Men
Doing Feminism (Thinking
Gender)
by
Tom Digby (Editor)
"Tom Digby has put together a fine volume of diverse voices
on the question of males doing feminist thought in the U.S.
Avoiding the pitfalls of naive identity politics and standpoint
escapism, the contributors explore the topic as a set of
problems through which theoretical, political, moral, and
existential commitments can be forged.." --
Lewis R. Gordon, Brown University
""The wonderfully diverse entries in this volume
investigate the tensions between feminism and manhood, engaging
the personal and the political, the moral and the
epistemological. The authors' explorations of the strengths and
weaknesses of male subject position challenge simplistic
interpretations both of the subject/object distinction and of
epistemologies based directly on social identities. This
collection makes an original and substantive contribution to
feminist theory."." -- Alison M. Jaggar University
of Colorado, Boulder
The relation between feminism and men is often presumed to be
antagonistic, so that men are expected to resist feminism, and
feminists are assumed to hate men. That pattern of opposition is
disrupted, however, by the continually increasing numbers of men
who are participating in feminist theory and practice, trying to
integrate feminist perspectives into their scholarship,
teaching, work, play, friendships, and romantic involvements.
Responses to this male feminism have varied. Sometimes male
feminists find some female feminists critical of men who oppose
or decline to join feminist projects, but also rebuff the few
men who do undertake feminist projects. On the other hand, some
women feminists have unequivocally welcomed men as allies in
political, business, religious, and academic contexts. The
essays in Men Doing Feminism reveal that there is justification
for both views, the skeptical and the enthusiastic, because
feminist men are as diverse as feminist women.
Many of the eighteen contributors to this
book--women, men, blacks, whites, gays, straights,
transsexuals--use personal narrative to show ways that men's
lives can shape their approaches to doing feminism and to convey
the opportunities and challenges involved in integrating
feminism into a man's life. Some authors argue that men's
experiences prepare them to make contributions that are of
crucial importance to feminist theory. Others argue that men
must radically reform, or even abandon manhood and masculinity
if they are to be feminists.
In Men Doing Feminism, feminist theory is used
to illuminate men's lives, and men's lives serve as a basis for
feminist theory.
Contributors: Michael Awkward, Susan Bordo,
Harry Brod, Tom Digby, Judith K. Gardiner, C. Jacob Hale, Sandra
Harding, Patrick Hopkins, Joy James, David Kahane, Michael
Kimmel, Gary Lemons, Larry May, Brian Pronger, Henry Rubin,
Richard Schmitt, James P. Sterba, Laurence Mordekhai Thomas, and
Thomas E. Wartenberg.
About the Author
Tom Digby teaches philosophy at Springfield College. His
articles on feminist theory and other subjects have been
published widely and he serves on the executive board of the
Society for the Study of Women Philosophers and has also been
active in the Society for Women in Philosophy.
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