{"id":1183,"date":"2016-03-28T13:39:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T11:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2016-03-28T13:39:17","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T11:39:17","slug":"of-men-masculinities-studies-and-the-grassroots-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/2016\/03\/28\/of-men-masculinities-studies-and-the-grassroots-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"OF MEN\u2026 : MASCULINITIES STUDIES AND THE GRASSROOTS REALITY <\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll refer here to an article by Alejandra Agudo published in El Pa\u00eds<\/em> on March 18th: \u201cHablan los \u2018nuevos\u2019 hombres. Son feministas, igualitarios, cuidadores. Paco Abril, Octavio Salazar y Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Lozoya defienden una sociedad m\u00e1s justa en la que ellos pierden poder\u201d (http:\/\/elpais.com\/elpais\/2016\/03\/18\/planeta_futuro\/1458333179_184806.html<\/a>). These three men were participants in the conference celebrated at the Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Paternidades que transforman (http:\/\/aitak.deusto.es\/<\/a>), hence their joint interview. I know Paco Abril from the seminars held by the research group I have worked with in the last four years, \u2018Constructing New Masculinities\u2019 (http:\/\/www.ub.edu\/masculinities\/<\/a>), and I have a great deal of respect for him. He is a sociologist and a teacher at the Universitat de Girona and, above all, a pro-feminist activist for equality, the president of the Catalan branch of AHIGE (Asociaci\u00f3n de Hombres por la Igualdad de G\u00e9nero, http:\/\/www.ahige.org\/<\/a>). I had never heard of Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Lozoya, a member of the Red de Hombres por la Igualdad (http:\/\/www.redhombresigualdad.org\/web\/<\/a>) who defines himself as \u201chousehusband, sexologist and gender specialist\u201d. The name of Octavio Salazar, who teaches law at the Universidad de C\u00f3rdoba, is more familiar, perhaps because he also writes for El Pa\u00eds<\/em>. <\/p>\n

I find nothing particularly controversial in the article, which essentially confirms the impression that while the number of men who defend equality in their private lives is (slowly) increasing, men\u2019s public activism is extremely limited. Men like Abril, Lozoya and Salazar do not represent, then, a recognizable movement but appear to be, rather, inhabitants of tiny islands of equality in a vast sea of inequality (excuse the corny metaphor). The sad, sad thing is that you needn\u2019t go very far to see the enormous resistance they face: you just have to read the readers\u2019 comments added to the article at the bottom of the webpage. Remember this is El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, supposedly a progressive newspaper read by liberal-minded persons. <\/p>\n

There are very few positive comments, perhaps about 5 in a discussion amounting to 178 comments, and I must note that the most virulent opinions have been erased by whoever in El Pa\u00eds<\/em> monitors this kind of exchange. I have highlighted a few sentences, all by men, except where indicated; if you allow me, I\u2019ll leave them in the original Spanish version, for the \u2018castizo\u2019, \u2018machista\u2019 nuances not to be lost in translation:<\/p>\n

*Teniendo en cuenta lo que significa hoy en d\u00eda el t\u00e9rmino \u2018feminista\u2019, un hombre que se defina como \u2018feminista\u2019… no es un hombre. (original ellipsis)
\n*Esos hombres no representan a los hombres ni a la igualdad. Son un instrumento al servicio del feminismo m\u00e1s radical. (\u2026) En realidad, quienes defienden la igualdad de los hombres y los derechos de estos son los activistas por los derechos de los hombres o masculinistas.
\n*(\u2026) Los retos de los nuevos tiempos nos deben de hacer reaccionar para no perder nuestro estatus y nuestra posici\u00f3n de privilegio en la sociedad. (\u2026) \u00bfNuevos hombres? no es mas que otra patra\u00f1a de las que quieren desplazarnos de la esfera de poder para ser ocupada por ellas. (\u2026)
\n*Y digo yo, \u00bfa Lozoya, las mujeres le endurecen la …..????
\n*[by a woman] (\u2026) como mujer me gustan los varones hombres, sin cortapisas, ni melandros(sic)… la masculinidad es un valor en baja… Creo en la igualdad, no en la estupidez y lo digo como mujer que cada d\u00eda lucha por ello, pero seriamente. (original ellipses)
\n*Lo que llegan a hacer algunos para ligar …
\n*(\u2026) si estos t\u00edos quieren luchar por la igualdad de derechos, que se pongan a a luchar por una ley de divorcio justa para los hombres (\u2026) no veo a los colectivos feministas protestar por esto, ni por las denuncias falsas de maltrato, m\u00e1s del 80% de los casos, \u00a1\u00a1es incre\u00edble!! (\u2026)
\n*Se\u00f1ores, d\u00e9jense de feminismos y de odiarse a s\u00ed mismos. No necesitan expiar sus pecados de var\u00f3n, ya son buenos hombres porque s\u00ed, no por la luz salvadora del feminismo.
\n*\u00bfEst\u00e1n siendo los hombres lo que de verdad desean ser o es el feminismo el que decide lo que debe ser un hombre? Parece haber un sentimiento de culpa derivado de una reducci\u00f3n de los hombres a machistas, maltratadores, violadores… que no deja libertad de elecci\u00f3n. Me parece igualmente triste esa representaci\u00f3n de una masculinidad obediente, bondadosa y dulce, que vive m\u00e1s pendiente del reconocimiento de su buena conducta que de su verdad. (original ellipsis)
\n*La masculinidad nunca ha abusado ni de la mujer ni de nadie. La paternidad comprometida ha sido lo \u00fanico que ha movido a los hombres de todas las generaciones. (\u2026)
\n*\u00bfY \u00e9stos marcianos de que pa\u00eds vienen?
\n*Me parece muy respetable que estos se\u00f1ores sigan un \u2018modelo\u2019 de vida acorde a sus ideas. Yo defender\u00e9 el derecho que tienen a seguir ese modelo. Tambi\u00e9n supongo, y espero, que estos se\u00f1ores y los medios de comunicaci\u00f3n desde donde se expande este ideario actuen con el mismo rasero y defiendan el derecho de los que no quieran seguir ese ideal.<\/p>\n

