{{Short description|Advocacy for the rights and interests of males}} {{masculism sidebar}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2026}} '''Masculism''' or '''masculinism'''{{efn|Some scholars treat the term ''masculinism'' as interchangeable with ''masculism'',<ref name="Reddock 2003">{{cite journal |last=Reddock |first=Rhoda |title=Men as Gendered Beings: The Emergence of Masculinity Studies in the Anglophone Caribbean |journal=Social and Economic Studies |date=2003 |issn=0037-7651 |at=p. 109, note 11 |volume=52 |issue=3 |jstor=27865342 |quote=The terms masculism and masculinism can often be used interchangeably.}}</ref><ref name="Whitlow 2010" /> while others treat it as a subset or variation on it<ref name="beck" /> or as a separate topic.<ref name="Duerst-Lahti 2008" />}} is the promotion of masculine ideals.<ref name="Bunnin 2008">{{cite book |last1=Bunnin |first1=Nicholas |last2=Yu |first2=Jiyuan |title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy |page=411 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Malden, Mass. |year=2004 |isbn=1-4051-0679-4}}</ref><ref name="Christensen 2005">{{cite book |last1=Christensen |first1=Ferrell |editor1-last=Honderich |editor1-first=Ted |editor1-link=Ted Honderich |title=The Oxford Companion to Philosophy |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-926479-1 |pages=562–563 |chapter=Masculism |edition=2nd |lccn=94-36914}}</ref> The terms ''masculism'' and ''masculinism'' may also refer to the men's rights movement or men's movement,{{efn|Melissa Blais and Francis Dupuis-Déri write: "In English, they [''masculinist'' and ''masculinism''] generally designate either a way of thinking whose referent is the masculine or simply a patriarchal ideology (Watson, 1996), rather than a component of the antifeminist social movement. In English, 'men's movement' is the most common term, though some, like Warren Farrell, use 'masculist' or the more restrictive 'fathers' rights movement'."{{sfn|Blais|Dupuis-Déri|2012|pp=22–23}} }} as well as antifeminism or machismo.<ref name="OED">{{cite OED |term=masculinism |access-date=23 February 2024 |quote=Advocacy of the rights of men; adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men; (more generally) anti-feminism, machismo.}}</ref><ref name="beck" />
==Terminology== ===Early history=== According to the historian Judith Allen, Charlotte Perkins Gilman invented the term ''masculism'' in 1914,<ref name="Allen 2009">{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Judith A. |title=The Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Sexualities, Histories, Progressivism |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |year=2009 |page=353}}</ref> when she gave a public lecture series in New York entitled "Studies in Masculism". Allen writes that Gilman used ''masculism'' to refer to the opposition of misogynist men to women's rights and, more broadly, to describe "men's collective political and cultural actions on behalf of their own sex",{{sfn|Allen|2009|p=152}} or what Allen calls the "sexual politics of androcentric cultural discourses".{{sfn|Allen|2009|p=353}} Gilman referred to men and women who opposed women's suffrage as masculists—women who collaborated with these men were "Women Who Won't Move Forward"{{sfn|Allen|2009|pp=136–137}}—and described World War I as "masculism at its worst".{{sfn|Allen|2009|p=127}}
=== Definition and scope === ''A Dictionary of Media and Communication'' (2011) defines ''masculinism'' (or ''masculism'') as "[a] male counterpart to feminism.{{nbsp}}[...] Like feminism, masculism reflects a number of positions, from the desire for equal rights for men (for example, in cases of child access after divorce), to more militant calls for the total abolition of women's rights."{{r|Chandler 2011}} According to Susan Whitlow in ''The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory'' (2011), the terms are "used interchangeably across disciplines".<ref name="Whitlow 2010">{{cite book |last=Whitlow |first=Susan |chapter=Gender and Cultural Studies |title=The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, Volume 3 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Malden, Mass. |date=2011 |doi=10.1002/9781444337839.wbelctv3g003 |isbn=978-1-40-518312-3 |pages=1083–91}}</ref> Sociologist Robert Menzies wrote in 2007 that both terms are common in men's rights and anti-feminist literature: "The intrepid virtual adventurer who boldly goes into these unabashedly mascul(in)ist spaces is quickly rewarded with a torrent of diatribes, invectives, atrocity tales, claims to entitlement, calls to arms, and prescriptions for change in the service of men, children, families, God, the past, the future, the nation, the planet, and all other things non-feminist."<ref name="Menzies 2007">{{cite book |last1=Menzies |first1=Robert |editor1-last=Chunn |editor1-first=Dorothy E. |editor2-last=Boyd |editor2-first=Susan |editor3-last=Lessard |editor3-first=Hester |title=Reaction and Resistance: Feminism, Law, and Social Change |date=2007 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |location=Vancouver |at=p. 65; p. 91, note 2 |chapter=Virtual Backlash: Representations of Men's 'Rights' and Feminist 'Wrongs' in Cyberspace |isbn=978-0-7748-4036-1 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/reactionresistan0000unse/page/65/mode/1up?view=theater |chapter-url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive |quote=}}</ref>
