed – being lonely in a crowd is part self-choice, part self-defence.  I kept telling myself that I chose this path of solitude but if truth be told, it chose me.  And until I surrendered to it, the fear of being isolated was worse than the actual reality.

I was asked, as a man, to explain “mansplaining”. That is an assignment fraught with pitfalls.

Cette collection de XY propose des articles qui se concentrent sur les thèmes d’antisexisme et de proféminisme, en français. Vous y retrouverez également un répertoire de groupes et organisations francophones qui ont ces sujets au cœur de leur mandat.

Merci à Caroline Lemay pour la traduction des articles de cette page.

Articles

It goes without saying that we are in a pickle – both socially and environmentally. Global systems that support life are under threat from multiple angles. The ways that we relate to each other are polarising. COVID has changed life as we knew it. In fact, it’s reasonable to think that things are falling apart. For more than two decades, I have been wondering about what is at the root of our troubles. I’ve come to see that beneath the selfishness of global economic systems, lays a deeper problem.

Many aspects of our society have been rightfully scrutinised and criticised for propagating sexist and misogynist attitudes and opinions. Amongst these are the fashion industry, printed media, advertising and certain genres of music.

In 2020 the German Ministry of Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth adopted a strategy for  involving boys, men and fathers in gender equality politics. The dossier "Gender equality policy for boys and men in Germany – Implementing an equitable approach to gender equality policy" describes how these policies already address and mobilize boys and men as active subjects as well as beneficiaries. In addition, there is an overview of the current state of research and developments in the field.

In this new book from Routledge Press, gender scholar Thomas Keith takes the reader on a journey, explaining the many factors and influences in boys’ and young men’s lives that assist in creating men who view women as less important, less capable, and less valuable than men. In what Keith terms, “bro culture,” boys and young men are taught a normative set of rules of manhood, whereby the influences of TV, games, films, music, advertising, internet content, and pornography help shape boys’ views of girls and women, while also shaping men’s views of themselves.

What is the state of gender norms in Australia? To what extent are traditional norms of masculinity still dominant, and to what extent are they shifting or breaking down? Do young men agree with stereotypical constructions of masculinity, and if they do, what implications does this have for their lives and their relations with others? To answer these questions, this webinar draws on two recent Australian surveys, one among young men aged 18 to 30 and another among people in Australia. The webinar then explores how we may reconstruct masculine norms.

Men’s relations with men structure the practices, processes, and cultures of a wide variety of social contexts. Homosocial bonds have a profound influence on men’s friendships with other men and their social and sexual relations with women. Various institutional contexts, from schools and workplaces to militaries and governments, are dominated by males and shaped by the relations between them. Male-male relations define important kinship and familial connections.