Politics of Masculinities

This is a timely and lively book that illuminates not only what different groups of men think about gender but how they actually perform gender in their daily lives..... -- Verta Taylor, Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara * Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society *
It stands out from a good deal of the sociological work on masculinity. -- Sean Nixon * British Journal of Sociology *
<Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements is an insightful and progressive sociological analysis of the wide range of men's movement discourse and practice in the contemporary United States. As such it serves as an excellent introduction of its subject for students and scholars, and it will likely become a standard text in undergraduate courses on critical studies of masculinities.... * American Studies *
Messner (sociology, Univ. of Southern California) describes eight recent men's movements in the U.S.: Christian Promise Keepers, Mythopoetic 'Iron John' masculinity, the Men's Liberation Movement, the Men's Rights Movement, Radical Feminist Men, Socialist Feminist Men, Racialized Masculinity Politics, and Gay Male Liberation. He positions the movements on different areas within a triangular-shaped diagram he calls 'the terrain of masculinity politics.' The three angles of the diagram represent institutionalized male privileges; the costs to men of masculinity; and the differences and inequalities among men. He later places his hoped-for future men's movement (which he perceives as a multicultural feminism) in an extension of this triangle and perceptively probes the strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions within and between the movements. A lucid, jargon-free overview of recent American men's reactions to feminism. All levels.. -- R.W. Smith, (California State University, Northridge) * CHOICE *
Messner (sociology, Univ. of Southern California) describes eight recent men's movements in the U.S.: Christian Promise Keepers, Mythopoetic 'Iron John' masculinity, the Men's Liberation Movement, the Men's Rights Movement, Radical Feminist Men, Socialist Feminist Men, Racialized Masculinity Politics, and Gay Male Liberation. He positions the movements on different areas within a triangular-shaped diagram he calls 'the terrain of masculinity politics.' The three angles of the diagram represent institutionalized male privileges; the costs to men of masculinity; and the differences and inequalities among men. He later places his hoped-for future men's movement (which he perceives as a multicultural feminism) in an extension of this triangle and perceptively probes the strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions within and between the movements. A lucid, jargon-free overview of recent American men's reactions to feminism. All levels. -- R.W. Smith, (California State University, Northridge) * CHOICE *
This is a timely and lively book that illuminates not only what different groups of men think about gender but how they actually perform gender in their daily lives. -- Verta Taylor, Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara * Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society *
is an insightful and progressive sociological analysis of the wide range of men's movement discourse and practice in the contemporary United States. As such it serves as an excellent introduction of its subject for students and scholars, and it will likely become a standard text in undergraduate courses on critical studies of masculinities. * American Studies *