Many of you know “Marco” as the dude I refer to now and again, the one who sends me links and clips, comes to every last one of my readings, and made me my shiny GWP logo. Well, he’s emerging from the shadows. I’m thrilled to introduce him, officially, as a Guest Blogger here on GWP. Keep an eye out soon for his occasional posts! He’ll be offering his own observations on popular reality, in particular, myths about masculinity and boyhood, and he’ll also throw in on my favorite subjects here of course: feminism personal, political, and in public.
men
Two quick hits: Don’t miss this important piece by Courtney Martin on why men should be included in the abortion debate, posted over at AlterNet last week, and this post by Lauren at Faux Real on the usefulness (or not) of the new slang term, “baby daddy.”
To kick off the week, here are two nuggets on one of my latest favorite subjects: men.
By way of the Christian Science Monitor last week comes news of a push to bring dads into kids’ school lives. Around the country, many African-American men are embracing a national movement called the Million Father March that encourages people of all races, but particularly black men, to be active in children’s educational lives. Created four years ago, the Million Father March is sponsored by The Black Star Project, a Chicago group working to build strong students, encourage parental involvement, and improve life in African-American and Latino communities.
Meanwhile, back at home, married men do less housework than live-in boyfriends, finds an international survey. But married women do more housework than their live-in counterparts. “Marriage as an institution seems to have a traditionalizing effect on couples-even couples who see men and women as equal,” said co-researcher Shannon Davis, a sociologist at George Mason University in Virginia. For more on this, click here.
(Thanks to via the Council on Contemporary Families for the heads up.)
One more on men this morning, cuz I just can’t resist. Charles McGrath of the New York Times speculates on what Scott Rudin and Disney are going to do with the movie version of The Dangerous Book for Boys, which they’ve bought the rights to. Writes McGrath,
A report in Variety suggested that the plot of the movie is likely to involve fathers who struggle to balance their instinctive need to protect and their offspring’s craving for adventure, even though the evidence mostly suggests that these days it is the sons who are risk averse, unwilling to unplug themselves from their iPods, and the parents who are eager for their offspring to go outside and have some old-fashioned fun.
Anyone got other ideas for Disney and Rudin? Who should star? And while we’re on the subject of sneak peaks, of course, don’t forget to preorder your copy of the Daring Book for Girls, which, in an amazing act of daring speed on the part of our ladies of MotherTalk, comes out October 30!
(Thanks to Marco for the heads up on the boy movie.)
In the wake of all that semi-silly media interpretation of a new scientific study of how masculinity in male faces is perceived, I recently learned about a resource with what sounds like a little more (forgive me) balls: Shira Tarrant’s forthcoming anthology, Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power. An interview with Shira is currently up over at The Feminist Pulse (a blog connected to Girlistic magazine). Shira is an assistant professor at CSU Long Beach. Looking forward to reading the book when it comes out. And for the goods on the science behind the man face study, check out the post by my savvy friends over at Broadsheet.
Speaking of feminist man books, I’m sorry I missed Jackson Katz, author of The Macho Paradox, who I heard was maybe going to call in on The Lisa Birnbach show last Friday when we were on. If you’re out there reading this Jackson, keep on keepin on! I’m all for the “no man left behind” school of feminism. Can someone get Jackson and all those guys in Shira’s anthology a “Feminists Dig Me” t-shirt please?
So I’ve just started reading
Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man’s Most Precious Fluid by feminist sociologist (and lesbian mother of two) Lisa Jean Moore and I tell ya, someone over at NYU Press had a wee bit of fun writing her flap copy. “Moore offers a penetrating exploration…” “Sperm Counts examines the many places sperm rears its head.” And of course, the subtitle. But my favorite is the fact that there is a drawing of a squiggly little sperm positioned at a slightly different spot on every single page and if you flip through the book real fast, the sperm seems to swim. Try it. It’s fun.
On the serious side, this looks like an incredibly well-researched and captivating read. Moore looks at children’s birds-and-bees books, forensic transcripts, porn, and sperm bank brochures to offer this biography qua cultural history of modern-day sperm. Check out Thomas Rogers’ seminal interview with Moore over on Salon. I’ve got a suggestion for the sequel: Egg Matters. More to come. Ok ok, I’ll stop while I’m ahead.
Economist Heather Boushey weighs in at WIMN’s Voices Group Blog on that New York Times article from Friday titled “For Young Earners in Big City, a Gap in Women’s Favor.†She writes,
I haven’t seen the full study, but I’d guess that NYC must have fewer of the highly paid (white?) men and more of the poorly paid men (Black and Hispanic?), relative to highly paid women of any race. Is this progress? If it’s because there are more young, low-wage men of color, I’m not so sure that this is a sign of college women’s progress….So, is this a story about women with college degrees moving to the big city and makin’ it or is it about a change in the demographics of cities, with more, very low wage men of color? It may be a bit of both, but while the article implies that this data show that women with college degrees are outperforming their male colleagues, there is nothing in the statistics presented that indicates this is the case.
