Michael Flood

Men’s lives have changed in substantial ways over the past three decades. They have changed in the context of broader upheavals in gender relations and sexual relations, prompted particularly by the women’s movements and feminisms. There are at least four key areas of change. The legitimacy of men’s monopoly of political and institutional power has weakened dramatically. The gendered organisation of paid work has been disrupted. Public alternatives to heterosexuality have emerged. And new images of alternative masculine identity are evident.

The men’s movement is a contradictory phenomenon, involving both the defence of men’s privilege and efforts to undo it. It incorporates diverse strands — men’s liberationist, pro-feminist, spiritual or mythopoetic, and men’s rights and fathers’ rights — with differing agendas, emphases and understandings. While personal growth and therapy have been important focuses, increasingly these are being complemented by public political activism.

(By Michael Flood. 3rd edition, revised 3 January 2002. First published 30 January 1997.)

Who are pro-feminist men?
What do pro-feminist men believe?
How do men come to be pro-feminist?
What do pro-feminist men want?

Men's rights groups use flawed methodology to make false claims about the impact of fatherlessness. In Fatherhood and Fatherlessness (Australia Institute, Discussion Paper No. 59, November, pp. 21-23) Michael Flood reveals the junk science behind the National Fatherhood Forum's claim that "boys from a fatherless home are 14 times more likely to commit rape".

Why International Men's Day is a bad idea.
There are a number of important problems with International Men’s Day:
IMD offers a false parallel to International Women’s Day.
IMD invites a conservative understanding of gender relations.
IMD potentially alienates services and organisations that might otherwise support measures aimed at improving men’s wellbeing or service responses to men.
There are better ways to achieve the same goals.
IMD may be ineffective at engaging men.

Learning to offer sympathy rather than advice, to avoid dependency, to stop breaking hearts... You can learn a lot in relationships. Michael Flood tells all, in this 1995-96 article.

See below for the article, in PDF.

John Stoltenberg's Refusing to be a man is a passionate manifesto for a new male way of being. It's a renunciation of sexual injustice and a call to action for all men of conscience.

Masturbation: Michael Flood asks the questions.