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Weeks 10-11: Exploring Masculinities

Submitted by Anne Dalke on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:41pm

GAS Works

First, with some help from Howard Glasser, we'll be looking @ Michael Kimmel's essay on "Masculinity as Homophobia" and Chris Ware's graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan. What strikes you about this material? Especially when you consider it through the lenses for "transcending gender" that Kate Bornstein provided us, both in text and in person, last week?

Then, we will continue our discussion of masculinity with a visit from artist and publisher Felice Picano, founder of the influential early gay publishing companies SeaHorse Press and The Gay Presses of New York, which both set the tone for gay and lesbian publishing for decades and played an integral role in the development and growth of gay popular culture. What questions do you have for Felice, and/or what are your responses to his visit?

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sadly...

Submitted by Karina on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 10:02pm.

MASAR no longer exists. The guy who ran it (there also used to be a men's group, headed by the same person?)graduated a couple of years ago and since then there haven't been any men interested in restarting it. The HC Women's Center does have a male intern, however, who's been in contact with the graduate hoping to re-create such a space on campus again. So we'll see...

Intersections

Submitted by Howard Glasser on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 1:12am.

Thanks again for allowing me to participate in your class this week. It was great to hear some of your thoughts and experiences. Viewing the “no homo” clip makes me think more about the idea that masculinity intersects with – and is inherently entangled with – so many other cultural identifiers including femininity, maleness, femaleness, sexuality, race, and class. To analyze or discuss any one of these constructs in isolation silences a critical aspect of the construct. I’d argue that none of these reified “things” actually exist unto themselves but are in constant negotiations, relationships, and tensions with a multitude of additional elements, all of which are linked together. Discussions revolving around issues of masculinity have strong implications for each one of these other identifiers.