I’m guessing this counterview never makes it mainstream. Instead, how long do we think it will be before the backlashy chorus–women outpacing men!–chimes in? If that chorus shines the light on raising wages for urban low-wage men of color, terrific. But I’m not holding my breath.
A nice summary of the article of the same title by David von Drehle appearing in the July 26 issue Time Magazine, sent via Steve Mintz, with my favorite line in bold:
“The Dangerous Book†– a best-selling celebration of boyhood past – has tapped into a larger anxiety about raising young men. Observers of the boy “crisis†contend that families, schools and popular culture are failing boys, leaving them restless bundles of anxiety – misfits in the classroom and video-game junkies at home. They suffer from an epidemic of “anomie,†one psychologist says, adrift in a world of change without the help they need to navigate. There are statistics to back up every point in the sad litany, but also people eager to flay nearly every statistic. For instance: Is it bad that more boys are in special education, or it is better that they are getting extra help from specially trained teachers? And haven’t boys always tended to be more restless than girls under the discipline of high school and more likely to wind up in jail? Ultimately, the subject of boys is a bog of sociology in which a clever researcher can unearth evidence to support almost any point of view. This field, like so many others, has been infiltrated by the left-right political noise machine: Our boys have become cannon fodder in the unresolved culture wars waged by their parents and grandparents. But with fresh eyes on fresh facts, more upbeat conclusions are apparent. Worrying about boys – reading and writing books about them, fretting over dire trends and especially taking more time to parent them – is paying off. The next step is to let boys really blossom.
New York Times film reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz has an intriguing review of No Reservations (July 27). Seitz notes how while the Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character can’t quite figure out how to combine parenthood and work as a chef, the Aaron Eckhart character literally and metaphorically brings the little girl (Little Miss Sunshine‘s Abigail Breslin)into the kitchen. I smell a trend — and it’s one I like. In the August 6 issue of US Weekly–which, yes, I proudly on the plane last night, while my neighbor, a lovely intern who works at The Nation, poured through her glossy — there’s a feature on “Sexy Dads” that similarly posits Hollywood men as models for combining parenting and work. Now put that in your oven and bake it.
A new Australian study sheds light on this ever-surprising finding. What I can’t help thinking when I read stuff like this is how degrading it is to men to assume they prefer bimbos. Ok, I know I know, a lot of them probably do. (Marco, your thoughts?!)
I wrote about this in Psychology Today back in 2004 – I still get emails about the article, which an extremely savvy editor there provocatively titled “The New Trophy Wife”. The response to pieces like this makes me scratch my head all the more. And makes me want to write about it further, too. Hmm.
(Thanks to Katie over at the Lisa Birnbach Show for the link!)
Two quick hits: Don’t miss this important piece by Courtney Martin on why men should be included in the abortion debate, posted over at AlterNet last week, and this post by Lauren at Faux Real on the usefulness (or not) of the new slang term, “baby daddy.”
To kick off the week, here are two nuggets on one of my latest favorite subjects: men.
By way of the Christian Science Monitor last week comes news of a push to bring dads into kids’ school lives. Around the country, many African-American men are embracing a national movement called the Million Father March that encourages people of all races, but particularly black men, to be active in children’s educational lives. Created four years ago, the Million Father March is sponsored by The Black Star Project, a Chicago group working to build strong students, encourage parental involvement, and improve life in African-American and Latino communities.
Meanwhile, back at home, married men do less housework than live-in boyfriends, finds an international survey. But married women do more housework than their live-in counterparts. “Marriage as an institution seems to have a traditionalizing effect on couples-even couples who see men and women as equal,” said co-researcher Shannon Davis, a sociologist at George Mason University in Virginia. For more on this, click here.
(Thanks to via the Council on Contemporary Families for the heads up.)
One more on men this morning, cuz I just can’t resist. Charles McGrath of the New York Times speculates on what Scott Rudin and Disney are going to do with the movie version of The Dangerous Book for Boys, which they’ve bought the rights to. Writes McGrath,
A report in Variety suggested that the plot of the movie is likely to involve fathers who struggle to balance their instinctive need to protect and their offspring’s craving for adventure, even though the evidence mostly suggests that these days it is the sons who are risk averse, unwilling to unplug themselves from their iPods, and the parents who are eager for their offspring to go outside and have some old-fashioned fun.
Anyone got other ideas for Disney and Rudin? Who should star? And while we’re on the subject of sneak peaks, of course, don’t forget to preorder your copy of the Daring Book for Girls, which, in an amazing act of daring speed on the part of our ladies of MotherTalk, comes out October 30!
(Thanks to Marco for the heads up on the boy movie.)
In the wake of all that semi-silly media interpretation of a new scientific study of how masculinity in male faces is perceived, I recently learned about a resource with what sounds like a little more (forgive me) balls: Shira Tarrant’s forthcoming anthology, Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power. An interview with Shira is currently up over at The Feminist Pulse (a blog connected to Girlistic magazine). Shira is an assistant professor at CSU Long Beach. Looking forward to reading the book when it comes out. And for the goods on the science behind the man face study, check out the post by my savvy friends over at Broadsheet.
