Crossing into Manhood: A Men’s Studies Curriculum
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Crossing into Manhood: A Men’s Studies Curriculum By Christopher ...

Chapter 1:  Introduction
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Kimbrell described the profit man as one who is isolated and alienated because he is focused only on the sale. The profit man is also isolated from other men because they are potential competitors over whom he must triumph in order to earn a living. The striving for a profit causes the profit man to be isolated from the rest of humanity because collectively it is studied and viewed as a sales target. Furthermore, the profit man is isolated from his product because product morality, value, and worth are subsumed under the overarching need to make a profit. Self-interest, therefore, is the chief characteristic of the masculine mystique for which the profit man lives. One of the tragic victims of the profit man archetype is fatherhood. As industrialization has progressed, men have been systematically removed from the home for longer and longer hours to work removed from his family and from fathering his children. Choosing between fatherhood and making a living to support one’s family creates a dilemma for men.

Our society, still entranced by the masculine mystique, glorifies the successful professional man, frowns upon the man who picks his family over work, and virtually dismisses any man who would choose to be unemployed or a “househusband” in order to be a better father. Men know their place. They know that their principal defining role is to be the breadwinner, that their primary identity is their work, not being caring as fathers… . To be seen as adequate men, they must be “productive” citizens, able to support themselves and their families. They know that they must compete successfully and gain wealth and power if they are to be validated as men. And they know that failure in this central task, whether in the form of unemployment or low-level jobs (a near-certain fate for millions upon millions of men) will spell disaster both economically and for their masculine identity. (Kimbrell, pp. 179–180)