| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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These remarks are telling in that they indicate the conservative perspective’s desire to maintain traditional gender roles. The conservatives contend that society will be happier and more civilized if males live in harmony with their natural roles. Substantial evidence exists, however, that the picture of reality as painted by the conservatives is not as they view it.
The profeminist perspective sides with the feminist position and rejects the assertion that the traditional masculinity ideal is biologically determined or a social necessity. Rather, patriarchy’s oppression of women is sustained by male privilege and power, which is also detrimental to men (Clatterbaugh, pp. 10–11). This perspective emerged out of the feminist critique of masculinity in the 1960s as some men sought to identify with the concerns of feminists by aligning with the feminist position that American society was sexist. Women, according to this position, were victims of systemic discrimination and domination from men that prevented women access to the structures of power in society (Clatterbaugh, p. 41). Furthermore, this position argued that patriarchy harmed men in many ways (Clatterbaugh, p. 41).
Responding to these concerns, many men initiated consciousness-raising groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1970, the formation of the Men’s Center in Berkeley, California, marked the beginning of the “feminist men’s movement” (Williamson, 1997). Soon, men’s centers formed around the country. Some groups were inspired by a growing number of feminist male authors, while other groups were outgrowths of local gatherings “inspired by a growing network of men who wanted to support women’s causes and reexamine the masculine role’s relationship to patriarchy” (Williamson, 1997, The Development of the Feminism Men’s Movement, paragraph 3). While independent of each other, they all shared a common belief in the basic tenets of feminism and concerns about men’s collusion in patriarchy (Clatterbaugh, p. 42). In the 1970s and early 1980s, several publications appeared, including Brother: A Male Liberation Newspaper and numerous pamphlets and journals such as “Unbecoming Men” (1971) and M.: Gentle Men for Gender Justice, later renamed Changing Men: Issues in Gender, Sex, and Politics, which still continues to be a significant organ of profeminist men’s writings (Clatterbaugh, p. 43). During this time efforts were made to form a national organization with the First National Conference on the Masculine Mystique in 1974 and the first Men and Masculinity conference in 1975, both of which were strongly influenced by feminist groups (Clatterbaugh, p. 42). Held in Boston in 1981, the seventh Men and Masculinities conference became a year later a national organization called The National Organization for Changing Men (NOCM).