The Feminist sexually active man- a reading list?
April 21, 2015 8:12 AM Subscribe
I'm making up my spring and summer reading list for a new project and I need books that look at the concepts of masculinity, dating and sex (for boys/men) written from a feminist perspective. Specifically, books that tackles the following subjects:
Gender and sexuality spectrums, dating and relationships (anti Game stuff), teenage boy/young men psychology, parenting feminist boys, sex education, whatever, the whole deal.
Ideally, I'd like more academic texts- but give me anything you like. Even things that you think are tangentially related or reading list links that you think might fall in line.
Thanks!
Also a request for readings on positive masculinity. I bet looking at the masculinity, boys, men tags here and on the blue would yield some good stuff too.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:26 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:26 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Michael Kimmel is a great place to start. I'm not as current with his more recent work as I'd like to be but he has a lot of stuff on this topic, both books and magazine pieces.
posted by Aquifer at 8:27 AM on April 21, 2015
posted by Aquifer at 8:27 AM on April 21, 2015
Michael Kimmel and Jackson Katz write accessible-yet-academic nonfiction on this subject. My favorite textbook from undergrad was Men's Lives (old editions are cheaper). You also might enjoy Dr. Nerdlove's advice blog for dating/relationships reading.
posted by almostmanda at 8:29 AM on April 21, 2015
posted by almostmanda at 8:29 AM on April 21, 2015
Delusions of Gender is brilliant.
posted by oliverburkeman at 8:30 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by oliverburkeman at 8:30 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
From Boys to Men: Social Constructions of Masculinity in a Contemporary Society. Mostly South African perspectives, but still worth reading if you're outside this context, I think.
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 8:30 AM on April 21, 2015
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 8:30 AM on April 21, 2015
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
posted by jillithd at 8:31 AM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jillithd at 8:31 AM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
I did an FPP about this very topic that you might find useful: aspiring to a world in which personality is unchained from gender.
And a hearty, enthusiastically seconded recommendation for Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender. It puts the myth of 'brain sex' straight to bed with humor, grace, and cold, hard facts.
posted by divined by radio at 9:11 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
And a hearty, enthusiastically seconded recommendation for Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender. It puts the myth of 'brain sex' straight to bed with humor, grace, and cold, hard facts.
posted by divined by radio at 9:11 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys is something I'm rereading.
posted by mearls at 4:44 PM on April 21, 2015
posted by mearls at 4:44 PM on April 21, 2015
What a great subject! I dream of designing such curricula. Some less likely to be recommended but really important books/topics, I think:
The Feminist Porn Book skews academic but was heartily enjoyed by a mixed age book group I know (some older teens) and is digestible in mostly short essay format. I like how it covers a wide range of view points and possibilities about pornography and its consumption (and, thereby, touches on a lot of feminist, sexuality and GLBTQ issues, not to mention social issues more widely - you probably already know this, but this is called the intersection, people who talk and teach about it call it intersectionalism), rather than being a single person's opinion. There's a lot of ideas and histories there (the tone is mostly upbeat and celebratory, though not unrealistically so) for boys and men who find themselves outsiders for one reason or another.
Another topic that hits all those notes is sex work more widely. This has been a great year for books on it! I read Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant in a single sitting; for a book with very tight reporting and which is academic, it is riveting and a call to action like nothing I've read since I was very young and discovering feminism for the first time. It's nothing so simple as "the patriarchy: everybody loses." But I came away from it seeing boyhood differently and the experience of queer boyhood differently as well.
I have always loved John Stoltenberg's Refusing to Be a Man, crazy ass document that it is. It's not been in print for zillions of years. Now - it's available via ebook. I recommend it wholeheartedly. It's second wave glum. It's full of hyperbole. It's idealistic. It grates. It meanders. It repeats. It's a brilliant thought experiment - I would expect no less from Andrea Dworkin's ex-husband. It's just what you ordered to the exponent of what you ordered. (memail if you want more recommendations; I could do this all week.)
posted by sweltering at 3:27 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Feminist Porn Book skews academic but was heartily enjoyed by a mixed age book group I know (some older teens) and is digestible in mostly short essay format. I like how it covers a wide range of view points and possibilities about pornography and its consumption (and, thereby, touches on a lot of feminist, sexuality and GLBTQ issues, not to mention social issues more widely - you probably already know this, but this is called the intersection, people who talk and teach about it call it intersectionalism), rather than being a single person's opinion. There's a lot of ideas and histories there (the tone is mostly upbeat and celebratory, though not unrealistically so) for boys and men who find themselves outsiders for one reason or another.
Another topic that hits all those notes is sex work more widely. This has been a great year for books on it! I read Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant in a single sitting; for a book with very tight reporting and which is academic, it is riveting and a call to action like nothing I've read since I was very young and discovering feminism for the first time. It's nothing so simple as "the patriarchy: everybody loses." But I came away from it seeing boyhood differently and the experience of queer boyhood differently as well.
I have always loved John Stoltenberg's Refusing to Be a Man, crazy ass document that it is. It's not been in print for zillions of years. Now - it's available via ebook. I recommend it wholeheartedly. It's second wave glum. It's full of hyperbole. It's idealistic. It grates. It meanders. It repeats. It's a brilliant thought experiment - I would expect no less from Andrea Dworkin's ex-husband. It's just what you ordered to the exponent of what you ordered. (memail if you want more recommendations; I could do this all week.)
posted by sweltering at 3:27 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I asked a question similar to yours a few years back; maybe check it out?
posted by oceanjesse at 12:33 PM on July 22, 2015
posted by oceanjesse at 12:33 PM on July 22, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:23 AM on April 21, 2015