WHAT IS A MAN?

by
Andrew Kimbrell © 2005
Author of The Masculine Mystique: The Politics of Masculinity

When each of us attempts to picture what a man is, our projections will likely be a somewhat confused hybrid of personal an associations. If we had a strong male presence in our childhood, our conception of the masculine may be colored by a family figure--father, uncle, husband, or brother. However, in that so many men for so many generations have been absent from the home people may not have a strong male family figure with whom to relate.

In the absence of a familial masculine image, the media have played a crucial role in defining modern masculinity. Author and media expert Jerry Mander reminds us that "we evolve into the images we carry in our minds. We become what we see." It is likely that most men and women have internalized a collage of simulated male images, ranging from the paterfamilias in Father Knows Best, to the destructive male machine, "the Terminator."

No matter how varied each of our individual responses, our collective masculine images are firmly stereotyped and have been for decades. These socially accepted versions of masculinity permeate the lives of boys and girls as they get older, and are set by the time we are adults and assume our economic and social roles. Research over the last quarter century has been near uniform in depicting our society's internalizes view of what makes a man and what makes a woman. Below is a representative list taken from United States survey's and research.

HE:(Masculine Mystique)

SHE: (Feminine Mystique)

More self-interested
Very competitive
Needs less intimacy
Needs less approval
Very active
Very objective
More independent
More logical
Often detached
Strong drive for power & Money
More manipulative
More machine-oriented
Never cries
Very ambitious
Talks mostly about things
Takes things literally
Engages in put-downs
Less responsive listener
Less apologetic
Less willing to seek help
Less interested in the arts and religion
Often intimidates others
Often seeks conflict
Thrives on receiving
More polygamous
More sadistic
More sex-oriented
Worries less about others
More aggressive
Initiates war More other-focused
Less competitive
Needs more intimacy
Needs more approval
More passive
Very subjective
Less independent
More irrational
Often emotional
Power & money less important
More cooperative
Less technically adept
Cries easily
Less ambitious
Talks mostly about people
Looks for hidden meanings
Engages in backbiting
More responsive listener
More apologetic
Seeks help readily
More interested in the arts and religion
Seldom intimidates others
Tends to avoid conflict
Thrives on giving
More monogamous
More masochistic
More love-oriented
Worries more about others
Less aggressive
Does not make war

It would be easy to point out numerous exceptions to these generalizations, and many of us are angered by the gross simplifications and stereotypes in this list. Nevertheless, surveys show that the composite gender traits presented above have for the most part become accepted in our society. When confronted with behavior that is overtly competitive, aggressive, dangerous, violent, insensitive, abusive, selfish, unemotional, hyperrational, or ambitious, we respond with "Just like a man!" When viewing behavior that is nurturing, selfless, overtly sensitive, passive, irrational, emotional, and intuitive, we tend not to think of men but rather of women.

Many women have of course challenged the prevalent types of modern gender consciousness. They have launched a three-decade-long assault on the "feminine mystique." Feminists have attacked stereotypes that destroy the rich diversity of feminine traits and archetypes They have relentlessly torn down defective modern myths about women that they see as limiting women's aspirations and effectively excluding women from personal growth and a share of power and financial opportunity.

Unfortunately few men or women have mounted a similar assault on the "masculine mystique" of our times. There have been few ''masculinists" to defend masculinity from the onslaught of the current stereotypical view of the male gender. There has been a remarkable silence about the ongoing destruction of the diversity of masculine traits and archetypes.

Yet the current masculine mystique reduces and limits male archetypes and potentialities at least as much as the mystique did those of women. The wide variety of masculine ideals of numerous past cultures have all but vanished. Gone is the premodern man, whether hunter-gatherer, farmer, or craftsman, who was steeped in family, land, community, and religion. The traditional masculine traits of generativity, stewardship generosity, teaching, husbandry, honor, and even adventure are virtually ignored. These traits have been largely replaced by self-interest, efficiency, power-seeking, promiscuity, greed, insensitivity, competition, manipulation, and the numerous other characteristics consistently listed as emblems of modern masculinity. Assuming these current characteristics to be the of masculinity inevitably leads to the degradation of men and an historic, if hidden, crisis in sustaining a wide viable and generative concept of masculinity itself.