Speaking of feminist man books, I’m sorry I missed Jackson Katz, author of The Macho Paradox, who I heard was maybe going to call in on The Lisa Birnbach show last Friday when we were on. If you’re out there reading this Jackson, keep on keepin on! I’m all for the “no man left behind” school of feminism. Can someone get Jackson and all those guys in Shira’s anthology a “Feminists Dig Me” t-shirt please?
So I’ve just started reading
Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man’s Most Precious Fluid by feminist sociologist (and lesbian mother of two) Lisa Jean Moore and I tell ya, someone over at NYU Press had a wee bit of fun writing her flap copy. “Moore offers a penetrating exploration…” “Sperm Counts examines the many places sperm rears its head.” And of course, the subtitle. But my favorite is the fact that there is a drawing of a squiggly little sperm positioned at a slightly different spot on every single page and if you flip through the book real fast, the sperm seems to swim. Try it. It’s fun.
On the serious side, this looks like an incredibly well-researched and captivating read. Moore looks at children’s birds-and-bees books, forensic transcripts, porn, and sperm bank brochures to offer this biography qua cultural history of modern-day sperm. Check out Thomas Rogers’ seminal interview with Moore over on Salon. I’ve got a suggestion for the sequel: Egg Matters. More to come. Ok ok, I’ll stop while I’m ahead.
Economist Heather Boushey weighs in at WIMN’s Voices Group Blog on that New York Times article from Friday titled “For Young Earners in Big City, a Gap in Women’s Favor.†She writes,
I haven’t seen the full study, but I’d guess that NYC must have fewer of the highly paid (white?) men and more of the poorly paid men (Black and Hispanic?), relative to highly paid women of any race. Is this progress? If it’s because there are more young, low-wage men of color, I’m not so sure that this is a sign of college women’s progress….So, is this a story about women with college degrees moving to the big city and makin’ it or is it about a change in the demographics of cities, with more, very low wage men of color? It may be a bit of both, but while the article implies that this data show that women with college degrees are outperforming their male colleagues, there is nothing in the statistics presented that indicates this is the case.
I’m guessing this counterview never makes it mainstream. Instead, how long do we think it will be before the backlashy chorus–women outpacing men!–chimes in? If that chorus shines the light on raising wages for urban low-wage men of color, terrific. But I’m not holding my breath.
A nice summary of the article of the same title by David von Drehle appearing in the July 26 issue Time Magazine, sent via Steve Mintz, with my favorite line in bold:
“The Dangerous Book†– a best-selling celebration of boyhood past – has tapped into a larger anxiety about raising young men. Observers of the boy “crisis†contend that families, schools and popular culture are failing boys, leaving them restless bundles of anxiety – misfits in the classroom and video-game junkies at home. They suffer from an epidemic of “anomie,†one psychologist says, adrift in a world of change without the help they need to navigate. There are statistics to back up every point in the sad litany, but also people eager to flay nearly every statistic. For instance: Is it bad that more boys are in special education, or it is better that they are getting extra help from specially trained teachers? And haven’t boys always tended to be more restless than girls under the discipline of high school and more likely to wind up in jail? Ultimately, the subject of boys is a bog of sociology in which a clever researcher can unearth evidence to support almost any point of view. This field, like so many others, has been infiltrated by the left-right political noise machine: Our boys have become cannon fodder in the unresolved culture wars waged by their parents and grandparents. But with fresh eyes on fresh facts, more upbeat conclusions are apparent. Worrying about boys – reading and writing books about them, fretting over dire trends and especially taking more time to parent them – is paying off. The next step is to let boys really blossom.
New York Times film reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz has an intriguing review of No Reservations (July 27). Seitz notes how while the Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character can’t quite figure out how to combine parenthood and work as a chef, the Aaron Eckhart character literally and metaphorically brings the little girl (Little Miss Sunshine‘s Abigail Breslin)into the kitchen. I smell a trend — and it’s one I like. In the August 6 issue of US Weekly–which, yes, I proudly on the plane last night, while my neighbor, a lovely intern who works at The Nation, poured through her glossy — there’s a feature on “Sexy Dads” that similarly posits Hollywood men as models for combining parenting and work. Now put that in your oven and bake it.
A new Australian study sheds light on this ever-surprising finding. What I can’t help thinking when I read stuff like this is how degrading it is to men to assume they prefer bimbos. Ok, I know I know, a lot of them probably do. (Marco, your thoughts?!)
I wrote about this in Psychology Today back in 2004 – I still get emails about the article, which an extremely savvy editor there provocatively titled “The New Trophy Wife”. The response to pieces like this makes me scratch my head all the more. And makes me want to write about it further, too. Hmm.
(Thanks to Katie over at the Lisa Birnbach Show for the link!)
