Vol 6,1 January 1999
The IASOM Newsletter is published by The International Association for Studies of men (IASOM), presently coordinated by The Norwegian Network for Studies of Men. Editor: Øystein Gullvåg Holter, The Work Research Institute, Oslo, Norway. Consultants for this issue: Jørgen Lorentzen, Knut Oftung (sections). Photos: pinch photos by Kari Margrethe Kepple.
An international network
The International Association for Studies of Men is an independent researchers’ initiative aimed at developing men’s studies on the global level. IASOM has support is a global network for studies of men. IASOM supports studies of men in gender-egalitarian, pro-feminist or critical as well as male-positive perspective, and the widest possible diversity and nuancing of research based on this common orientation. The IASOM platform is available from our web page (below).
Coming newsletter ‘SPECIAL EDITION’
We ask readers to contribute to the main 1999 theme for discussion: men and violence. The 2/99 newsletter will be a special edition issue (hopefully in magazine format) for distribution at conferences, in the White Ribbon Campaign, and similar. What we need is brief and clear papers on men and violence, what can be done, what kinds of research is needed. Violence against women is the main topic, and we also welcome contributions where this is seen in relation to violence against men (see p. 6 for details).
The Newsletter. The IASOM Newsletter gives an international overview of current research on men and masculinities. Its usefulness depends on our readers’ contributions. Research news, reports, brief papers, comments, reviews and debate notes are welcome. As far as we are able, we'll help with translations. Texts should be in data file format (in Word etc. format or plain DOS text) and follow standard conventions (references, literature list) . Please e-mail your texts to the editor
ogh@afi-wri.no
or use paper mail or fax to
Øystein Gullvåg Holter
WRI, PBS. 8179 Dep
N-0034 Oslo Norway
Tel + 47 - 22 46 16 70.
Fax +47 - 22 56 89 18
The Newsletter is the common undertaking of a global network, and we welcome suggestiongs for guest editors, advisors, peer reviewers, copyreaders and similar.
The Newsletter is published on paper and on the IASOM web page:
Note that our web site is still preliminary and ”under construction”.
If this Newsletter has reached you unawares, it is probably because a colleague has proposed your name. Please give a sign whether you want it or not! (See last page)
Editorial
This issue is mainly an update on current events.
It includes - with appreciation - readers’ active correspondence and contributions. There is a healthy in-flow of new members and contacts.
In the last issue, reporting on a list of recent ‘incidental’ acts of violence by men, I wrote:
“‘What is it about men?’ people are asking. It seems that aggressive masculinity can make a neighborhood into a nightmare and act like gasoline on the fire in the conflict regions of the world.”
The topic of men and violence is currently becoming a main area of debate. There are new attempts to link everyday violence and peace/war issues.
Some more information is given in this newsletter. This includes material on the importance of conceptual nuance - for example, recognising that violence is also perpetrated by women, while being a victim of violence is also often boys’ and men’s status. Further, there are research news regarding violence and other matters. This includes a new representative survey of men (Norway), cultural studies, new historical work and business news.
If all goes as planned, the next issue will be a special newsletter issue on masculinity and violence with Michael Kaufman as editor. “I have a lot of excellent articles and will produce a table of contents for you this week”, Kaufman writes just as the Newsletter goes to press.
In May, I shall start in a new job as Nordic Region Coordinator for Men’s Studies, at the Nordic Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies (NIKK) in Oslo (on this position, see below).
Hopefully, this will allow further development of the IASOM newsletter and network initiative.
Øystein
Brief notices
Caring as in seeing
“Remember the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.”
- Robert Fulghum (All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten).
”Looking more closely at how mankind was created, this element of coincidence is strengthened. Our development started with an animal with high intelligence – a chimpanze-like savannah ape – started to use tools. What made this possible (in addition to the brain), was hands and a good stereoscopic sense of sight. Both traits were originally developed for another purpose, climbing in trees. For the new savannah apes who had to learn digging for food and partitioning animals in the barren landscape, hands and sight were put to new purposes, and thereby the evolution of mankind had started.” (Stephen Jay Gould, Life’s Grandeur, referred by amanuensis Tore Sivertsen, Klassekampen 19.12.98).
Caring as in giving
The average Norwegian spent $350 on Christmas presents and expenditures in 1997. The gift, otherwise a somewhat missing obejct in Norwegian social life, is now honoured and even sentimentalised. Commercial aspects do not exhaust the meanings of gifts, however. Before each Christmas, the average adult does a ’translation’ of relationships to objects that differs from the usual ‘time is money’ translation, and so even if the gift-buying activity is often frought with doubts, it shows no sign of withering away.
’Early’ caring fathers
”On October 9, 1975, John Lennon’s 35th birthday, Ono gave birth to Sean Ono Lennon. Beginning in 1975, Lennon devoted his full attention to his new son and his marriage, which had survived an 18-month separation...For the next five years, he lived at home in nearly total seclusion, taking care of Sean while Ono ran the couple’s financial affairs. (Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, p. 577. Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman on Dec 8, 1980).
Men playing women
In a PhD thesis (theatre science, Univ of Oslo), Live Hov discusses how women were excluded from classical-age Athenian drama, “a situation that became permanent in Western theatre development for two thousand years”. Hov argues that the early drama contains historical elements, and emphasises the increasing patriarchal character of classical-age Greek social structure. The exclusion of women as actors in theatre remains a puzzle, especially in view of the well-documented participation of women in many religious festivals and public rites.
Yet ”at the time when the theatre became institutionalised, the cultural view had become more narrow. From 600-500 BC, women no longer participated in public life to the same degree”. (Interview in Klassekampen 19.12.98).
Resources
New CD:
Men and masculinities in Europe
The Euro-PRO-Fem text CD published by the European Pro-feminist Men’s Network is one recent resource for studies of masculinity and issues like peace and violence.
The texts and listings are easily accessible through a Netscape or other browser interface. More than fifty contributors have made the contents interesting reading.
Here is an excerpt from a paper by Michael Flood, editor of X/Y, concerning the ‘male-positive’ guideline:
“To be male-positive is to be affirming of men and optimistic about men; to believe that men can change; to support every man’s efforts at positive change.
To be male- positive is to build close relations and supportive alliances among men. It is to acknowledge men’s many acts of compassion and kindness.
To be male-positive is to resist feeling hopeless about men and writing men off, and to reject the idea that men are somehow intrinsically bad, oppressive or sexist.
To be male-positive is to realise that individual men are not responsible for, and can’t be blamed for, social structures and values such as the social construction of masculinity or the history of women’s oppression.”
CD contents
Last call for papers -
Special issue on men’s violence
From Michael Kaufman, Toronto, Canada
Dear friends,
I am editing a special issue of the newsletter of the International Association for Studies of Men, the currently Nordic-based pro-feminist men's studies network. The focus is men's violence. The IASOM newsletter reaches researchers, concerned professionals and activists in 40 countries. This is a great way for those who don't normally publish in English, or those who only publish in North America or Europe, to have broader distribution of their work.
Contributions should be brief, a normally not more than a couple of pages. They can be reports on current research, book reviews , discussion papers and debates, short notices, etc. We welcome papers on subjects like the causes of men's violence; particular forms of violence and the construction of masculinity; treatment programs for violent men; homophobic violence; violence in prisons; sexual violence against boys; the debates on women's violence against men; fighting among boys; sports and violence; warfare; peacekeeping and creating a culture of peace; education and action programs to end men's violence; courses on men's violence; etc. Send by diskette or e-mail as an attachment. Language: English. Please submit articles or inquiries by e-mail to: Michael Kaufman, mkmk@yorku.ca Tel. +1 (416) 536-4135 FAX: +1 (416) 536-3309. Web: http://www.commplusc.com/mkaufman.
