Reddit reviews Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements (Gender Lens Series)

I'm just a lowly anthro grad student but there are PhD candidates studying how the narrow definition of "manliness" has serious negative consequences for the emotional, mental, and physical health of men.

I'd link to the specific article if I could but Michael Messner wrote a book called Politics of Masculinities that explores this.

Short answer: Yes, he probably did.

No. The MRM's sole tenet from it's very inception is to be a backlash to feminism.

The men's rights movement (MRM) is a social movement and part of the larger men's movement. It branched off from the men's liberation movement in the early 1970s over its rejection of feminism. The MRM is considered to be a backlash to the feminist movement.

In the Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements By Michael A. Messner , the creation and motivating reasons for the creation of the MRM (as we know it now) are discussed and substantiated with multiple sources. see pages 41 42 43 44 and 45


Further suggested reading would be

Contemporary Perspectives on Masculinity: Men, Women, and Politics in Modern Society by Kenneth C. Clatterbaugh



(FTR Feminist can be and often are men, also feminists have and continue to work with Men's Liberationists as they are not anti-feminist. )

> “Visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. It is rooted in the love of male and female being, refusing to privilege one over the other. The soul of feminist politics is the commitment to ending patriarchal domination of women and men, girls and boys. Love cannot exist in any relationship that is based on domination and coercion. Males cannot love themselves in patriarchal culture if their very self-definition relies on submission to patriarchal rules. When men embrace feminist thinking and preactice, which emphasizes the value of mutual growth and self-actualization in all relationships, their emotional well-being will be enhanced. A genuine feminist politics always brings us from bondage to freedom, from lovelessness to loving.”

>― bell hooks

I don't feel comfortable linking the article completely, but it says almost word-for-word what /u/throwawayison said in a much more academic format (of course). The abstract is definitely an apt description of the content. Amazon lets you look inside the book where some of the article's material was previous published. Not sure if that helps.