When Men Become Feminists: Ally Politics in An Increasingly Post-Identity Movement

• In Event: 2363 - Masculinities I

Abstract

At the height of the #MeToo moment, the male feminist has been getting a great deal of attention in the social justice sphere. As activists, pundits, and masculinity scholars have weighed in on why feminists are increasingly skeptical of men’s good intentions and discussed what men can do to be better allies to women in this turbulent time, an important piece of the puzzle has remained undertheorized—namely what is the exact position of men in feminism, and how do divergent models of identity politics mediate men’s ability to join the movement? Using 1.5 years of ethnographic fieldwork and 106 interviews with feminist and LGBTQ activists in two cities, I show how feminism’s move towards post-identity politics has enabled men to attain an unprecedented ‘insider status.’ As men become increasingly understood as feminists rather than allies, they can establish a heretofore unimagined connection to feminism. However, this paper shows how this new insider-outsider status has created new challenges for the women the movement serves, making it tricky for them to exclude men who engage in bad behavior at a moment when such boundary-work may be more critical than ever.

Author

• Jaime Hartless, University of Virginia