... and ain't i a woman?: What is the threat?

Issue 

What is the threat?

By Kath Gelber

What exactly is it about women's equality that it is perceived as threatening male identity?

A large US poll which has tracked social attitudes for two decades, the Yankelovich Monitor survey, has revealed that the leading definition of "masculinity" for the last 20 years hasn't changed. During all the years of the second wave of feminism, the quality most associated with "masculinity" remained the same — being a good provider for his family.

But if being masculine depends on supporting a family, it is no wonder this is under attack. During the 1980s men's real wages shrank dramatically. The "traditional male breadwinner" has become an endangered species in the days of enterprise bargaining, increasing part-time work, less job security and economic rationalism.

These economic factors provide a real explanation for the feeling of some men that they are somehow being left behind by society. In terms of work opportunities, job security and quality leisure time, most of them — along with most women — are.

This seems kind of obvious. But this analysis has been sadly lacking in the establishment media or mainstream ideology. According to them, it's not the fault of economic rationalism or the way the system works to extract maximum profit at the expense of the quality of life of the vast majority. No, the answer is much simpler than that.

It's all the fault of those nasty feminists. They have prevented men from being "real men". In a backlash against the gains of feminism, blame for men's woes has been squarely laid at their feet. This has enabled real questions of economic equality and democracy to be covered up by the rhetoric of the backlash.

Such rhetoric is certainly prolific. The Institute of Men's Studies' convener, Alan Barron, says it is time to return to the days of yore: "Only a wholesale return to traditional roles will save and preserve the family unit in this country".

Bill Muehlenberg, the national secretary of the Australian Family Association, says, "There are some things that are simply done better by mothers and some by fathers" — arguing for a return to stereotypical gender roles.

In the US, the National Fatherhood Initiative is demanding a return to values for fathers such as the ability to contain emotions, to be decisive and to provide for their wife and children.

Such anti-feminist rhetoric isn't particularly new. But it is incessantly raised and re-raised in the establishment media — at times more blatantly, at times in more subtle modes. The effect is the same. It is an attempt to blame feminism for precisely what feminism is not.

Feminism has always been a movement that seeks to build equality between the sexes. Further, it seeks to ask broader and more fundamental questions about how society works, so that we can change it for the better. For everyone.

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