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The Belly of the Beast (I): Sex as Male Domination?

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Slow Motion

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Abstract

‘Man is complicated’, Catherine Stimpson announces, introducing one of the early North American texts in ‘Men’s Studies’.3 The more we explore the social and historical dimensions of masculinity, the more it is revealed as heterogeneous and contradictory. It is defined primarily through a series of hierarchical relations: rejection and suppression of femininity and homosexual desire, command and control over (often seen as ‘protection of’) the ‘weak’ and ‘inferior’. But while the notion of masculinity becomes ever more complex, the ‘problem of men’ becomes ever more pressing. We may come to understand sexual difference in terms of a shifting reality — a multiplicity of meanings rather than simple opposition — but the cultural, social and political domination of men over women persists. The vexing paradox for feminists has been the need to criticise and challenge the social construction of ‘woman’ as definitively less-than, subordinate to or complemented by, ‘man’, while at the same time retaining for ourselves those aspects of womanhood which we value but which are disparaged in dominant male-centred discourses and realities. In consequence we may end up defending notions of feminine experience which we need to demolish as exclusively ‘feminine’. A similar paradox in relation to men lies in the importance of challenging the existence of any fixed essence of ‘man’, while at the same time insisting upon the continuing practical problem of men. The danger here is that we may end up dismissing the diversity and changing meanings of ‘masculinity’, some of which we might need to help strengthen as a challenge to the more traditional ones.

I suppose I do genuinely believe that any movement that liberates women will liberate men too … It’s a difficult time to be a man: it’s a difficult and fascinating time to be a woman. Right now we are the active ones and men are on the receiving end. I wish men would be more active in terms of initiating change … I’m sure this will come and I’m very optimistic about the outcome of the present ‘sexual crisis’.

Nancy Friday1

So we agonise over what to do with the men. If we engage in relationships with them it is almost inevitable that we will be exploited … If we support them we help to perpetuate patriarchy; if we fight them we run the risk of repeating the error of their ways … What we are beginning to appreciate is that NO MATTER WHAT WOMEN DO it can be arranged to suit patriarchy.

Dale Spender2

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Notes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

    Lynne Segal (Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies)

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  1. Lynne Segal
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© 2007 Lynne Segal

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Segal, L. (2007). The Belly of the Beast (I): Sex as Male Domination?. In: Slow Motion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582521_8

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