The crisis undermining masculinity has now reached alarming proportions. Under the aegis of the masculine mystique, masculinity has become the "shadow" gender. This is especially apparent in the general view that many men and women have of male sexuality. Masculine sexuality has become routinely associated with promiscuity, rape, and violence. Phallic penetration is most often analogized to the destructive penetration of guns (bullets) and missiles. The concept of generative penetration, the phallus as seed bearer, similar to the creative penetration of planting seeds in the soil or communicating a penetrating idea, is almost never associated with masculine power in our culture but was commonplace in virtually all prior cultures. Men now hear that "the hurting of women is . . . basic to the sexual pleasure of men," (Andrea Dworkin) as well as the hair-raising statement that "all men are rapists and that's all they are." (Marlyn French)

Further, most of the world's woes, from violence and racism to war, the environmental crisis, and poverty, are seen as the direct result of masculine values. Feminist scholars and authors Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge document how the habit of blaming masculinity and men for all the problems of women and society has become endemic in Women's Studies courses at universities around the country. "Classical psychotherapy (like traditional motherhood) is a very demanding endeavor," they write. "But a sort of 'I'm OK-- you're OK, but men are horrible' variant of it is--as we have seen-- very popular in the pedagogy of Women's Studies. On this model women empower themselves by realizing that all their troubles result from patriarchy." One female student interviewed by Patai and Koertge describes her experience in a Women's Studies course:

The course was Introduction to Women's Studies.... The class made me think of a skit on Monty Python which involves a quiz show, except the answer to every question is "pork." And what-ever the quiz show host asks--for example, "What's the capital of Pennsylvania?"--the answer is "pork." In the class I took the answer was always "men . . " Who contributes to all the violence in the world?" "Men." "Who's responsible for everything we endure?" "Men." . . . I was involved with a man at the time, and I thought that he didn't fit their categories of what men were like. And I also saw him as having been pressed into stereotypes of his own..

Author Sally Miller Gearhart, former chairperson of the Department of Speech and Communication at San Francisco State University, takes masculinity bashing to disturbing heights when she prescribes three ''strategies . . . to create and preserve a less violent world, I) Every culture must affirm a female future. II) Species responsibility must be returned to women in every culture. III) The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10 percent of the human race."

Clearly we have come a long way from the traditional view of the complementary creativity of genders and seeing the phallus "tree" of creation. The masculine-mystique view of masculinity has led society into a general misandry, which matches the misogyny of prior generations.

Misandry is the general assumption that masculinity is the source of all our social ills. It is the sexist assumption that it is "natural" for any male person to be dominating, oppressive, violent sexually abusive, spiritually immature, and antagonistic to nature. It assigns blame solely to men for humanity's historic evils. It naturally leads to a hatred of men and masculinity.

From the book flyleaf:

American men are in crisis. We see the consequences all around us: the alarming increase in male unemployment and homelessness, punitive custody laws that deprive men of their children, and high-pressure competitive jobs that leave men vulnerable to stress-related diseases and substance abuse. As Andrew Kimbrell brilliantly shows, these are not the problems of "fringe"" groups or misfits, but of every man living and working in our society.
How did this happen? How have downward mobility, negative male stereotypes, and societal indifference converged to threaten men's very lives?
Andrew Kimbrell has seen the fear that men are living with and has heard their anxious voices. From the corporate executive facing downsizing to the disenfranchised African-American, Vietnam vet, and divorced father, men are in pain. In The Masculine Mystique, he traces the turbulent history that has brought men to this crisis. From the laws of enclosure that first separated men from their land centuries ago to the steep decline in real wages earned by American men in the last twenty years, Kimbrell explains the shifts that have steadily undermined men and created a destructive masculine mystique.
As a lawyer, activist, environmentalist, and father, Kimbrell urges men to mount a campaign of social, political, and community action. In this fiercely reasoned, deeply persuasive book, Kimbrell encourages men to stand up and demand a better life, a better world. Through stories of men who are working to better their condition, he gives us much-needed models. His political manifesto outlines the platform men need to adopt on a personal, legislative, and societal level. Because the time has come for men to act.

WHAT IS A MAN?