How Feminism Shapes Academic and Media Discourse on Men and Male Identity

Abstract

While men are the subject of this book, gender studies have mostly originated from and been heavily influenced by feminist theory. Kidder (2004) in American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopaedia, says that study of men and masculinities ‘are indebted to the academic framework of women’s studies which created the vocabulary of gender-based discrimination and social constructs’. As well as providing an overall framework for study of gender, Seidler (1994, p. 112) says, ‘feminists have… set the agenda of men’s studies’. Therefore, any study of gender identity has, as its theoretical foundation and starting point, feminist gender theory. Also, at a practical level, it must consider how feminism has shaped gender debate on women and men.