Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rick Shelton on May 3, 2012 at 11:37am

+1000, especially in this case.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas on May 1, 2012 at 10:34pm

Male student here.  Never felt unwelcome because of my gender.

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Permalink Reply by Will on May 1, 2012 at 11:15pm

I don't think the interviewee is right about much herein; here's why.

The major reason young males are not matriculating is a campus atmosphere that is unwelcoming.

I have never heard any young man say he did not feel welcome at college.  What we do note is that men, on average, have higher academic confidence than women, but lower academic ability. Young men are going to college less because they're not as good at academics, on average.  Why this is I don't know.  But it's a well-known national trend; my college is no exception.

Some rather cynically have suggested that the economy is to blame and that males have decided that it is futile to pursue higher education since there will not be any jobs waiting for them after graduation. That argument does not hold water, since the economy affects women and men without discrimination.

Not so.  This recession hit men way worse than women; men got laid off, women not so much.  (And I have not heard anyone say you shouldn't go to college because you won't get a job.  People go back to school to improve their employment prospects.

This whole thing about men being intimidated and silent because pro-male opinions are verboten:  even if true, gender issues are the focus of almost no classes.  They don't show up in biology, physics, history, mathematics, engineering, foreign language, philosophy, and aren't much present in religion, English, or art.  If that's what intimidates you, you're in luck:  you won't have to feel intimidated much!  We should all be so lucky.

I'm all for exploring the masculine, and I am not a feminist.  But this presents a view of college that is far from what a college man experiences.  If you're going to be a victim, better to pick a more pervasive villain.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah on May 1, 2012 at 11:52pm

I agree with your general point. I think whether gender politics come up in other classes depends on the institution and the professor, for history, foreign language,* English, and religion. My college class read the great feminist play "The Doll's House" and discussed the religious aspects, not the gender politics. I know a Latin professor who brings out the gender politics issues in classical history and literature. But if every class becomes a gender studies class at a school like Wagner, it's up to tenured profs like the interviewee to rein in the lectures/curriculum. And there are ways both an applicant and a student can address the problem, too.

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Permalink Reply by LShieldes on May 2, 2012 at 7:52am

Stated far better than I could have done, fully agree with your post.

 

Both the interviewer and the interviewee felt like they were leading each other to find excuses for basically giving each other a job, not to solve anything.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Shelton on May 3, 2012 at 11:42am

I have never heard any young man say he did not feel welcome at college.

It's been a while since I attended college so I can't really speak to welcome or not welcome.  But, I didn't see anywhere in the article where they interviewed young men who did not attend college and ask them why they chose not to attend.  Go to the source and ask the question.

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Permalink Reply by Native Son on May 1, 2012 at 11:47pm

When I was a lad, we had a "men's studies" program that started in Middle School.

Only it was called "Shop" and "Gym".

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Permalink Reply by LShieldes on May 2, 2012 at 7:53am

We had men's groups in college as well, they were called Fraternaties.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Larsen on May 2, 2012 at 12:34am

I think men studies would be really cool to take.  I think having a Men's Center would be really awesome.  I don't really feel like radical feminism is the enemy here but I found an underwhelming amount of resources when it came to men studies in the library.  The male psyche and the history of the perception of masculinity is a rich subject to research.  I'm surprised it isn't researched more.

I agree with the author in that men need exclusive communities of men as women need exclusive communities of women.  Having that common experience is important and need fulfilling.   

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Permalink Reply by Vytautas on May 2, 2012 at 7:58am

Masculinity and perceptions and constructions of masculinity is a huge area of study and it has been studied extensively. If you didn't find any resources in your library, you either have a bad library or you didn't look hard enough.

And if there's an area that hasn't been studied, and you take an interest in it, I encourage you to fill the gap with a study of your own... maybe someday your book will be on the shelf in the library!

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Larsen on May 2, 2012 at 10:40am

See, I've seen lot's of books on masculinity and male psychology.  But none of them were considered academic.  The only ones that were academic in my school's library were focused on homosexuality or men from a feminist perspective.

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Permalink Reply by Vytautas on May 2, 2012 at 10:54am

What is a book about "men from a feminist perspective"? Does that discount the book's findings? I don't really know what that phrase means, but I get the vague impression that you think a 'feminist' perspective means the book is intellectually untenable.

http://books.google.com/books?id=hpTetnxkxJsC

Here is at least one book that I think fits what you're looking for.

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