Men and Masculinities -
Call for papers on Latin American masculinities
The guest editor for a special issue of Men and Masculinities invites papers on men and masculinities in Latin America. Topics to be addressed might include:
• the extent to which we may generalize for the region as a whole on matters as diverse as child rearing, sexuality, machismo, housework, and sports
• the impact on men of women’s participation in social movements
• detailed examinations of the intersections of class, race, and ethnicity with masculinity in the region
Original scholarship and book reviews on Latinos in the United States are certainly be considered under the rubric of Latin America.
Submissions should be sent to: Matthew C. Gutmann, Department of Anthropology, Brown University, Box 1921, Providence, RI 02912 USA.
IASOM news
Newsletter response: new members and contacts
There has been a constant stream of directly or indirectly IASOM-relevant messages to the Newsletter since the last issue, usually helpful, interesting, and worthy of notification, showing that the activity in men’s studies is increasing. Also, we’ve received several new members.
Welcome, Ireland: “Gender, professional identities, social work, citizenship and social exclusion” - this is the main line of research interests of Alastair Christie, at the Department of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Ireland, a very interesting line of inquiry indeed.
Christie’s recent publications include a paper with Jennifer Weeks on “Life experience as a neglected form of knowledge” (Practice 10, 1,55-68) and “Is social work a non-traditional occupation for men” (British Journal of Social Work 28,4,491-510). I am sure many IASOM readers will appreciate these efforts - and all the more so, since Ireland is an area where IASOM needs contacts and members, with Dr. Christies membership application as the first. - Unless otherwise noted, the following are new members.
Welcome also to Sandra Swart (contact) at Magdalen College, Oxford, UK, who writes with advice to IASOM also. Swart writes:
“My research interests/topics:
(1) Bridging social constructionism and biological interpretations of masculinity
(2) Afrikaner masculinity
(3) Pioneer masculinity
IASOM should emphasise:
(1) Contact between researchers
(2) Creating a forum for debate” (sandra.swart@magd.ox.ac.uk).
I think all IASOM members agree that contact and debate are of main importance; this is where the initiative has given best practical results, even if much of this is indirect (eg. email contact and debate in local contexts or other writings rather than in the Newsletter itself). As for the sociobiology angle, you might be interested to know that the Leadership Academy in Stockholm arranged a conference on this theme in September 1998 (you should be able to reach them at dialog@ledarskaps akademi.se).
If there is interest among readers regarding the sociobiology of masculinity, give a signal to the editor’s email address (or fax or mail) and if possible also include advice on new findings in this area (we may create a special issue). That biology has a lot to say about gender differentiation is perhaps well known by now. Does it have new insight regarding gender stratification also? Is there new evidence that men’s violence is biologically based, for example? - Social constructionists are of course invited to this debate also. From the social angle, the small but fast-growing field of studies of men and violence in authoritarian social settings including racist movements seems relevant for Afrikaner ideology & movement research (see WW99 workshop notice, below. Also, there is also material on authoritarian personality research (etc.) in the IASOM web database (see the IASOM Newsletter archive on the web - address pg. 2).
Our third new member does research in South Africa. Michael Lambert, Department of Classics, University of Natal, has written on gender and sexuality in Antiquity and other contexts, including comparisons of Greek and Zulu ritual. He has also written classical entries in the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (lambert@classics.unp.ac.sa).
IASOM very much needs and appreciates scholars from classical studies. Lambert’s main research interest is gender and sexuality in antiquity. He argues that “IASOM should emphasise that studies of men should not and cannot exclude studies of women”. I agree. IASOM members mainly see studies of men as an extension of gender studies. It is also a common view that financing should not be proposed in ways that hurt women’s studies but should instead be based on a common understanding that men’s studies represent a broadening of the gender research field as a whole. Men’s studies needs a good working atmosphere vis-a-vis women’s studies if anyone is to learn anything new, and the field also needs researchers of both sexes.
Greetings to Arto Jokinen, Finland, and to J. Hyslop, South Africa. Jokinen, who is a postgraduate student and researcher, notes as his interests ‘representations of masculinities, cultural studies’. Hyslop, who holds a PhD at the Sociology department of Witwartersrand University, suggests as main theme for IASOM: “Empirical studies of historical experiences”. I find this a very good formulation.
We welcome professor Stephen Clift, Center for health education in Cantebury, Kent, UK (s.m.clift@cant.ac.uk) whose main publications have been on “research on sexual health protection, travel and health, and gay men and sexual risk”.
Also, welcome to Pat Powers, professor in the humanities in Montreal, Canada; interests: “studies in human prejudice, men’s studies, especially ideologies”, and to Frans Britz, lecturer at the University of Transkei (interest: masculinity and language), and David Lipschitz, psychology student, Johannesburg.
Greetings to professor Robert Morrell, Education, University of Natal (contact). Dr. Morrell has recently guest edited a special issue of Journal of Southern African Studies (24,3,1998) on the theme ‘Masculinities in Southern Africa’. Many readers probably want this to their library or bookshelf! Thanks also to Dr. Morrell for circulating the IASOM newsletter.
Klaus Rieser is assistant professor at UCLA with research interests “film, gender studies, ethnicity”. Dr. Rieser has written on immigration to the US (in German) and other subjects.
Uta Klein, who teaches at the Institute for sociology, Univ of Münster, Germany. She writes: “My main research interests include gender and civil-military relations, Israel/Palestine conflict, criminology and imprisonment, gender equal status policies”. We note with interest that Dr. Klein has a work in preparation called Gender and Military Discourse in Israeli Society.
Francisco S. Cavalcante who is a psychologist with a PhD in Brazil has written a letter. “I met Bob Connell at a conference sponsored by the United Nations in Chile this past June and was encouraged by him to join the organization”.
Welcome to you all. We have new members in Ireland, UK, South Africa, Finland, Canada, Germany and Brazil - all since the last issue. The IASOM network initiative is well received and the circulation of the newsletter is improving.
IASOM statistics
Here are some new statistics. The men’s studies field is still very small, yet growing.
IASOM members and contacts, including institutions and national/regional groups and networks:
January 1999: 289. Of these members: 99.
The list is up 10 percent in eight months since May 98. In May 98, the list count was 263, of these, 90 were members, and over the preceding year, there had been a 15 percent increase in members and contacts.
In 1995, women were 32 percent of personal members and contacts, men 68 percent. The proportion women members has been slightly increasing, so the situation today is perhaps 60 percent men, 40 percent women.
In the early (1993-96) period, many new IASOM members were in the category ‘concerned professionals’. In the 96-99 period the proportion researchers has increased, as has the proportion researchers with higher academic degrees.
An interesting and positive recent trend concerns high-level academics in southern world countries (especially South Africa). Also, Ireland is now on the country list.
This issue of the newsletter reaches researchers in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Chile, China, Columbia, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US.
The Newsletter has met few negative responses. Many readers are passive, yet many also respond in various ways. There seems to be a general agreement on the way in which we use “men’s studies” as a term meaning studies of men and masculinity by women and men researchers in cooperation. There is also much agreement that men’s studies need ‘gender equal status awareness’ and be ‘profeminist’ or similar, - and also male-positive, including new ways of listening to and understanding men, and that the way forward is not simply to copy women’s studies or theory or some mixture of this and unreflected ‘malestream’ science . Men’s studies need to learn from these and offer things back and be a new place for other “established” fields also, like youth research, emigration research, classical studies - developing its own methods and theories based on the main empirical field, men as masculine and relating to women.
IASOM from network to association
Although IASOM functions as a networking opportunity for interested researchers worldwide, the original 1993 organisational development plan was more optimistic than later developments allowed for. The organisation was to be led by a Nordic group for the first build up period, afterwards the leadership should circulate between regions. In practice, however, the few people outside of this region who (1) had the time and experience and (2) the support and resources to do it, all have had their hands full with other work, like trying to get the field established in their own country, creating new journals (e.g. Men and masculinities), or similar.
