2019/01/01 by Ana Jordan · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Gender Roles and Identity Studies #Gender, Security, and Conflict #Historical Gender and Feminism Studies
paper · doi:10.1057/978-1-137-31498-7_4
openalex publication_date 2019/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
This chapter examines feminist men’s movements and discusses key insights/debates from existing men’s movements scholarship. An in-depth analysis of the White Ribbon Campaign UK’s online materials examines how they construct masculinity and their gender politics. WRC demonstrates the potential of feminist men’s activism, championing feminist analyses of power and masculinity/violence, and challenging complicit masculinity. However, their emphasis on men as bystanders may allow some men not to interrogate their own practices. Further, their efforts to appeal to men by reframing anti-violence work as ‘manly’ can reproduce, rather than destabilise, hegemonic masculinity. In accordance with ‘progressive’ crisis-of-masculinity accounts, WRC invokes the promise of mainstreaming a softer masculinity. However, their assumption that masculinity as a category should be maintained limits the radical potential of their project.