Kimmel: A Sturdy Oak

By Amanda Morris and Katherine Racicot | Wednesday, November 27, 2002

On Monday, November 4, Michael Kimmel gave a lec ure called 'Mars and Venus, or Planet Earth: Women and Men on Campus in a New Millennium.' Kimmel is a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is one of the nation's foremost scholars of the sociology of masculinity. His works include Manhood in America: A Cultural History and Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776-1990, a Documentary History. The lecture was hosted by the Men's Project, and co-sponsored by numerous campus organizations. The audience was comprised of approximately eighty-five people, a fair mix of men and women.

Kimmel began his talk by informing the audience that Dartmouth is one of the top ten most anti-male colleges in the country, alongside Brown, Columbia, and Georgetown. The criteria for this distinction include a strong women's studies program, enforcement of Title IX, and the implementation of a sexual assault awareness program. Schools that were decidedly pro-male included Davidson College and Washington and Lee University. He went on to discuss his theory, which is that men and women are 'neighboring sexes', and not opposite sexes. 'We are desperate to believe that we are fundamentally different, but we live the refutation of that every day,' Kimmel said.

According to Kimmel, in the past few decades there has been a change in the way women view men. Apparently that change has been overwhelmingly negative. For instance, in 1970, 2/3 of women thought that men were kind and considerate. In 2000, only forty-six percent of women agreed with that statement. In 1970, forty-nine percent of women believed that men's egos require that they put women down. In 2000, fifty-eight percent of women agreed with that statement. More women apparently also believe that men are selfish, and are only interested in their careers, than did women in 1970. Kimmel claims that men have not changed, but that women now expect more from men.

In the past thirty years, significant changes have occurred in women's lives. Kimmel cites four specific examples: women's entrance into the workforce, women trying to balance career and family, women's studies coursework, and the growth of sexual freedom.

Kimmel feels that the ideology behind manhood has not changed. He does, however, present four parallels to the four changes women have experienced, which are apparently the basic rules of manhood. The first rule is that there can be no behavior in a man that suggests a feminine nature, even in its smallest measure. Tying into this is the second rule, which states that men must be the breadwinner in the family. The third rule is the 'sturdy oak rule', mandating that men be reliable in a crisis by remaining unmoved. The fourth and final rule is the rule of aggression, which requires men to live on the edge. Anyone who breaks these rules cannot be considered a man, according to popular ideology.

The remainder of the lecture contained such observations as 'privilege keeps privilege invisible.' For example, the speaker shared a story about an experience in which he heard a white woman and a black woman talking. The white woman claimed that all women share the same situation in regards to discrimination regardless of color. The black woman said this was not true. She asked the white woman what she saw when she looked at herself in the mirror, and the response was that she saw a woman. This apparently marks the difference, as the other woman explained that when she looks in the mirror, she does not just see a woman, she sees a black woman. The speaker then realized that when he looked in the mirror, he simply saw a human being. According to the speaker, this is because being white and male is a privilege. What makes it a privilege is the fact that one doesn't notice it, whereas women and minorities are acutely aware of their status.

Kimmel: A Sturdy Oak

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