The gender-studies scholar Julia Wood describes ''masculinism'' as an ideology asserting that women and men should have different roles and rights owing to fundamental differences between them, and that men suffer from discrimination and "need to reclaim their rightful status as men".<ref name="Wood 2014">{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Julia T. |title=Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, & Culture |date=2014 |publisher=Cengage Learning |location=Stamford, Conn. |isbn=978-1-28-507593-8 |page=89}}</ref> Sociologists Arthur Brittan and Satoshi Ikeda describe masculinism as an ideology justifying male domination in society.<ref>{{harv|Reddock|2003|p=109|ps=: "In his book, ''Masculinity and Power'', Arthur Brittan{{not a typo|,}} distinguishes 'masculinism' from 'masculinity'{{nbsp}}[...] Masculinism on the other hand he defines as an ideology which justifies and naturalizes male domination and power, accepts heterosexuality and the existing sexual division of labour as normal; and is resistant to change and not subject to fluctuation over time"}}</ref>{{efn|Brittan calls masculinism "the ideology that justifies and naturalizes male domination{{nbsp}}[...] the ideology of patriarchy".{{r|Brittan 1989}}}}<ref name="Ikeda 2007">{{cite book |last1=Ikeda |first1=Satoshi |editor1-last=Griffin-Cohen |editor1-first=M. |editor2-last=Brodie |editor2-first=J. |title=Remapping Gender in the New Global Order |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-1359-8897-5 |page=112 |doi=10.4324/9780203099940-13 |chapter=Masculinity and masculinism under globalization: reflections on the Canadian case}}</ref> Masculinism, according to Brittan, maintains that there is "a fundamental difference" between men and women and rejects feminist arguments that male–female relationships are political constructs.<ref name="Brittan 1989">{{cite book |last=Brittan |first=Arthur |title=Masculinity and Power |url=https://archive.org/details/masculinitypower00arth/page/4/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive |date=1989 |publisher=Basil Blackwell |location=Oxford |page=4 |isbn=0-631-14167-7}}</ref>
The political scientist Georgia Duerst-Lahti distinguishes between ''masculism'', which expresses the ethos of the early gender-egalitarian men's movement, and ''masculinism'', which refers to the ideology of patriarchy.<ref name="Duerst-Lahti 2008">{{cite book |last=Duerst-Lahti |first=Georgia |chapter=Gender Ideology: masculinism and femininalism |pages=159–192 |editor1-last=Goertz |editor1-first=Gary |editor2-last=Mazur |editor2-first=Amy G. |title=Politics, gender, and concepts: theory and methodology |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-72342-8}}</ref> Sociologists Melissa Blais and Francis Dupuis-Déri describe masculism as a form of antifeminism;<ref name="Blais 2012">{{cite journal |last1=Blais |first1=Melissa |last2=Dupuis-Déri |first2=Francis |title=Masculinism and the Antifeminist Countermovement |journal=Social Movement Studies |date=2012 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=21–39 |doi=10.1080/14742837.2012.640532 |s2cid=144983000 |issn=1474-2837}}</ref> they equate ''masculist'' and ''masculinist'', attributing the former to author Warren Farrell. The most common term, they argue, is the "men's movement"; they write that there is a growing consensus in the French-language media that the movement should be referred to as ''masculiniste''.{{sfn|Blais|Dupuis-Déri|2012|pp=22–23}} Dupuis-Déri writes that members of the men's movement refer to themselves as both ''masculinist'' and ''masculist''.<ref name="Dupuis-Déri 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Dupuis-Déri |first1=Francis |title=Le 'masculinisme': une histoire politique du mot (en Anglais et en Français) |trans-title='Masculinism': a political history of the term (in English and French) |language=fr |journal=Recherches Féministes |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=97–123 |date=2009 |doi=10.7202/039213ar |doi-access=free}}</ref> According to Whitlow, masculinist theory such as Farrell's and that of gender-studies scholar R.W. Connell developed alongside third-wave feminism and queer theory, and was influenced by those theories' questioning of traditional gender roles and the meaning of terms such as ''man'' and ''woman''.{{refn|name=Whitlow 2010}}
