Male Social Roles

Abstract

There is something rather special about a statement constructed by a group of men at the Berkeley Men’s Center several years ago. This group of men felt that they wanted to become “human” and in essence, wanted freedom from what they perceived to be a highly restrictive sex-role in America. Among other things, these men said:

We no longer want to feel the need to perform sexually, socially, or in any way live up to an imposed male role… we want to relate to both men and women in more human ways—with warmth, sensitivity, emotion, and honesty… we want to be equal with women and to end destructive competitive relationships with men (Pleck and Sawyer, 1974, pp. 173–174).

The significance of this statement, in addition to its contents, lies in the fact that a few modern-day men, over a decade ago, had raised their levels of consciousness regarding male sex-role obligations and expectations. In addition, they were brave enough to voice their resistance to a society whose norms imposed upon them specific obligations and expectations without due regard for individual differences among males. It would be misleading to say that the statement above has altered male sex-role obligations and expectations in the United States. Certainly the Women’s Movement has been extremely influential in regard to male sex-role changes.