1762
viewsIn defence of "Guyland"
By Chloe Angyal, Friday, September 5, 2008, 2 commentsAs I said in a post a few days ago, Michael Kimmel’s new book, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men hit bookstores this week. Kimmel has been doing the rounds talking about his new research: he did an interview on the Today show, which you can watch here, and he has a bunch of appearances around the country coming up later this month.
Jezebel.com
posted the video of the Today show interview and then let their readers have at
it in the comments section. And oh my goodness, did they have at it. Most of
the readers latched on to the one mention of women in the entire interview,
which was Kimmel’s comment that the changing role of women over the past few
decades has left men feeling confused as to what their place is in the world.
Jezebel’s readers interpreted that statement as anti-feminist, and as blaming
men’s troubles on women’s new-found independence. They mocked Kimmel’s stance
as a pro-feminist and pretty much ignored everything else he said in the
interview, except the bits that could easily misconstrued to sound like he was
blaming women.
If only
they’d had bothered to read the book, rather than watch the abridged TV
version.
If only they’d thought to do a quick Google search to familiarize
themselves with Kimmel’s career, the past twenty years of which have been spent
writing about masculinity and sexuality, before shooting off, “don’t blame your
issues on women for having careers”-type comments.
If they had, they would have realized
that Kimmel presents the changing roles of women, and therefore of men, as just
one of the many reasons why post-adolescent men are struggling today. Just one of the many. Kimmel provides us
with many other explanations for why today’s male youth culture isn’t
functioning the way it should, and men themselves get quite a bit of the blame.
That’s right, ladies: it’s not always about you.
And as
for Kimmel’s credentials as a male feminist? I know Michael Kimmel. I love
Michael Kimmel. And as a card-carrying, whole-book-reading feminist, if I ever
have a son, I want him to be just like Michael Kimmel.
Check
out Guyland, and form your own
opinion (what a novel idea!) here.
Read
about Michael’s career and other books here.
See
Michael in person:
Sept. 9 - Reading
at Borders! NYC
Sept. 13 -
Sept. 23 -
Sept. 30 -
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2 Comments
that's embarrassing. come on
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