Ferrel Christensen, a Canadian philosopher and president of the former Alberta-based Movement for the Establishment of Real Gender Equality,{{r|Menzies 2007}}<ref name="Thorne 2000">{{cite news |last1=Thorne |first1=Duncan |title=Gender bias in pamphlet, says human rights officer |url=https://www.fact.on.ca/news/news0006/ej000620.htm |work=The Edmonton Journal |date=20 June 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010228064228/https://www.fact.on.ca/news/news0006/ej000620.htm |archive-date=28 February 2001 |url-status=live}}</ref> writes that "Defining 'masculism' is made difficult by the fact that the term has been used by very few people, and by hardly any philosophers." He differentiates between "progressive masculists", who welcome many of the societal changes promoted by feminists, while believing that some measures to reduce sexism against women have increased it against men, and an "extremist version" of masculism that promotes male supremacy. He argued that if masculism and feminism refer to the belief that men/women are systematically discriminated against, and that this discrimination should be eliminated, there is not necessarily a conflict between feminism and masculism, and some assert that they are both. However, many believe that one sex is more discriminated against, and thus use one label and reject the other.<ref name="Christensen 2005"/>
According to Bethany M. Coston and Michael Kimmel, members of the mythopoetic men's movement identify as masculinist.<ref name="Coston 2013">{{cite journal |last1=Coston |first1=Bethany M. |last2=Kimmel |first2=Michael |author-link2=Michael Kimmel |title=White Men as the New Victims: Reverse Discrimination Cases and the Men's Rights Movement |journal=Nevada Law Journal |date=2013 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=368–385, 371 |issn=2157-1929 |url=https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol13/iss2/5 |format=PDF}}</ref> Nicholas Davidson, in ''The Failure of Feminism'' (1988), calls ''masculism'' "virism": "Where the feminist perspective is that social ills are caused by the dominance of masculine values, the virist perspective is that they are caused by a decline of those values."<ref name="Davidson 1988">{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=Nicholas |title=The Failure of Feminism |pages=274–275 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Buffalo, NY |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-87975-408-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/failureoffeminis0000davi/page/274/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> Christensen calls virism "an extreme brand of masculism and masculinism".<ref name="Christensen 2005"/>
Sociologist Andreas Kemper describes masculism as a variation of masculinism whose goal is to oppose what its adherents see as female domination, making it fundamentally anti-feminist.<ref name="beck">{{cite journal |first1=Dorothee |last1=Beck |title=A Bridge with Three Pillars: Soldierly Masculinity and Violence in Media Representation in Germany |journal=Moving the Social |date=2021 |issn=2197-0394 |pages=17–35 |volume=65 |doi=10.46586/mts.65.2021.17-36 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Meiering |first2=Aziz |last2=Dziri |first3=Naika |last3=Foroutan |title=Connecting Structures: Resistance, Heroic Masculinity and Anti-Feminism as Bridging Narratives within Group Radicalization |url=https://www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/article/view/3805 |journal=International Journal of Conflict and Violence |date=2020 |issn=1864-1385 |pages=1–19 |volume=14 |doi=10.4119/ijcv-3805}}</ref>
==Areas of interest== ===Education and employment=== {{See also|Sex differences in education}}
Many masculists oppose co-educational schooling, believing that single-sex schools better promote the well-being of boys.{{sfn|Blais|Dupuis-Déri|2012|p=23}}
===Violence and suicide=== {{See also|Violence against men}} {{Violence against men}}
Masculists cite higher rates of suicide in men than women.{{sfn|Blais|Dupuis-Déri|2012|p=23}} Farrell expresses concern about violence against men being depicted as humorous, in the media and elsewhere.<ref name="Farrell 1993">{{cite book |last1=Farrell |first1=Warren |title=The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex |date=1993 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-79349-4 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/mythofmalepowerw0000farr/page/n8/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}{{Page needed|date=June 2022}}</ref>{{Third-party inline|date=June 2022}}