IASOM is a democratic organisation, although we have not yet been able to implement all organisational guidelines in this respect (you’ll find these in earlier issues of the newsletter and at our web site, see page 2). The editor and editorial consultants have discussed and created newsletters according to readers’ responses.
In order to emphasise the democratic aspect, we include a “what to do when you don’t agree” page in this issue (before last page). Tell us what you dislike, or even better, tell readers about the things you miss! You are also encouraged to participate in the organisational discussion, tell us what you want IASOM to be.
Letters
Peace politics: A letter from Hilkka Pietila, Finland
Just the time to thank you for very pleasant and encouraging cooperation this year and wish that our work can continue in these brotherly/sisterly manners in the forthcoming year!
I wonder if you have been participating in the UNIFEM/other UN agencies end-violence virtual working group and following its proceedings? I have noticed that there was a contribution from White Ribbon/Canada, but otherwise I have seen hardly any contributions telling about the work men are doing in this matter. However, there has been so much traffic in this net that I have not been able to open more than just a little fraction of it.
I sent a very short summary of my report into it and they published it still in very much more abbreviated version. However, I got amazing response to it, since I had included my e-mail address. I got requests for getting the whole report from all around the world from Papua-New-Guinea to Winhoek, Bolivia and Costa Rica.
Latest I have received an invitation for the report to be included in the GenderWatch database [IASOM should now be registered with them too, Ed.].
There is great interest in the work and research of men against violence.(..) Still I think it is pity, that men’s work and activities have not come out more in the <end-violence> campaign. Now they are advertizing the Video conference to be held in the UN Plenary Hall in March 8. next year as the great final of the global working group and they have given it a title “A World Free of Violence Against Women”, which again gives an impression as if the violence against women could be eliminated by focusing on women only and without alleviating violence in general and among men in particular!
There will be also a special effort of a group of women peace researchers and peace educators to prepare a contribution in the occasion of the Hague Appeal for Peace Civil Society Conference next May 11-16 in the Netherlands. I am invited to be in this group of about twenty women and attend the meeting in New York in February to prepare this initiative. The initiator is Betty Readon, a lifetime feminist peace researcher and the first one, who has made her dissertation with a gender approach to this subject, “Sexism and the War System”, in Columbia University in 1985. I will let you know more about this project after our meeting in February.
I wonder if there has appeared an issue of IASOM Newsletter since last spring? If so, I would very much like to receive it. How can I subscribe to it? [You are on the list; there is only an autumn 98 web page update, no paper newsletter].
I send you my best Seasons Greetings and look forward to expanding work against violence (in general and against women included!) next year!
Yours warmly, Hilkka
(hilkka.pietila@pp.inet.fi)
Research developments in Europe
EU Network: Deconstructing masculinity
“I would like men to start questioning themselves (..) otherwise the reasoning of the strong (..) will remain the one which takes precedence”, The Hommes Profeminist/Profeminist men bilingual newsletter (2/3-98) q uotes Adam Thalamy (in Ave Caesar by Michelle Perrein).
The newsletter reflects the experiences of creating a EU pro-feminist men’s network. It can be obtained from the web site ....
The editor, Daniel Welzer-Lang, discusses plans to create a European Colloquium 2000 “so that all groups and persons concerned can get together to debate and construct the profeminist and egalitarian Europe which we so much desire”.
This issue of the Newsletter emphasises gender equality as well as pro-feminism, and it also welcomes women as well as men into the network.
Welzer-Lang argues that “the deconstruction of gender can be achieved by the deconstruction of the masculine from the inside in such a way as to enumerate and describe the forms that male alienation takes, an alienation that determines the domination of women.” This seems a formulation well worthy of discussion.
The Newsletter also brings notices on Christine Delphy’s book The Major Enemy - On The Political Economy Of Patriarchy, an essay collection now translated into seven languages, as well as David Jackson and Daniel Welzer- Lang’s book Violence and Masculinity (in French). Get them to your library or bookshelf!
Nordic region: Men’s studies coordinator position established
In its November session, the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) established a new 3-year position as Nordic Region Men’s Studies Coordinator at NIKK, The Nordic Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies in Oslo.
The coordinator shall facilitate the implementation of the NCM Action plan for men and gender equality and help develop the field of men’s studies as part of gender studies in the Nordic region. In a press release, NCM argues that this position is a first in the world.
Norway: Class structure still central
“Feminist analyses (..) have uncovered that the class structure, indeed in its ‘old-fashioned’ sense, is central for how identity and everyday life is formed for women”, Elisabeth Rogg argues in a Bulletine paper (Center for Women’s Studies, Oslo), citing Rosemary Crompton’s UK work especially.
A late December headline seems to prove Rogg right - according to the paper Aftenposten, a recent huge cross national health study has shown that class differences in health are greater in Norway than in many other countries, - contrary to expectations.
Finland: ‘No, he does not always strike again’
According to a large survey in Finland, men who have used violence against a woman in a relationship once do not necessarily do so again. Instead, according to women’s reports, about half the men do, half don’t. With better research and knowledge of what makes men go one way or the other, the proportion “never again” can probably be increased considerably.
For details, see new Violence against women survey notice below.
France: ‘Domestic horror’
A report of a Lyon research team shows a ‘catalogue of horrors’ regarding domestic violence, according to the Hommes Profeministes Newsletter (98, 2/3, 6-7, which gives qualitative impressions but no numbers). Among “verbal violence” the team has recorded “slogans which stress the togetherness of the family, the authoritarian and brusque tone when asking for something, the demand for the other to obey immediately(..) continually change the conversation, wish to focus the conversation on his own interests, not listen to the other, not answer the other.”
Germany: Work Group for Men’s Studies and Gender Studies
Just after our last newsletter went to print, we received an outline of a seminar in July 1998 in Berlin. The ‘Arbeitsgemeinschaft’ or Work Group arranged a two-day conference that included
• An overview paper by Walter Hollstein on the status of men’s studies in Germany
• Gerhard Amendt on the feminist reception of these studies
• Michael Meuser on the conceptualisation of unity and difference in men’s life patterns (’Lebenszusammenhang’)
• Peter Døge on masculinity and politics
• Thomas Kuhne on masculinity and history
We have not received news of publications in English - probably many IASOM readers would be interested in these papers.
Adieu moritz, welcome Paps
The German magazine moritz has closed down due to financial difficulties, yet its readers are adviced to turn to Paps - Zeitschrift for Väter. This fathers’ journal looks like a magazine, with good layout in colour. The journal presents events from the caring father angle, including photo reportage, jokes and contrary views. A research notice tells of new German study that finds marriage favoring men in health terms, disfavoring women. Although the journal is not mainly research-oriented, it gives interviews, overviews and references. You can order it from the editor email address werner.saurborn@t-online.de or from VHT Verlag, Verlagshaus Thuringen, Erfurt.
Norway: Mixed pattern in new survey
Given a certain context (special word, phrase, sequence), Norwegian men appear anti-feminist, in other contexts, they appear pro-feminist. This is one conclusion from a new postal survey of men in Norway (Dagbladet/MMI 1998). If men are asked whether “the gender equal status has made the pair relationship more difficult to tackle for men and women”, slightly more than half in a representative sample may agree, but if asked whether “the sex role relationship was better before”, most will disagree.
The wording matters. The Norwegian expression “the gender equal status” (likestillingen) is used as something definite which is already in place in society. Surveys show that for many people, this word sounds worse than others even when their content is about the same. And on the other hand, some words like ‘care’ have been shown to have a positive effect.
There is more than words involved, though. According to multivariate analyses the mixed pattern among men, with only partial and possibly slightly decreased support for gender equality, may be linked to other social changes in late 1990s Norwegian society.
