Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!ucivax!gateway
From: lunde@casbash.acns.nwu.edu (Albert Lunde)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Feminism, Masculism?
Message-ID: <2521@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 91 15:39:58 GMT
References: <1991Jan4.041605.23467@evax.arl.utexas.edu>
Organization: Northwestern University
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In article <1991Jan4.041605.23467@evax.arl.utexas.edu>
persons@evax.arl.utexas.EDU (Mike Persons) writes:
> My broad definition of "Feminism": A philosophy (maybe not the best
> word) of attempting to guide society to change so as to be more humane
> to women.

I would suggest that feminism is a collection of ideologies
distingushed by recognizing the oppression of women and being shaped
and informed by the *experience of* women.

Different brands of feminism may be interpreted as being benificial to
men and women or to women only. In any case the position of men is
marginal since they learn about the experience of women second hand.
(I like to think of myself as a feminist, but other may disagree.)

Men may or may not benifit from feminism in some narrow sense, but we
have something to learn from it, perhaps different things than women
most need to learn.

I would like to call to people's attention the tenth anniversary issue
of "Changing Men".

It looks like the "Men's Movement" is generating some serious
self-reflective (& pro-feminist) thought which goes beyond the new
stereotypes and grumbles that developed in its onset.  (I've followed
it intermittently and am impressed by the changes.)

One article talked about the definition of a form of "men's studies"
that would be complimentary and supportive of "women's studies". (This
distingushed it from the sort of "men's studies" that are the bulk of
the academia.)  As I recall, the idea was looking at the social
costruction of men's roles; as"women's studies" looks at the social
construction of women's roles.

Another interesting item were multiple reviews of "Refusing to be a
Man" by John Stollenberg (?).