ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to establish the validity of the emerging field of men’s studies, primarily by articulating its distinctive contributions to the ongoing feminist reconstruction of knowledge. It proposes a general theory of men’s studies as an academic field, analyzes some illustrative examples of men’s studies research, and examines various political perspectives on men’s studies. Men’s studies raises new questions and demonstrates the inadequacy of established frameworks in answering old ones. Politically, men’s studies is rooted in the profeminist men’s movement, analogously to women’s studies rootedness in feminism. In the standard frame of reference, violent men are deviants or non-conformists, having failed to internalize society’s condemnation of violence. The goal of therapy is belatedly to socialize these men into conformity with social norms. Men’s studies, in contrast, argues that to look at the norms of a genderless “society” is insufficient. One must look specifically at male socialization.