This includes wider class differences, a more privatised and commercial working life with greater pressures on men - ‘increased materialism’. At the same time, there are high and probably increased stress levels, more men are depressed and/or able to say so, and other symptoms.
Especially, the quality of many men’s social network seems low. When a Norwegian man feels depressed he talks with his partner, first of all; men in Norway once again appear “women-oriented”. What is remarkable however is that he seldom talks with friends or seeks professional help, instead many men close off, hope the problem will go away, seek loneliness, and similar.
The demand for a more emotionally open masculine role reappears once more with support from a majority of men, and it is now more clearly tied to negative health effects and lacking social network. This, in turn, relates to other factors like work/careerism.
Economically, the women’s income means more for the household than it did ten or fifteen years ago, yet men remain responsible for two thirds or so of the total household income. Recent business statistics show men’s overtime work increasing in Norway twice as fast as women’s.
As in other studies, a more active father role is supported by many men, and two thirds of the men say they want a symmetrical two-job-family situation.
The daddy’s month is popular, but the survey shows that for most men in most situations, there are not many new ways out. Instead men’s difficulties often translate into isolation and partly also into women-blaming. The positive male role changes of the 1990s have concerned only fairly small areas, mainly young men taking out the daddy’s month. There are discussions but perhaps not som much change towards increased caring in other parts of men’s world. The fatherhood changes, although mainly successful, have not been followed up by changing men’s options generally in society.
The survey indicates that unless the context of the new fatherhood is changed, this new area may instead collapse into the old terrain of gender segregation and father absence.
The ‘new’ man is not much around yet, and where we do see him, his position is often difficult.
These comments are based on preliminary analysis of the data file, using factor and other multivariate techniques in SPSS.
Øystein Gullvåg Holter
Relations and the personal – still a women’s monopoly?
”Sandra Bem found, perhaps not unexpectedly, that girls in the US in the 1970s mostly were feminine. The boys on the other hand were masculine. The US girls were however not masculine, and the boys were not feminine. How is it in Norway?
We measured this using Bem’s tools. Regarding femininity, the picture was the same as the one she obtained in the US: the girls are, the boys ar not. Regarding masculinity, the picture was unexpected: the boys only have some of it, scarcely more than the girls. We think the girls have retained their empathic view. The boys have become more scared of taking the initiative, stand forth with their own will, yet they have not developed their femininity. In other words, the girls have conquered masculine traits that formerly were the boys’ prerogative. The boys have let the girls keep the monopoly of being the ones who understand and relate to other people.”
Willy Pedersen, Norwegian youth researcher and sociologist, Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift 4, 1998, p. 338. (Editor’s translation. Pedersen’s thoughtful essay also contains interesting discussions of racism among boys, the migration of young women to the cities, and related traits of 1990s society).
Croatia, Bulgaria: Setbacks and violence
Earlier issues of the IASOM Newsletter have highlighted the connections between aggressive masculinity and patriarchal dominance conflict regions like those in former Yugoslavia, and we have also reported on growing interest in studies of gender and masculinities in the former Eastern Block. Here is some recent information. The following is from the Internet End-violence debate (a very active partly UN-sponsored e-mail-list: end-violence@edc-cit.org).
“Dear All. CESI (Center for Education and Counseling of Women) is a local women’s NGO founded in 1997. CESI is gathering women with several years of working experience with refugees, returnees and displaced women. We are working towards improvement of women’s position in the society through education, counseling and media campaigns.
In Croatia, the situation regarding gender-based violence is worsening considerably in the past several years. One of the reasons is post-war consequences and demobilisation, but also conservatism and patriarchy that are very strong and even encouraged by new policies and laws. Recently, a new Criminal Law was adopted (...) now the public prosecutor does not have to raise the charge against the violator by his duty, not even in the case of grave insults. Also, a new Family Law was just adopted after many objections from women’s groups but also from women members of parliament.”
Goga Obradovic, Center for Education and Counseling of Women, Raieva 9, 10 000 Zagreb, Tel. & Fax +385 1 233 24 16 (e-mail: CESI@ zamir.net).
Another letter, from Bulgaria, reports of research showing growing incidents of violence against women.
East European gender studies
Gender studies are emerging in several East European countries. A September 1998 Belgrade conference on ‘Women’s Studies in Countries in Transition’, the Open Society Institute Network Women’s Program and participating national OSI foundations are arranging women’s studies fellowships in 1999. For more information, try Pamela Shifman at ifman@sorosny.org." They write: “A number of the countries that signed up to participate in this program are seeking to introduce gender studies for the first time. In their case, they intend primarily to send individuals or country teams as LEARNERS to host institutions that can mentor them and share skills and experiences that they can adapt to their local situations. Other countries may wish to send more experienced fellows as TEACHERS.”
Business news
1998: Business as usual?
Is business lagging behind in terms of gender equality? In the Nordic countries, changes often seem more difficult and slow-moving in business and the economy than in other sectors, including fairly conservative ones like the church and the military.
This ‘time-lag’ difference has emerged more clearly over the past year, for example in the presentations from top men in these three institutions on a conference on men and masculinities introduced by the Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik in October 1998. The backwardness of business was commented by participants afterwards - could it be due to ‘golden parachutes’ and more privileges in all-male settings in this sector? Whatever the case, the leaders speaking for the church and the military signaled a more conscious and reflective attitude towards the new men’s issues and the need for men’s studies.
In Sweden, The Business Leadership Academy in Stockholm (LA) will reduce its activities in 1999, due to lack of support from enterprises. The work will be continued under a revised board of directors but without a research council. From the international development and research perspective, the work of organisations like the Leadership Academy, as an independent private sector center, is important and the tendency to
At the same time, however, many women and some men in business are discussing and implementing strategies for change. There is a broadening agreement that firms cannot “waste” their human resources in the coming information economy development, as they do when discriminating against women. Also, there is growing interest in extending gender analysis to men. So far, however, most gender research and development measures in the private sector addresses women, eventually gender, but not men specifically. Although the public sector often have more specific action plans, the situation is not dramatically different there.
It would seem that the most important change process among men in the 1990s, increasing emphasis on participatory fatherhood and support for other caring issues, runs against the logic of the business world. It may even run against the logic of many top business women, according to a new doctoral study by Sophia Marongiu, Sweden. “Only the competitively oriented women become top leaders”, Marongiu concludes from interviews with 140 employees in the state sector (Aktuell arbetslivsforskning 4, 6-7). A recent British study, however, finds more social qualities among women leaders.
Some argue that business conservatism regarding masculinity is nevertheless changing in the longer run. Increasing information means increased need to put emphasis on human capital. Economic efficiency becomes more dependent on factors like socialisation, cognitive and empathic capabilities, cooperation etc. True, the market does not necessarily work that way in the short run, nor do the institutions of property, or bureaucracy. Yet current obstacles and ‘old ghosts’ do not mean things are static.
Whatever the case, the ability of patriarchal patterns and male predominance to hang on to a presumably rational system, in ‘turbo capitalist’ speed or not, is remarkable.
The growing pressure for change is important also, and it is not so surprising that we find setback tendencies along with this.
Send us your book, journal or newsletter
The IASOM Newsletter refers your texts if
(1) They contain relevant material for developing men’s studies worldwide
(2) They arrive in our mail box (see pg 2).
We can not guarantee that everything you send in – books, magazines, newsletters, papers, notices, diskettes, cd’s etc – will be consistently quoted, reviewed or referred to. You’ll get The IASOM Newsletter in exchange, and as far as we’re able, we’ll refer you, under considerations of (1) above. For further information on IASOM organisational guidelines and platform, see our web archive (see p. 2).
