Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence against Women

by Michael A. Messner, Max A. Greenberg, Tal Peretz

Overview

What does it mean for men to join with women as allies in preventing sexual assault and domestic violence? Based on life history interviews with men and women anti-violence activists aged 22 to 70, Some Men explores the strains and tensions of men's work as feminist allies. When feminist women began to mobilize against rape and domestic violence, setting up shelters and rape crisis centers, a few men asked what they could do to help. They were directed "upstream," and told to "talk to the men" with the goal of preventing future acts of violence.

This is a book about men who took this charge seriously, committing themselves to working with boys and men to stop violence, and to change the definition of what it means to be a man. The book examines the experiences of three generational cohorts: a movement cohort of men who engaged with anti-violence work in the 1970s and early 1980s, during the height of the feminist anti-violence mobilizations; a bridge cohort who engaged with anti-violence work from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, as feminism receded as a mass movement and activists built sustainable organizations; a professional cohort who engaged from the mid-1990s to the present, as anti-violence work has become embedded in community and campus organizations, non-profits, and the state. Across these different time periods, stories from life history interviews illuminate men's varying paths—including men of different ethnic and class backgrounds—into anti-violence work.

Some Men explores the promise of men's violence prevention work with boys and men in schools, college sports, fraternities, and the U.S. military. It illuminates the strains and tensions of such work—including the reproduction of male privilege in feminist spheres—and explores how men and women navigate these tensions.

To learn more please visit somemen.org

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199338771
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/02/2015
Series:	Oxford Studies in Culture and Politics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Michael A. Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California.

Max A. Greenberg is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Southern California.

Tal Peretz is Lecturer in Sociology at Seattle University.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Preface: Men Upstream
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: "This is Men's Work"
Chapter 2: Diving in: The Movement Cohort, 1970s to 1980s
Chapter 3: Digging in: The Bridge Cohort, mid-1980s to 1990s
Chapter 4: Plugging in: The Professional Cohort, mid-1990s to Present
Chapter 5: Earning your Ally Badge: Men, Feminism, and Accountability
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Men, Feminism, and Social Justice
Appendix 1: List of interviewees with demographic descriptors
Appendix 2: The Author's Moments of Engagement
Notes
List of References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"In the last four decades or so, there has grown up a diverse activist community of men who understand that feminism is their movement, too - not only because they support daughters, wives, mothers and co-workers, but because they see violence against females as a normalization of all violence, and a powerful way of limiting men's full humanity, too. If you want to meet them, learn more and hope more, you'll find them in the pages of Some Men, a practical, readable, inspiring guide to a crucial, growing, yet rarely reported American movement." -Gloria Steinem

"Some Men is a splendid book. Authors Messner, Greenberg and Peretz combine moving narrative, careful research, and sharp analysis. Their book tells in depth the story of those American men who have worked to end rape, domestic violence, and other forms of men's violence against women. Tracing the complex relations with changing feminism, and the intense debates, failures and successes of three generations of activist men, this is vividly-written contemporary history from which everyone concerned with gender justice can learn." -Raewyn Connell, Author of Masculinities and Confronting Equality

"For more than 40 years, a growing tribe of males has been making an exodus from the desert of conventional manhood. The remarkable journeys of a number of them are recounted in this inspiring chronicle of the profeminist men's movement. Some Men is sure to stir the hearts of anyone championing a world where men denounce violence against women and advocate for the liberation of men." -Rob Okun, Editor of the anthology, VOICE MALE: The Untold Story of the Profeminist Men's Movement

"In this moving book, the authors provide insight into the hearts and minds of men who took seriously the feminist call by making lifetime commitments as allies in the movement to end violence against women. A stellar book that is carefully grounded in the history of the feminist and anti-violence movements, it is a must-read not only for students and scholars of gender, masculinity, feminism, and the anti-violence movement, but also for policy-makers and activists working toward ending gender-based violence." -Verta Taylor, Professor Sociology and Feminist Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

"Sociologists Messner, Greenberg, and Peretz help readers understand the efforts of some men to support the feminist movement to end violence against women. Their book is well crafted, carefully theorized, and empirically rooted in interviews with a diverse group of 52 men and 11 women deeply involved in the anti-violence organizing in the US. Highly recommended." -Choice

"By delving deeply into the history of men's activism to end gendered violence, Messner, Greenberg, and Peretz advance the scholarly understanding of social movement dynamics generally, the broader feminist antiviolence movement, and the unique contributions of profeminist men to what was once considered a women's cause."-Maria Bevacqua, Minnesota State University, Mankato

"Some Men fills major gaps in multiple fields. Perhaps of most interest to readers of Men & Masculinities¸ the book provides the fullest historical perspective to date on the rapidly shifting role of men in the movement to end violence against women and contributes to ongoing conversations about contentions and contradictions in that work."-Cliff Leek, Stony Brook University

"The most impressive elements of this book are the historical and feminist activist contextualization. In each chapter, we learn not only what Messner, Greenberg, and Peretz discovered in their interviews, but also about how the historical contexts in which the engagements were occurring shaped that engagement."-Tristan Bridges, Journal Contemporary Sociology

From the Publisher