Men's Studies

Generally described as the critical analysis of men and masculinities, men's studies emerged as a legitimate field of academic inquiry in the early 1990s. Although men's studies has not yet been widely adopted as a major program at most American colleges and universities, its increasing incorporation and success suggests a growing tendency to rethink the meaning of masculinity in the United States.

Like women's studies, its more widely accepted sister discipline, men's studies is based on the premise that society views all human beings through a gendered lens—a distortion that has traditionally resulted in the general privileging of men over women. While recognizing the inequality of this history, contemporary men's studies also examines aspects of patriarchy not often broached during discussions of gender, particularly the complex, ...