These readers\u2013and, please note that each passage corresponds to a different reader\u2013 might not represent all the Spanish defenders of patriarchy out there. It might well be, besides, that their in-your-face tone is deterrent enough for other men and women to express their anti-patriarchal views. I myself see no point in attracting plenty of negative energy by sending comments to this type of forum\u2013yes, a bit cowardly of me. Yet I have come across the same or similar points in so many comments in different newspapers that I firmly believe they do represent our local reality too well. What is most disarming is the recalcitrance, by which I mean the impossibility of addressing these men in rational dialogue. I still have hopes that men like Abril, Lozoya and Salazar\u2013and others like Luis Bonino and Miguel Lorente\u2013can reach men in a way that feminist women cannot but I had not realized how much courage their task requires.<\/p>\n

Recently, I tried to explain over a long coffee to a (male) colleague just arrived in the field of Masculinities Studies what these aim at and how little we have progressed. He was a bit alarmed, I must say, at my bleak panorama but I want nonetheless to reaffirm the (utopian?) ideas I am defending from my position. Unlike many other women who simply misunderstand what feminism is about\u2013the struggle for equal rights\u2013I have no problem to declare myself a feminist. I do not believe, however, that women can reach equality without men\u2019s participation in a wide-ranging anti-patriarchal struggle. I preach to whomever listens that the common enemy is not masculinity but patriarchy, a social organization based on hierarchy conditioned by the individual\u2019s degree of power and so insidious that its biggest triumph is making us believe there is no alternative to it. Yet, there is: a society based on equality among all citizens in which the will to help and not the will to power is the main aim. Sorry to sound so hippy.<\/p>\n

I believe that we women have been thinking and doing for decades plenty to try to enjoy a better life but that we are facing enormous obstacles which have to do with women\u2019s own complicity with patriarchy but, above all, with men\u2019s lack of a clear anti-patriarchal agenda. In times when the patriarchal agenda is crystal clear and gaining adepts all over the world\u2013think DAESH\u2013the lack of a well-defined anti-patriarchal front is our worse enemy, both in the private and the public front. In the private front, it seems obvious to me that legislation is far from helping to stop the daily terrorist attacks committed against women and children by patriarchal abusers (I\u2019m horrified to see that right here in my city the Maristas have chosen to defend rather than accuse the teachers who abused so many very young students in their schools). In the public front, it is simply not very clear on behalf of what we are fighting DAESH, for, if it\u2019s human rights, then the refugee crisis sweeping Europe from East to West shows that nobody really cares to defend these rights. For all these I am using a good deal of my academic energy to insist that men have to become not (just) feminists but anti-patriarchal activists. It is my belief that if men are made aware of how evil patriarchy is and they embrace an anti-patriarchal stance then, automatically, they also become defenders of equality (pro-feminist) and the bane of any abuser. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not, then, not only for me as a feminist to criticize and attack the men (and women) who have written the appalling comments I have reproduced here, nor for other women: men are the ones who should say \u2018enough is enough\u2019, patriarchy cannot and should not define masculinity for there are much better ways of being a man. Gentlemen: you are all invited to join the anti-patriarchal fight. Begin by freeing yourselves from the monster holding you down. <\/p>\n

Comments are very welcome! (Thanks!) Just remember that I check them for spam; it might take a few days for yours to be available. Follow on Twitter the blog updates: @SaraMartinUAB. You may download the yearly volumes from http:\/\/ddd.uab.cat\/record\/116328. See my publications and activities on my personal web http:\/\/gent.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll refer here to an article by Alejandra Agudo published in El Pa\u00eds on March 18th: \u201cHablan los \u2018nuevos\u2019 hombres. Son feministas, igualitarios, cuidadores. Paco Abril, Octavio Salazar y Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Lozoya defienden una sociedad m\u00e1s justa en la que ellos pierden poder\u201d (http:\/\/elpais.com\/elpais\/2016\/03\/18\/planeta_futuro\/1458333179_184806.html). These three men were participants in the conference celebrated at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categoria","tag-gender-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}