Misframing Men
ISBN: 9780813549750
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Rutgers University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Men in mass media.; Masculinity.; Men;

Sociology professor Kimmel (Guyland) is one of the co-founders of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism. In this collection of essays, he looks at "missteps on the way to redefining manhood" and dismisses "increasingly shrill assertions" of psycho-biological "Mars/Venus" differences between the genders. He not only examines the post-9/11 reassertion of "heroic and unapologetic masculinity," but also the aggressiveness of Bush-era foreign policy and financial rapacity. He deconstructs claims that women are driving males out of classrooms, attributing the differences in enrollment to class and race (college-bound whites, for instance, are split 50-50 along gender lines, but the ratio among blacks is approximately two to one). Kimmel sees trends both positive (in families where both parents work, men are increasingly taking on more responsibility and enjoying a closer relationship with their children) and negative (men express their newfound insecurity with homophobic jokes, for instance). Though he makes no effort to hide his own progressive politics, Kimmel offers an insightful, balanced view of the problems behind "me Tarzan, you Jane." (June) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

Michael Kimmel is a professor of sociology at SUNY, Stony Brook. A highly visible advocate for gender equality, he is the author of the celebrated Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men and Manhood in America , the definitive history of American masculinity, among other books, and is the founding editor of Men and Masculinities. He was among the founders of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism, now celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary.

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