Men's Lives

by Michael S. Kimmel, Michael A. Messner

Edited by two of the field's most prominent researchers, this best-selling reader on men and masculinity contains the most current articles available. Organized around themes that define masculinity, this reader takes a life-course perspective, using the idea that men (as well as women) are “gendered” and that this gendering process is a central experience for men.

Genres: Gender, Nonfiction, Psychology, Social Science, School, Feminism, Cultural Studies

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Michael Scott Kimmel is an American sociologist, specializing in gender studies. He is among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world today. The author or editor of more than twenty volumes, his books include The Politics of Manhood, and The History of Men (2005).

His documentary history, "Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776-1990" (Beacon, 1992), chronicled men who supported women’s equality since the founding of the country. His book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (1996) was hailed as the definitive work on the subject. Reviewers called the book "wide-ranging, level headed, human and deeply interesting," "superb...thorough, impressive and fascinating."

His most recent book, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2008) is a best-selling investigation of young people’s lives today, based on interviews with more than 400 young men, ages 16-26. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem said that "Michael Kimmel's Guyland could save the humanity of many young men – and the sanity of their friends and parents."

Kimmel holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in New York, and is a spokesperson of NOMAS (The National Organization For Men Against Sexism).

He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his family.

Reviews

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro que li é a terceira edição desta coletânea de artigos, e que foi publicado nos Estados Unidos em 1995. Fiquei surpreso em ver aqui no GoodReads que o livro teve mais de dez edições depois desta que li. Realmente, este livro que peguei na biblioteca da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, me pareceu bem datado. Ele estava quase caindo aos pedaços com muitas orelhas no livro, muitos riscos, a capa soltando, ou seja, foi usado por muitos alunos ao longo desses quase 30 anos. Ainda assim, alguns textos me trouxeram bons insights teóricos como o triângulo da violência masculina, a pose de cool dos negros e latinos e a cultura da paternidade versus o comportamento da paternidade, que pude usar imediatamente em uma palestra. Por outro lado, foi uma leitura de quase quinhentas páginas das quais pude aproveitar menos de cinquenta. Talvez, se tivesse tido acesso a uma edição mais recente do livro esse percentual fosse maior. Nem sempre um livro ter muitas páginas quer dizer que teremos o mesmo nível de aproveitamento daquilo que lemos nele, ou seja, cabe a máxima tamanho não é documento.

[Kawthar]

Read for communications class

[Erica Tuggle · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know you've crossed the line into some kind of new nerd-dom when you read textbooks for fun. And yet, that is what the reading of Men's Lives was for me. I enjoy reading feminist perspectives, and picked up the textbook to see how one would explain how men become men. It was an educational and thought-provoking journey as I jumped from articles on what "macho" means to men to how men with disabilities still maintain their idea of masculinity. Most of the articles are written with feminist ideals and undertones, but some are not. The collection is diverse and provides a good overview on issues that were as relevant at the time this edition came out (2004) to present day.

Some of the articles I marked for further study in a classroom environment or expansion in this collection include: The Black Male: Searching Beyond Stereotypes; Gender, Class and Terrorism; The Fraternal Bond as a Joking Relationship: A Case Study of the Role of Sexist Jokes in Male Group Bonding; Why College Men Drink: Alcohol, Adventure, and the Paradox of Masculinity; The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the "Female Professions"; Confessions of a Nice Negro, or Why I Shaved My Head; If Men Could Menstruate; Coming to Terms: Masculinity and Physical Disability; The Approach--Avoidance Dance: Men, Women and Intimacy; Men on Rape; The Heterosexual Questionnaire; and Strategies Men Use to Resist.save as
The article "If Men Could Menstruate," written by feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem, was particularly intriguing, funny, and generated some new thoughts for me. Also, "Strategies Men Use to Resist," that details reasons men use to shift housekeeping to women gave me some perspective with tackling my own division of labor in the home. Whether student, teacher, or just interested human, I think everyone can benefit from reading some of the articles in this text. The work has a strong push to make the reader realize that men and women can be comrades in arms in the fight for equality, health and happiness and I think everyone can be a little more open to this.

[Meen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is absolutely imperative that men begin to examine their own gender programming, especially the insidiousness of hegemonic masculinity, if we are ever really to evolve as a species. (And I mean "evolve" in the non-scientific, value-laden sense of positive "progression.") And now that we are capable of destroying our entire species (and all the others on the planet), we MUST find a new way of relating to one another. I believe feminism teaches us that way.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is important work. There was a mix of things that I really agreed with and things I wanted to speak back to or try to push further or challenge. Sometimes men's self-regard seems a trifle narcissistic even when it is critical, and I felt women (who only existed on the fringes of this book which in itself wasn't overly problematic) were still portrayed as having their intentions and desires positively or negatively set by men...there is here as elsewhere a huge masculine failure of imagination to conceive that women sometimes think about things independent on men (ironic of me to point that out when at the moment I am reading and writing about masculinities).

I do realise that was not a main point of the book. The intersectionality was the best bit with queerness and race featured and the normativity of white heterosexual masculinity interrogated. I was reluctant to be as compassionate as the book was asking me to be but it made it's point quite clearly (again and again through various authors). There was a blend of perspectives from both male and female scholars though some of the articles were more like opinion pieces.

And yet...there's something courageous about this anthology, many of the writers let a vulnerability show at least in glimpses.

The final chapter was a good one to finish on, it both validated my continued unease at easy answers that purport to be liberative and acknowledged how seductive Utopian visions (of masculinity, of race) can be. I felt the author of it worked hard to overcome the gender binary and present a masculinity this grumpy feminist could relate to. It's sad to say most if not all of the chapters of this book are still relevant although some details may be dated. The chapted on beer adverts gave me an insight for the article I am writing and I was amused to find myself reading about the race in gay male porn (what was a lesbian doing reading about that? LOL).

I read the whole thing (and was challenged by bell hooks for example, because really I would love to escape to a no-men world). Most people would probably just look to the chapter that is relevant to them. Worth doing, either way.

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand why men become the men they are, I highly recommended this. It is a textbook full of APA style articles, but 90% off the reading is entertaining. I want to mention that this focuses on ALL men; gays, transmen, lots of different ethnicities etc. but it all comes back to how they are compared and how their lives are established in America where White men are the dominant one in all areas and how that impacts not only them, but everyone else who is male. Ideally men should read this, but you know they won't.

[Burcu]

Focusing on a variety of issues relating to masculinity and constructions of manhood within various socio-cultural contexts, the book is an important addition to the field of gender studies from the perspective of the masculine, written through both feminist and masculinist approaches, as well as statistical and empirical data.

[Karen Blanchette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of articles about the Sociology of Masculinity. Top Notch!

[Linda Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

sociology of masculinity course. want to know ur man, brother, son, etc. better? get a copy of this