The History of Guys talking about Masculinity
It's longer than you think
Since 2016, a lot of people have had an opinion about masculinity. Ever since Trump and #MeToo, which honestly, fair. Those two events have asked many people “hey, what the hell have the guys been doing for the last…decade or so?” A lot of op-eds and YouTube explainers tried their absolute best to find out if there is a cure or an antidote to what they saw in front of their eyes, a group of guys that were increasingly becoming militant, misogynistic, racist, and dangerous. Of course you only interpret what you see, and if you all you see are Proud Boys, guys with tiki torches, and the ever increasing list of men who were being accused of sexual harrassment, then you kind of assume that the other guys are either joining them or staying silent.
When Michael Ian Black wrote his op-ed in the New York Times called “The Boys are Not All Right” in 2018, he mainly saw what was going around him and said “this ain’t right".” But it’s funny because he finished his op-ed with a curious statement: “I would like men to use feminism as an inspiration, in the same way that feminists used the civil rights movement as theirs.” And I say funny because guys have been doing exactly that for a long time now. I know this because I have been part of that movement since 2013.
Now Michael Ian Black is not the first person to think outloud about how men need to find their own positive movement without researching those exact men who are doing just that. I have seen many an op-ed, article, YouTube video, or podcast that details the many ways in which groups of guys are fucking up and dismissing a lot of men who are trying their very best to find their own positive version of masculinity, specifically using feminism. It’s kind of a common trope now. I wondered why this is? I wondered if it had to do with us, not only as men who have embraced feminism and want it to instruct our liberation, but just men in general.
To find the anwser to that question, I had to go look back in history, as far as I could to find how men embraced feminism before. Specifically men gathering who either backed the feminist movement, men who rejected it and really wanted to talk about it, or men who are questioning their own masculinity, or society’s version of masculinity. To have a document of how men had been gathering before 2022, so no one would ask “why have no men embraced feminism?” And I want you to join me.
My name is German Villegas, I’m the producer of Modern Manhood, a podcast about masculinity and how it affects our society. I’m also a board member at Next Gen Men, a pro-feminist organization all about helping men and boys. And I want to take you to a journey from some of the first male feminists to the 70’s men who wanted liberation to the male right activists to mythopoets to the modern male feminists. Through this journey we will try to understand where it went right and where it went very wrong. Because it all ties together.
Through this newsletter I’m going to share the podcast as well as some of the script, so you’ll get some of the history right here (but you won’t get the fun guest stuff until you listen to the podcast). Every now and then I’ll share with you a snippet of the men’s movements throughout the years.
Stick with me, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.