One important task is creating concrete models and methods for research and development among men that (1) specifically address men’s life situation, pressures and conflicts, (2) extend a gender relations and equal status perspective and (3) address some basic ideological issues. Especially: are men “unproductive” when they behave responsibly as caring fathers, spouses or other family members? In some firms, the main norm is “not to leave work until the boss leaves...”. As long as business leaders look at men’s new caring roles as an expenditure and not an investment, factors like entrepreneurship, enthusiasm and investment will be lacking.
Øystein Gullvåg Holter
Emancipatory role
“Men’s studies has an important emancipatory role”, the author Ronny Ambjornsson has recently argued. “It can help create distance to the things that we link to fate and biological necessity. We cannot learn how to live differently just by reading books, but reading can make us conscious about our situation, formed as it is by historical coincidence. And after all the power of coincidence is not total.” (Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, June 14,1998).
1998 conferences – non-English events
1998 was a year with important men’s studies conferences or seminars, yet much of this was not available in English. In Germany, for example, most of the work of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft for men’s studies exists only in German. In the Nordic countries, several conferences were held with important new research in men’s studies including the conference Masculine and Unmasculine in History arranged by FRN in Stockholm in August and a Fatherhood conference arranged by the Norwegian research council later in autumn. There were broader male role discussion arrangements also, like the conference introduced by the Norwegian prime minister in November. Some arrangements, like the Alternatives to Violence center conference in Oslo, attracted hundreds of interested professionals.
Although many tendencies are similar, there are variations between and within regions. In the Nordic countries, Sweden was in the lead in 1998 regarding men’s studies activities and development of local gender equality measures aimed towards men.
Violence research and debate
US: Strategies for anti-violence work
A US participator in the End Violence internet discussion, Dianne Post (diannepost@glasnet.ru) characterises the situation for women’s movements against violence in the US with the following words:
“The problem of government funding has plagued the United States movement now for years. An early problem arose during the Reagan administration when he stopped funding to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence because they had the word ”lesbian" in their written materials. He insisted they take it out or no funding. They refused. He gave the money intended for them to Phyllis Schafly’s group which is very anti-woman. So one issue is that of substantive control.
Another issue is procedural. When the state gives money, they want reports. They want to know who and how many when. That kind of information is contrary to the philosophy of and life saving necessity of confidentiality for women in shelters. Thus we have fought often and hard with the state over what kind of information they would get for their money.
The third type of problem is theoretical. Many groups have refused to take money from Playboy and other such sexist businesses because of all the issues raised by taking money from the enemy both in terms of how you feel about it and how they use it.
The strings attached to government money are many. We have discussed this problem a lot in the US because of the movement away from feminist goals and structures to hierarchal structures dominated by those with degrees not those who know the most about it, and the state goal of reuniting the family as opposed to the feminist goal of safety and freedom for the woman and children.“
In general, the End-violence discussion has not had much content regarding studies of men, masculinity and violence, or similar subjects. The main focus of the debate has been women as victims.
Violence against women - new statistics
Statistics Finland (fax +358 9 17 34 27 50) has announced an English-language publication containing a new violence survey. The survey (N=7100 women) shows larger violence proportions than usually recognised:
• Only ten percent of those who had experienced violence from their male spouses, had reported the incidence to the police.
• Over the last year, 14 percent of Finnish women had experienced physical or sexual violence or threats of violence from men, 9 percent had experienced threats or violence from their spouse or cohabitating partner, and as much as 20 percent had experienced sexual harassment last year.
• 21 percent of all women had experienced physical violence and 16 percent had experienced sexual violence, before the age of 15.
• The study shows a clear age association with violence last year - most frequent among the young adults, falling among the older groups. Although the study does not cover male victims, there is some information on men as violators.
• Noteworthy is the finding that among women who had experienced violence from their partners ten years ago or more, 41 percent reported that the man had not used violence again. This weakens the “once is always” argument regarding men and violence. (Source: NAV, Newsletter for Center for Violence Victims Work in Oslo, 4,2,98:1).
End violence: ‘Where are men’s voices?’
“We all know that men can be violence victims in street fights or in war - but the existence of men as violence victims in the home is a ‘taboo’ area”, argues the Newsletter of The Norwegian Resource Center for Information and Studies of Violence (NRCISV). Oslo and can be obtained from Oslo College, Pb. 8178 Dep, 0034 Oslo, Norway.
Reviewing international work during 1998, especially the first World Conference on Family Violence in Singapore in September (‘Sharing Solutions, Changing the World’), the newsletter argues that the coverage of men as violators was very slim. Psychologist Marius Råkil, who participated from the Oslo Alternative to Violence Center, writes:
“There was surprisingly little focus on men as the great majority of violence perpetrators in the family. Of 47 working sessions, there was 1 workshop where the man, as user of violence, was the theme. There may be several reasons for this underrepresentation, both political, cultural and ideological. The conference has also been critisised for being ‘culturally slanted’. There were some ironical comments that this was a national US conference in a tropic setting. There was, anyway, little emphasis on the wider importance of culture for incidence, interpretation and prevention of family violence.”
The Newsletter publishes several favorable reviews of workshops at the conference, yet the overall framework is criticised. Newsletter editor, sociologist Marianne Sætre writes:
“Of the 350 persons attending the conference, approximately 85 percent were Western researchers (US, Europe, Australia), and of the small non-Western contingent, there were about 40 percent from Japan. The gender profile of the attendees was, if possible, even more slanted. (..)
Although several themes were covered by the papers, many important aspects of violence were only poorly focused. There was almost nothing on abuse and violence against children in general, and there were no papers on abuse or violence against boys and men. (..)
On the last day of the conference, when the goal was to create a resolution against family violence, there was so much turmoil in the plenary debate that it reached Singapore’s daily papers (”Disarray at end of family violence conference", etc.). The debate uncovered fixed ideological fronts. (..)
Briefly put, the conflict started when some women, whenever the resolution made a reference to family violence, wanted to narrow the problem down to men’s violence against women and girls. There were angry protests from professionals working with other kinds of violence and abuse. Those with violence against the elderly as subject wanted to emphasise age relations, minority spokespersons wanted anti-racism and ethnicity perspectives, there was a single pediatrician who wanted more emphasis on children. And so it went. But not a single person dared to say that even women can perform family violence or that the victims of this violence also include men and boys. The dominance of women’s groups, both in numbers and style, was too big.
If this was a result of skewed recruitment (..) is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the resolution was never adopted."
For more on this debate and plans for ending violence, try the International Network Against Family Violence via NCCAFV@aol.com. The NCCAFV is a US National Council on Child Abuse and Family Violence associate and one of the arrangers of the Singapore conference.
India: Violence studies
Greetings!
I am writing from the International Center for Research on Women. I obtained your name from your submission to the End-Violence Internet Working Group. We are mailing bulletins on the progress of our research projects on domestic violence in India. These include prevalence studies, creating methodologies for interviewing survivors, evaluating a wide range of state and NGO responses, and studying institutional records (hospital, court, police, etc.)
If you are interested in receiving a copy, please e-mail me your mailing address.
Thank you,
Nisha Varia - E-mail: nvaria@icrw.org
Training advice
“Use interactive methods. People remember 20% of what they see, 10% of what they hear and 80% of what they do. So my seminars are all very interactive with examples, scenarios, small groups, hands on exercises, etc.”
Dianne Post, UNIFEM End-Violence e-mail debate on training
Publications: The Violences of Men
In his latest book, The Violences of Men, Jeff Hearn addresses the problem of men’s violence to known women within the context of men’s use of power and violence in society, He considers the scale of men’s violence against women, and critically reviews the theoretical frameworks that are used to explain this violence. From the perspective of `Critical Studies on Men’, he discusses issues, challenges and possible research methods for those studying and researching violence, and particularly men’s violence to known women.