They also express concern about violence against men being ignored or minimized in comparison to violence against women,{{sfn|Blais|Dupuis-Déri|2012|p=23}}<ref name="Mvulane 2008">{{cite news |last=Mvulane |first=Zama |title=Do men suffer spousal abuse? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221033948/http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20081125064002133C731559&set_id= |archive-date=21 February 2009 |url=http://www.iol.co.za:80/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20081125064002133C731559&set_id= |work=Cape Times |via=IOL |location=South Africa |page=12 |date=25 November 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> asserting gender symmetry in domestic violence.{{sfn|Blais|Dupuis-Déri|2012|p=23}} Another of Farrell's concerns is that traditional assumptions of female innocence or sympathy for women, termed benevolent sexism, do lead to unequal penalties for women and men who commit similar crimes,{{r|Farrell 1993|p=240–253}}{{Third-party inline|date=June 2022}} to lack of sympathy for male victims in domestic violence cases when the perpetrator is female, and to dismissal of female-on-male sexual assault and sexual harassment cases.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}
===Gender studies === {{See also|Men's studies|Black male studies}}
A masculist approach to gender studies, which have frequently focused on woman-based or feminist approaches, examines oppression within a masculinist, patriarchal society from a male standpoint.<ref name="Hoogensen 2006">{{cite book |last1=Hoogensen |first1=Gunhild |last2=Solheim |first2=Bruce O. |title=Women in Power: World Leaders Since 1960 |publisher=Praeger Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=0-275-98190-8 |page=21 |lccn=2006015398 |chapter=Women in Theory and Practice |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/womeninpowerworl0000hoog/page/21/mode/1up?view=theater |chapter-url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> According to ''A Dictionary of Media and Communication'' (2011), "Masculists reject the idea of universal patriarchy, arguing that before feminism most men were as disempowered as most women. However, in the post-feminist era they argue that men are in a worse position because of the emphasis on women's rights."<ref name="Chandler 2011">{{cite book |last1=Chandler |first1=Daniel |last2=Munday |first2=Rod |title=A Dictionary of Media and Communication |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199568758.001.0001 |date=2011 |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-1995-6875-8 |chapter=masculinism (masculism) |page=253 |ol=24851719M |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nLuJz-ZB828C&pg=PA253 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
== South African masculinist evangelical movements == In the wake of the abolition of apartheid, South Africa saw a resurgence of masculinist Christian evangelical groups, led by the Mighty Men Conference (MMC) and the complementary Worthy Women Conference (WWC). The latter saw the development of what theologian Sarojini Nadar and psychologist Cheryl Potgeier call ''formenism'': "For''men''ism, like masculinism, subscribes to a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women (in other words, only men can be leaders), but unlike masculinism, it is not an ideology developed and sustained by men, but one constructed, endorsed and sustained by ''women''" [emphasis in original].<ref name="Nadar 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Nadar |first1=Sarojini |last2=Potgieter |first2=Cheryl |title=Liberated through submission?: The Worthy Woman's Conference as a case study of for''men''ism |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=141–151 |date=2010 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329208749 |format=PDF |via=ResearchGate |jstor=10.2979/fsr.2010.26.2.141 |doi=10.2979/fsr.2010.26.2.141}}</ref>{{rp|143}} The Mighty Men movement harkens back to the Victorian idea of Muscular Christianity. Feminist scholars argue that the movement's lack of attention to women's rights and the struggle for racial equality makes it a threat to women and to the stability of the country.