For decades we have devoted ample space to the deconstruction of women’s studies only to find that there is something even more inane being taught on American campuses—men’s studies.
This year, the American Men’s Studies Association (AMSA) held its annual convention in Tacoma, Washington. AMSA is dedicated to “advancing the critical study of men and masculinities.”
“Even though the association has been around for 22 years, and even though men’s studies dates back to at least the 1970s, outsiders still tend to greet it with derision and disbelief,” Tom Bartlett writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Imagine.
“Men’s studies is not men’s rights, which advocates for changes in, for example, child-custody laws,” Bartlett explains. “It is not the mythopoetic men’s movement of the 1990s, though influences from that movement linger.” We missed that movement.
“The collection of researchers is highly interdisciplinary: anthropologists, professors of medieval literature, along with therapists and residence-life staff members,” Bartlett reported after attending the annual AMSA conference. “The topics they study include the very general, like ‘What Do Men Really Want in Their Lives,’ and the very specific, like ‘Diaspora in a Gendered Sport: a Study on Chinese Gay Amateur Volleyball Players.’”
You may have already guessed that, “Men’s studies tends to be light on hard science,” as Bartlett relates. “If you’re eager to learn something about the inverse relationship between cortisol and testosterone, or about gender differences in episodic memory, you should look elsewhere.”
“If you want a genuinely interesting analysis of male chastity in the Twilight series of books and how that compares with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you’ve come to the right place.”
That’s not all: ...
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