Published July 1998. Cloth ( 0-8039-7939-8) £45.00. Paper ( 0-8039 -79401) £14.99. Available from Sage Publications, 6 Bonhill Street, London, EC2A 4PU, UK.
Coming conferences
Simone de Beavoir’s contribution - France
A session on the contributions of the work of Simone de Beavoir, author of the modern classic The Other Sex, etc. to current studies of men and masculinities will be held at Colloquium to the celebrate the 50th anniversary of this book in Paris 21-23 of January, 1999. For last minute or follow-up information, contact NQF, IRESCO-CNRS, rue Pouchet - 75849 Paris, or via Daniel Welzer-Lang dwl@univ-tlse2.fr
Hegemony and men’s studies
A workshop for men’s studies in the Nordic countries
March 19-21, Equality Center, Karlstad College, Sweden (Høgskolan i Karlstad)
“In international men’s studies the concept of ‘hegemony’ has become central. The aim of the workshop is to problematise the concept of hegemony and discuss its usefulness in men’s studies. Can the hegemony concept be adapted in Nordic researchers’ reflections on their own research areas? How do the researchers’ own gender, sexual orientation, age, class position etc. influence the research? We aim towards clarifying and critical discussions and positioning on these questions, which we believe is important for developing and constituting the new field of men’s studies.”
Some thirty researchers and doctoral students will attend the workshop. More information: Per Folkesson email per.folkesson@hks.se. A report is planned, hopefully also with substantial English abstracts.
Conflict Resolution - Russia
7th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION (ICR) - May 6-16, 1999 in St. Petersburg, Russia. More information at: http://ahpweb.org/cbi/home.html.
The Annual ICR Conference has been supported by President Clinton, President Yeltsin, St. Petersburg Governor Jakovlev, and is endorsed by over 50 organizations internationally. Participants have come from over 30 countries and all continents, providing excellent opportunities for important networking contacts with representatives of many organizations and societies. The official program languages are English and Russian. Historically, the ICR Conference has been funded solely by registrations. All participants, including presenters, pay their own expenses for attending. Hard-currency registrations are used to help subsidize costs of participants from economically impoverished societies. We invite you and your colleagues to join us in St. Petersburg this spring.
Steve Olweean, Director, Conference Co-coordinator, Common Bond Institute 12170 S. Pine Ayr Drive, Climax, Michigan 49034 USA
Ph/Fax: 616-665-9393 solweean@aol.com
The conference, titled Sharing Tools for Personal/Global Harmony, is sponsored by Common Bond Institute (USA) & HARMONY Institute (RUSSIA), in cooperation with Association for Humanistic Psychology.
The conference focuses on all aspects of conflict resolution and transformation, from the intrapersonal - to the interpersonal - to relationships between groups, organizations, cultures, and societies - and ultimately between us and other species. Presentations should explore conflict resolution within diverse contexts, including: arts & creativity, cross-cultural, ecology, economics & business, education, gender, global/regional conflict, health & healing arts, organizational/community, psychotherapy, and transpersonal/spiritual. 6 DAYS of all-day institutes, workshops, roundtables, community meetings, and poster sessions. 50 day-program sessions, and a full slate of evening activities and social / cultural events. 4 DAYS of pre- and post-conference professional visits and meetings, rich cultural events, and tours in St. Petersburg. CALL FOR PROPOSALS Submit by: MARCH 5, 1999 Early submission recommended For information, proposal and registration forms, CONTACT: COMMON BOND INSTITUTE (USA), Steve Olweean or Sandra Friedman 12170 S. Pine Ayr Drive, Climax, Michigan 49034 Ph/Fax: 616-665-9393 E-mail: solweean@aol.com WEB SITE: http://ahpweb.org/cbi/icr.html * DIRECT ALL INQUIRIES and REPLIES TO: solweean@aol.com”
Equality and justice - US
The 8th International AWID Forum: Leading Solutions for Equality and Justice November 11-14, 1999 Washington, DC USA
Since 1983, The Association for Women in Development (AWID) has been providing a platform for discussion and debate about gender equality and development in the context of global change (..) the AWID Forum is now the largest regular international conference on gender equality in North America. At our last Forum, over 40 percent of the 1,200 participants came from countries in the global South as well as Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. AWID’s 8th International Forum: Leading Solutions for Equality and Justice is designed to be a conference for both old and new AWID members to communicate and generate action around our common and diverse goals. A huge event is being planned: from thought-provoking debates about the politics of the global women’s movement to practical skills building sessions; from a marketplace of the latest resources and publications to workshops on transforming development; from regional caucusing to coffeehouses for young women, AWID’s 1999 forum is designed to engage and enlighten everyone who attends!
We welcome your proposals for presentations. We invite your comments and ideas on what you would like to see and do at the Forum. We hope to see you November 11-14, 1999, in Alexandria, Virginia (just outside of Washington, DC), USA!
For more information see ttp://www.awid.org or send a blank e-mail to info@reply.net. You can also contact Ginger Daniel at awid.org”.
IASOM world conference plans
Dear IASOM members
We should meet - as members of a global association. Yet arranging such a meeting for even a minority of our members is not a small task. The Nordic coordination group is now discussing a possible date for an international conference in 2001and searching for cooperation and financing possibilities.
Why the idea of a world conference, as seen from the point of view of research? First, there is a need to present the new studies of men field as an important research field world-wide. Second, a conference can help develop the main theoretical and methodological challenges of the field, and play a key role in making the whole field more truly international, nuanced and varied, with improved research quality as a result. Comparing research policy results and strategies is important also, as well as discussing and developing IASOM.
What should be the central theme? “Men, masculinities and... power? Changing society? Caring and peace? This will be the first international studies of men conference, and so it needs an optimistic but also realistic agenda and broad but also precise focus.
Your contributions to this discussion are welcome!
The editor
Recent papers to note ...
Feminist economic analysis:
Figart, Deborah M.: Gender As More Than A Dummy Variable: Feminist Approaches To Discrimination. Review of Social Economy Vol LV,1,3ff.
Sociobiologism debate updates:
Gould, Steven Jay: Darwinian Fundamentalism. The New York Review June 12, 1997, 34-37. Also: Evolution: The Pleasures of Pluralism. The New York Review June 26, 1997, 47-52.
On the way...
“A nother question asked about the men group: Is it not simply chattering? The men conspiracy was the headline of Le Monde, which altogether is more ‘valorising’ since a conspiracy would implicate an objective, a strategy and even arms...A conscience group could become a mothering structure of ‘depressed’ men and only serve this purpose. This is a risk. (..) Yet, by discussion of topics such as jealousy, competition between men regarding women or jobs, the way of listening to others, the way of dressing (..) there are not only opportunities to tell our personal history, this also implicates another look at masculine standards.”
Abstract of the magazine Types No 1, Jean-Yves Sparfel (Hommes profeministes Newsletter 2/3 1998:11). Visit the new European Pro-feminist Men’s web site at ....
Gendering Men: Women’s Worlds 1999
Masculinity and men’s studies workshops
Four or five workshops on men and masculinities are being planned, as detailed in our last issue. There are more than a thousand women and men coming to this major conference with possibilities for discussions under the midnight sun.
You should apply now, and expect to hear many interesting introductions as well as meeting a lot of IASOM people, judging from the activity so far.
For example, a workshop on Fatherhood is being planned which includes papers on authoritarian movements and fatherhood, fatherhood as a change factor, new dad’s month and parental leave research, and others.
Other workshops will discuss the politics of men and corporations today and the histories of masculinity.
For conference information, contact the WW99 secretariat at the University of Tromsø. You will find all information about registration on this web address: http://www.skk.uit.no/WW99/ww99.html.
“Gendering men” is the common heading of this section of the conference, which was initiated by Michael Kimmel, with Jørgen Lorentzen as main Norwegian organizer. Some details on the workshops follows.
