Free Republic

In 2013, Stony Brook University (part of the SUNY system) revealed plans for a new “Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities.” Since I’m a Stony Brook grad, I was quite interested in this development. Would the new Center do anything to enhance the school’s reputation for scholarship? I didn’t think it would, but the announcement of the ten advisory board members erased all doubt. Six were well-known women: feminist icon Gloria Steinem, actress Jane Fonda, author Eve Ensler (author of the play The Vagina Monologues) and leading women’s studies figures Madeleine Kunin, Catharine Stimpson, and Carol Gilligan, whose...

For decades we have devoted ample space to the deconstruction of women’s studies only to find that there is something even more inane being taught on American campuses—men’s studies. This year, the American Men’s Studies Association (AMSA) held its annual convention in Tacoma, Washington. AMSA is dedicated to “advancing the critical study of men and masculinities.” “Even though the association has been around for 22 years, and even though men’s studies dates back to at least the 1970s, outsiders still tend to greet it with derision and disbelief,” Tom Bartlett writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Imagine. “Men’s studies...