Men and feminist criticism

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139167314.014

11 - Men and feminist criticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Calvin Thomas

Edited by

Gill Plain and

Susan Sellers

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Calvin Thomas: Affiliation:
Georgia State University
Gill Plain: Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Susan Sellers: Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland

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Summary

INTRODUCTION: AT THE MERCY OF LANGUAGE

If ‘men and feminism’ share a complicated history, the complications may be thought to arise from the sheer impossibility of the relationship itself. After all, when Stephen Heath kicks off his contribution to Men in Feminism by stating that ‘Men's relation to feminism is an impossible one’ (1987: 1), the assertion seems transparent. For while feminism must by definition desire the end of systemic male dominance, domination apparently remains the largest part of ‘what it means to be a man’. As Heath points out, ‘no matter how “sincere,” “sympathetic” or whatever, we [men] are always also in a male position which brings with it all the implications of domination and appropriation, everything precisely that is being challenged, that has to be altered’ (1987: 1). Or, as John Stoltenberg puts it, ‘under patriarchy, the cultural norm of male identity consists in power, prestige, privilege, and prerogative as over and against the gender class women. That's what masculinity is. It isn't something else’ (1974/2004: 41). Hence the impossibility, the deadlock.

To foreground this deadlock is to begin on an unpromising note, and there's a certain bleak irony in thus commencing my account. For historical narration, at least in its modern sense, usually involves some notion of promise, some modicum of faith in progress, some hope for the ameliorative transformation of a social reality deemed inadequate in relation to some animating ideal of freedom, justice or equality.

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Type: Chapter
Information: A History of Feminist Literary Criticism , pp. 187 - 208

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139167314.014 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

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