Men’s Power/Men’s Pain and the Causes of Men’s Violence.
Coordinator: Michael Kaufman. Papers:
• Michael Kaufman
• Bob Pease: Men Against Sexual Assualt
• Jeff Hearn
• Colleen Lundy: Men who Abuse Women: Changing Consciousness, Changing Behaviour
Fatherhood and Social Change
Coordinator: Øystein Gullvåg Holter. Papers:
• Loise Silverstein: Deconstructing the Essential Father. Possibly: Do Promise Keepers Dream of Feminist Sheep?
• Elin Kvande and Berit Brandt: Does ‘Enforced Fathering’ Lead to Equality?
• Øystein Gullvåg Holter: ‘The Child is Father to the Man’: Fatherhood As Early Change Arena
• Megan Doolittle: (title not clear) (”On fatherhood in the mid-19th century in England, focusing on the various ways fatherhood was understood and how the authority of fathers was beginning to be challenged at that time. The paper looks at how men as fathers were able to move between public and private worlds, and how their power and authority in each reinforced the other.”)
The workshop will probably also include papers from Lars Jalmert and others.
Men’s Relations to Feminist Demands in the Public World
Coordinator: Jeff Hearn. Papers:
• Jeff Hearn: Men, Feminism, Political Arenas, and Organising.
• Bob Connell: Masculinity Politics, Worldwide.
• Linzi Manicom, Robert Morrell and Joan Wardrop: Gender Politics in Transformation: Masculinities and Femininities in the New South Africa.
• Bob Pease: Partnership or Domination in Men’s Politics and Practice? The Discursive Production of Men’s Interests
History of Masculinity
Coordinator: Jørgen Lorentzen. Papers
• Michael Kimmel: From Resistance to Support: Men’s Responses to Feminism in US
• Jørgen Lorentzen: Masculinity in History and History of Masculinity
• Knut Kolnar
Other workshops may also be arranged, including a workshop on men and therapy and one on boys, but these are less than clear yet. Note that the program above is quite preliminary also. Several papers have reached the organisers lately which are not listed above. Some workshops are creating email or other forms of discussion to help focus the event itself. A common discussion forum for the section may also be created, since the interest is noticeable even five months before the conference.
Publications
John Gillis: A World Of Their Own Making - Myth, Ritual and the Quest for Family Values. Harvard UP, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1996
This detailed, well-written and thought-provoking work includes discussions of the rise of mother-centered familism in the late 19th century US. Here is a sample:
"Careful not to 'derogate from the prerogative of the father, or depreciate the influence which he is capable of exerting upon the character of the family', the maternal associations and mothers' unions nevertheless proclaimed that 'the mother's appropriate sphere and pursuits give her a decided advantage in the great work of laying down future character; inculcating those principles and sentiments [that] are to control the destiny of her children in all future time.' [quoted from Mother's Monthly Journal 1836, in Ryan: The Empire of the Mother p 67].
The new vision of motherhood was very difficult to realise under the straitened conditions of a single family and therefore depended on cooperation of women across households. At this time concepts of home and community expanded again, and innumerable new families of strangers sprang up to serve the needs of young people who could no longer rely on their family of origin. Many of the thousands of friendly societies and mutual aid organisations founded in the early nineteenth century adopted the idiom of brotherhood and sisterhood (...) they created a new image of youth as a separate stage of life, with its own rights and prerogatives independent of the old patriarchal household." (p. 67).
For other recent social history in this area, cf.Stephanie Coontz: The Social Origins of Private Life and The Way We Never Were - American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.
1999: Men’s studies on the web
On the Internet, men and masculinities debate and research has increased its presence. In January 1999, a good search program (like Copernic) lists 78 sites with “masculinities” and 47 with “IASOM”. Listed sites include institutions, networks, organisations and individual home pages. We’ve mailed the Newsletter to some relevant but missing (in the IASOM data base) sites like the feminist organisation Agenda in South Africa and the Men and masculinities section in the US psychologists’ association (APA division 151). Browsing through the search results, some tendencies emerge:
• The growth of men’s studies is reflected on the web, especially in countries like Sweden, the US, Germany, Australia, South Africa. For example, the German Men’s Studies Task Group (Arbeitskreises Kritische Männerforschung) has its own web site, where you can get news and reviews.
• The links are improving – especially, Sweden and Finland have good links pages to men’s movements and studies, although these are mostly to sites in the Nordic region.
• Most pages are non-interactive text pages and graphically fairly boring, ‘under construction’ or similar. Some are becoming good, like the Pro-Feminist European Men’s site.
• Lack of site sophistication contributes to low visit rates. I was visitor no. 1088 to an issue (2/97) of the Swedish Mens Studies Newsletter, a counter told me. A thousand readers per Newsletter at a Swedish-language site is in one perspective fairly good. Yet there are four million men in Sweden. Compared to busy parts of the internet, most sites have moderate to low traffic. For research-relevant areas in an increasingly commercialised web, however, this response rate may be fairly good.
• Other overviews exist. Q Web, Sweden, has a page headed ‘"Male involvement" - what can be found on the Internet? - excerpts from information available on the Internet October 1998’ – by Bengt Estborn, Q Web Sweden - Women’s Empowerment Base,e-mail:estborn@kvinnoforum.se. Estborn writes:
• “Surveys of Internet the last few years have shown a rapid increase of web pages dealing with “male involvement”. They call for action to promote equality for women and men and to counteract violence in the family and in the society. Two approaches can be recognized: organizations mainly dealing with family planning and reproductive health; and men’s groups joining in a dialogue for non-violence”.
IASOM is referenced by Q Web, the EU profeminist men’s movement, local-language pages in the Nordic countries, PsiNET in Spain (Guillermo Vilaseca), Kvinfo (Denmark), and various home pages throughout the world (thank you!)
• possible case of confusion: one lone page lists “del Bollettino IASOM (International Association of Studies for Popular Music)”...well...
• There are US “Free men’s reading rooms” and women’s networks pointing to IASOM.
• In all, however, the IASOM site is not well known or referenced.
The category “masculinities” is referenced in UN sites (Unesco peace culture program), in education sites (like a Master of Arts studies program), and in publications like Masculinities and Identities by David Buchbinder (“Opinion: ‘Masculinities and Identities provides refreshing reminders of the relevance of theory, and of the fact that it is possible to write cultural studies text books whose clarity and accessibility are measures of scholarship as well as of sound pedagogy.’ Joe Grixti, Imago). A bookstore like Amazon.com has 8 hits.
· Also, neighborhood areas of research like youth studies are starting to use the term, e.g. an ad for the book Boys; Masculinities in Contemporary Culture, Paul Smith.
· This includes fairly specialised history subdisciplines eg the journal Victorian Studies (founding editors Michael Wolff, Philip Appleman, and William Madden).
· Also we find cultural studies books like UNDERSTANDING MASCULINITIES - Social Relations and Cultural Arenas Mairtin Mac An Ghaill (ed.), Department of Education, University of Birmingham.
· There are a few masculinities biographies on the net. Search for these words, but also men’s books and similar. Research instruments like Michael Flood’s The Men’s Bibliography can be found on the web. Studies of men booklists also exist, with references to works like Becoming Male in the Middle Ages edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.
· Old-timers have often updated. For example, the pioneer magazine Achilles heel discusses masculinities at their web site, as does XY in Australia.
· The Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity profile themselves on the web as a common concern about men kind of group which incidentally is also a chapter of the American Psychologists’ Association. I find this interesting from a research politics angle. I don’t know if they require member cards or what, but this kind of profiling is clearly a way old-time organisations can renew themselves and attract new interest, membership, debate and research. On the web, organisations branch off into networking, which however is usually of a cross-disciplinary nature, and since this is increasingly where things are happening, they must find new ways to adapt.