<ref name="Dube 2015">{{cite journal |last=Dube |first=Siphiwe |title=Muscular Christianity in contemporary South Africa: The case of the Mighty Men Conference |journal=HTS Theological Studies/Teologiese Studies |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=1–9 |publisher=AOSIS OpenJournals |date=2015 |url=https://hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/2945/html}}</ref><ref name="Dube 2016">{{cite journal |last=Dube |first=Siphiwe |title=Race, whiteness and transformation in the Promise Keepers America and the Mighty Men Conference: A comparative analysis |journal=HTS Theological Studies/Teologiese Studies |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=1–8 |publisher=AOSIS OpenJournals |date=2016 |url=http://www.hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/3476/html}}</ref> Scholar Miranda Pillay argues that the Mighty Men movement's appeal lies in its resistance to gender equality as incompatible with Christian values, and in raising patriarchy to a "hyper-normative status", beyond challenge by other claims to power.<ref name="Pillay 2015">{{cite book |author=Pillay, Miranda |date=2015 |chapter=Mighty Men, Mighty Families: A pro-family Christian movement to (re)enforce patriarchal control? |editor-last1=Conradie |editor-first1=Ernst M. |editor-last2=Pillay |editor-first2=Miranda |title=Ecclesial reform and deform movements in the South African context |pages=61–77 |publisher=Sun Press |location=Stellenbosch, South Africa |isbn=978-1-920689-76-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMTSCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
The Worthy Women Conference is an auxiliary to the MMC in advocating a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women.{{r|Nadar 2010|p=142–143}} Its leader, Gretha Wiid, blames South Africa's disorder on the liberation of women, and aims to restore the nation through its families, making women again subservient to men.<ref name="Nortjé-Meyer 2015">{{cite book |author=Nortjé-Meyer, Lilly |date=2015 |chapter=A movement seeking to embody support of patriarchal structures and patterns in church and society: Gertha Wiid's Worthy Women movement |editor-last1=Conradie |editor-first1=Ernst M. |editor-last2=Pillay |editor-first2=Miranda |title=Ecclesial reform and deform movements in the South African context |pages=86–93 |publisher=Sun Press |location=Stellenbosch, South Africa |isbn=978-1-920689-76-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMTSCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Her success is attributed to her balancing claims that God created the gender hierarchy, but that women are no less valuable than men,<ref name="Nortjé-Meyer 2011">{{cite journal |last=Nortjé-Meyer |first=Lilly |title=A critical analysis of Gretha Wiid's sex ideology and her biblical hermeneutics |journal=Verbum et Ecclesia |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=1–7 |publisher=AOSIS OpenJournals |date=2011 |doi=10.4102/ve.v32i1.472 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and that restoration of traditional gender roles relieves existential anxiety in post-apartheid South Africa.{{r|Nadar 2010|p=148}}
==See also== {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} * Identity politics * Men's liberation * Men's movement * Men's studies {{div col end}}
;Men's organizations * International Men's Day (19 November)
* Save Indian Family UK: * Fathers 4 Justice Canada: * Canadian Association for Equality France: * {{ill|SOS Papa|fr|SOS Papa}} ; Notable people associated with masculism * Robert E. Bly * Warren Farrell * Esther Vilar * David Benatar
== Explanatory notes == {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last1=Bain |first1=Alison L. |last2=Arun-Pina |first2=Chan |chapter=Masculinism |editor1-last=Kobayashi |editor1-first=Audrey |date=2020 |title=International Encyclopedia of Human Geography |pages=425–431 |volume=8 |edition=2nd |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-08-102296-2 |doi=10.1016/b978-0-08-102295-5.10280-x}} *{{Cite web |last=Bard |first=Christine |author-link= |title=Masculinism in Europe |url=https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/gender-and-europe/european-man-a-hegemonic-masculinity-19th-21st-centuries/masculinism-in-europe |access-date=23 February 2024 |website=Digital Encyclopedia of European History- Sorbonne Université |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Chandler |first1=Daniel |last2=Munday |first2=Rod |title=A Dictionary of Media and Communication |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198841838.001.0001 |date=2020 |edition=3rd |isbn=978-0-1988-4183-8 |chapter=masculinism (masculism)}} * {{cite thesis |last1=Malmi |first1=Pasi |title=Discrimination Against Men: Appearance and Causes in the Context of a Modern Welfare State |date=6 February 2009 |url=https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:ula-20111141041 |publisher=University of Lapland |format=PDF |isbn=978-952-484-279-2 |issn=0788-7604 |lccn=2009447401}} <!-- 23 citations -->
== External links == * {{Wiktionary inline|masculism}}
{{Masculinism}} {{Political ideologies}}{{Discrimination}}
Category:Masculism Category:Masculinity Category:Men's movement Category:1980s neologisms Category:Men's rights Category:Antifeminism Category:Political ideologies