I think spending a lot of time reading/thinking about Reeves (who I appreciate as somebody who cares about this deeply, but who I also struggle with) that also helped me get to the "we do need to talk to men specifically, but not about how to be men" camp. I realized that where I find a lot of his work to be the weakest (as in his gap ye…
I think spending a lot of time reading/thinking about Reeves (who I appreciate as somebody who cares about this deeply, but who I also struggle with) that also helped me get to the "we do need to talk to men specifically, but not about how to be men" camp. I realized that where I find a lot of his work to be the weakest (as in his gap year proposals) it's where he gets the most essentialist/biological and also when he most accepts the right's "boys and men are under attack" framing every time women and trans people try to point out what's unworkable about the moment. How about you?
I don’t have anything this thoughtful to reply with, I wish that I did! I think I feel basically the same (esp regarding essentialism) but would love to hear people like you and Ruth on this. Unsurprisingly I worry that girls and women’s rights are under historic and wide scale attack rn and think about how to balance that with concerns about boys too. And Ofc they are intertwined! But also men are still are in charge of…almost everything. So the ways they are “left behind” sometimes feel should be more nuanced.
Just saying if you ever write a post related I would eat it up :)
Yeah, it's a complicated needle to thread-- one thing I haven't quite figured out how to articulate (definitely to other cis men) is how good faith encounters with feminism and feminist thinkers, far from delivering a message of attack or diminishment-- has felt (for me and others) like such a gift, like a key to helping me understand relationships, my and other's walk in the world, etc.
I think spending a lot of time reading/thinking about Reeves (who I appreciate as somebody who cares about this deeply, but who I also struggle with) that also helped me get to the "we do need to talk to men specifically, but not about how to be men" camp. I realized that where I find a lot of his work to be the weakest (as in his gap year proposals) it's where he gets the most essentialist/biological and also when he most accepts the right's "boys and men are under attack" framing every time women and trans people try to point out what's unworkable about the moment. How about you?
I don’t have anything this thoughtful to reply with, I wish that I did! I think I feel basically the same (esp regarding essentialism) but would love to hear people like you and Ruth on this. Unsurprisingly I worry that girls and women’s rights are under historic and wide scale attack rn and think about how to balance that with concerns about boys too. And Ofc they are intertwined! But also men are still are in charge of…almost everything. So the ways they are “left behind” sometimes feel should be more nuanced.
Just saying if you ever write a post related I would eat it up :)
Yeah, it's a complicated needle to thread-- one thing I haven't quite figured out how to articulate (definitely to other cis men) is how good faith encounters with feminism and feminist thinkers, far from delivering a message of attack or diminishment-- has felt (for me and others) like such a gift, like a key to helping me understand relationships, my and other's walk in the world, etc.
Well this is another essay I would love to read :)