· More specialised references also appear, like Anne Allen and Carol S. Ivory (US), The colonial experience and its impact on Pacific Island art, which uses the masculinities category among others. Or, for overviews, works like Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities; Freud and Beyond by Nancy J. Chodorow.
· Also, a number of individual researchers’ university pages are included, like Catherine Robson, Assistant Professor of English, Berkeley or Oxford. Among prestigeous organisational listings, one would suppose, is The Britannica-Newsweek Online Guide, which is also useful for reviews.
· This site includes reviews like Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities and Social Space in Late Twentieth-Century Britain (review by Nigel Rapport of Frank Mort’s Cultures of Consumption (1996), published by H-SAE in April 1997); Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome; review by Helen Parkins of Maud W. Gleason’s Making Men (1995), published by H-Italy in February 1997); Manhood in America: A Cultural History Review by Natalie Coulter of Michael Kimmel’s Manhood in America (1995), published by H-PCAACA in May 1997); Medieval Masculinities: Heroism, Sanctity, and Gender. Georgetown University Hypertext essay by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen describing and analyzing the thread of Medieval masculinity on the Interscripta discussion list.
· There are job vacancies as well: a RESEARCH ASSISTANT is wanted at the Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, for the project Emergent Identities: Masculinities and 11-14 Year-Old Boys (3 year fixed term contract).
The overall impression is one of a broadening field, with research lists and sites, in areas like representation studies and organisational studies. New things appear also, like a fresh December 1998 book notice for Masculinities; An Anthropology Of Football, Polo And Tango, by Eduardo Archetti (Antropology, Univ of Oslo).
Yet compared with the web or research world at large, we are still very much in the micro league. Compare the following “Stop Press!” news from the Australian XY magazine site:
“XY is taking a break. But we intend to come back! Due to staffing problems XY is going to take a short break from producing a hard copy magazine. While we work out how to solve our problems we will remain active on this web site”.
Debate
1998 – a year of split reception?
“Staffing problems”, “research problems” or “money problems” – the problems are the same the world over, although variously represented according to the phase and local circumstances of men’s studies development. A common theme is the endless circle made by these three kinds of problems, so that even if some eager soul has one or two of them, the third always slips away, like a musical chairs game, landing between the chairs. You got the financing but where are the researchers now? Or vice versa: you got the researcher but why haven’t you heard from any possible employer or publisher in this area in months? Or: you got both, but there are nevertheless some larger agenda that mysteriously snaps them away...
So for example, no large international research projects were launched in the field in 1998, although networking and cooperation and much else showed much activity. The only large representative national study of men I know of was done in Norway by a private company (the liberal newspaper Dagbladet).
The new good-will towards pro-feminist or critical men’s studies in many regions does not right away translate into an active field, although partial progress is being made. The institutional progress made by men’s studies in 1998 was not very impressive from one angle, consideration what needs to be done, but also significant, in other respects. The way from masculinities studies to power and decision-making may be less long than many imagine.
I think IASOM should support this dialogue, while retaining ‘the free voice of science’ – contaminated enough as it is, etc. – as our main line of approach. IASOM is critical while also affirmative to men, based on principles that concern men’s gender visibility and ability to relate to others in egalitarian and mutually respectful ways. This incudes the need to help and reach out to men who may be not so keen on “equal status” or the competetive edge of feminism, but are mostly, on some level, seeking to rework the pains and oppressions of patriarchal history and male-dominant culture. Our job is not simply to be critical, not only empathic, but ‘participational’ from many angles, and for developing this, men’s studies need to develop its diversity and relational orientation.
With improved top contacts, the problems of current theories of men and masculinities also become clearer further down the global social scale, calling for new forms of analysis, discussion and problem-solving. Starting from the top, what would happen if diplomats and politicians started relating more openly as men? What if this by itself perhaps ‘very traditional’ element was focused in a gender egalitarian context? This is one recent approach for example in work life studies (cf. Gerd Lindgren, U Stockholm; Hanne Heen, WRI, Oslo). Class analysis becomes relevant once more, yet not quite in the old formulation, since a third party, women and the sphere of reproduction, are now setting the agenda in many new ways.
Can men’s studies help reduce violence for example in South Africa? Can it become relevant to solving the problems of poor men, unemployed men, or men whose existence has been negated by ‘Western materialism’ developments? It cannot do so only by declaring that gender is important also for men. It cannot do so only by going into culture and symbols and when men differ from women. It has to move to the symbols that attract, that engage men’s activities, including the symbols of power and wealth. It has to look at how men have oppressed each other, and not only women, through the ages, and to use a realist approach to this in our own society, dismantling the myth that gender equal status exists already, while at the same time recognising that there is not only ‘gender war’, some has been achieved, there are ‘peace zones’ also.
On the one hand, new themes brought up by men’s studies are making an impact on overall ideas of social change. This process is now becoming more visible in parts of the research world. On the other hand, there is not yet any general social reformulation of men’s roles. In science as well as in society at large what rules instead is still the auto-linking of masculinity and power, a ‘male norm’, a ‘hegemonic’ order which is seemingly just neutrally rational - and yet a form of masculinity. The force to undo this link, in favour not only of women’s rights but also men’s free choice, does not yet exist. Creating it will be a long uphill climb, judging from experiences in the 90s, and we should plan for this scenario I believe, even if we don’t stop looking at ways faster progress can be made. Hegemonic masculinity is in some ways in a crisis. Yet it tends to reinforce patriarchal mechanisms, even if contrary tendencies are somewhat more visibile. These, however, seem to enhance problems of men’s self-oppression, as outwards dividing lines are becoming more internal, with increasing relational perception.
Together, these factors block a ‘mass emigration’ to the standpoint of proegalitarian or profeminist or critical men’s studies in the world of social and cultural science. And in fact, the field would be unready for such a shift. There are smaller ‘snowball’ tendencies today already - IASOM gets one member from eg. South Africa, and soon gets many, and in principle, such contacts should mean quite a lot, since the shift we’re discussing is relevant for most fields of research. What we should plan for, then, is to develop quality and diversity today, in order to be able to accommodate and act positively in the coming, and probably larger, changes tomorrow.
Øystein Gullvåg Holter
What to do when you don’t agree
(1) I think someone else should edit this newsletter.
Give us a signal and a reason why, and we’ll publish it for a hearing.
(Use email if possible - see page 2)
(2) I think some of your stuff is not so good, namely:
................
................
(reasons why)
....................
...................
(3) I want more of
........................
........................
(reasons why)
......................
......................
(4) I would personally like to contribute to IASOM organisational development in the following areas
......................
........................
Your participation is needed for IASOM’s electronic democracy.... or even the free voice of science.... If we don’t hear anything, we’ll assume you’re happy with the way things are run, so consider sending in “something”.
Membership application and contact list information
The International Association for Studies of Men (started in 1993) is an independent, interdisciplinary researchers' initiative for developing gender equality studies of men and masculinities on an international level.
You can support the IASOM initiative by registering as a member of our networking association, and you are also welcome as a contact on our mailing list.
You can also use this form for address changes, etc.
Name:
.................................................................................
Address:
................................................................................
.......................................................Country .................
Phone:....................................... Fax:.......................................
E-mail............................................. Web address:.................................
Register as : __ New member __ New contact __ Change of information
Occupation ................................ Academic degree..................
Main publications: .................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Main research interests/topics:
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
I think IASOM should emphasize:
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
These people may be interested in the IASOM Newsletter:
Name ....................................................................................
Address.................................................................................
..............................................................................................
Name .....................................................................................
Address.................................................................................
.............................................................................................
Mail to:
The IASOM Newsletter
c/o Ø G Holter
The Work Research Institute
Box 8171,
Dep. 0034 Oslo, Norway
