Are you a man who majored in business because it interested you or because you felt it would lead to a great career? That may be an unhealthy form of masculinity, according to a series of seminars coming next week from the Vanderbilt University Women’s Center.
Yes, you read that correctly: A women’s center seems to be telling men how they should and should not behave. Imagine the outrage if a male-dominated group attempted to tell women how they should and should not behave. You don’t have to imagine, just remember all the anger that comes whenever a man speaks up about abortion. (Well, this actually happens only to the men who don’t agree with feminists on abortion.)
The Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center at Vanderbilt will host a week of seminars exploring “healthy masculinity through various lenses: American society, the gay and bisexual community, fraternities and more.” The first event, taking place on Thursday, Sep. 10, is called “The Macho Paradox: Why some men hurt and how all men can help.”
The Media Research Center points out that the host of this discussion, Jackson Katz, is the author of a book with a similar title: The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help.
Other seminars include discussions about “policing masculinity in the gay and bi communities” and “the portrayal of manhood in ‘Magic Mike.'” For those who don’t know, “Magic Mike” is a movie starring Channing Tatum about a male stripper trying to pursue his real dream of furniture-making while mentoring a younger male stripper. The Internet Movie Database says there’s drugs and womanizing in the film. I don’t know, I never had any interest in seeing it.
Anyway, the advertisement for this week-long event features the silhouette of a man with a thought bubble that reads: “Don’t cry,” “have sex,” “major in business,” “play sports” and “man up.” As if this is what all guys think makes someone a man.
“Allegedly, these are examples of unhealthy masculinity,” wrote Ashley Rae Goldenberg of MRC.
Also, is having sex, majoring in business and playing sports bad now? Should men stop doing these things? This sounds more like generalization than anything else. Are the organizers suggesting that men who don’t cry, who have sex, who major in business and/or who play sports are harmful to society?
Perhaps some men who do those things are not great guys, but to suggest that entire groups of men are harmful based on some activities is, well, sexist.
The Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center at Vanderbilt did not respond to a Washington Examiner request for comment prior to press time. It also didn’t respond to MRC, despite the original article being posted on Monday.
Update: Rory Dicker, the director of the center, provided the Examiner with the following comment regarding the events in an email:
“Because a university is a place dedicated to critical thinking, having a week devoted to an exploration of masculinity will allow the Vanderbilt community to think about how boys and men are pressured to behave, and to consider that sometimes masculine norms, some of which are illustrated in the poster promoting the week’s events, harm men, who aren’t always taught that emotional vulnerability, cooperation, and sensitivity are valuable human traits.”
