New Academic Discipline To Take Shape at Staten Island’s Wagner College
Recently appointed mensnewsdaily.com® Education Editor Dick Elfenbein just forwarded this press release to me regarding plans by The On-Step Institute (OSI) to promote men’s studies programs.
I am honored to report this encouraging news to Men’s News Daily readers. A tip of the hat to Dick, who is already proving to be a valuable asset to this publication, and our thanks to OSI’s Dr. Edward M. Stephens for his fine work.
Staten Island, N.Y., Leading scholars concerned about men and boys will convene here April 7, 2010 to plan for a new academic discipline focusing on male studies at the university level. The event, sponsored by the On Step Institute will be held at Wagner College and will be hosted by professor Miles Groth, Ph.D., Editor, The International Journal of Men’s Health and Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies. It will lay out the groundwork for the first International Conference on Men’s Studies scheduled for October 2010 and the launch of the Male Studies Journal.
According to Edward M. Stephens, M.D., OSI’s chairman, the April session participants drawn from a range of college departments will examine the declining state of the male stemming from cataclysmic changes in the current culture, environment and global economy. It will be co-chaired by Judith Kleinfeld, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology and director of The Boys Project at the University of Alaska, and Lionel Tiger, Ph.D., Rutgers University Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology. It will encompass a broad range of topics relative to the study of boys and men in contemporary society ranging from their roles in the family, and workforce as well as their physical and emotional health, to the growing problem of misandry—the hatred of males, an unacknowledged but underlying socio-cultural, economic, political and legal phenomenon, endangering the well being of both genders.
The April consortium will consider the nature and structure of male studies programs designed for major institutions of higher education. Dr. Stephens said it would draw on OSI’s current experience funding graduate studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, Culture and Human Development. The consortium will seek to generate a cross-disciplinary community of scholars in male studies and establish a series of networks enabling them to become acquainted with each others work.
Dr. Stephens noted that while a handful of schools, on occasion, now offer a few courses dealing with males invarious departments– literature, history, anthropology, etc.– they do not provide effective insight into the immense problems confronting males in the 21st century. This, he says, requires and integrated approach across the spectrum of many academic disciplines.
Panels for the April gathering will include many authorities on males and masculinity including Rocco Capraro, Ph.D., Hobart William Smith College Associate Dean and Director, the Program for Men’s Studies; Gar Kellom, Ph.D., Minnesota Saint John’s University and editor of Developing Effective Programs and Services for College Men; and Katherine Young, Ph.D. and Paul Nathanson, Ph.D., co-authors of Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men, Sanctifying Misandry: Goddess Ideology and the Fall of Man, and the forthcoming Transcending Misandry: From Feminist Ideology to Intersexual Dialogue.
To learn how to participate in the conference email
wagnerconference@malestudies.org
For information about participating or registering for the April 7 event, email
wagnerconference@malestudies.org
Other inquiries may be directed to Dick Elfenbein, 845-362-0893,
Paul Elam is the Editor-in-Chief for Men’s News Daily and the publisher of A Voice for Men.
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Also- kudos, jjtaup. That last paragraph of yours is exactly what should be happening.
GO ahead and have your confrence and your college program. Better yet, go and teach Women’s Studies and Men’s Studies as complementary courses.
I would like to point out a few things here that I see:
It seems that more people are opposed to femiNISTS than femiNISM; and sometimes get the two confused.
The tone and wording of some of these comments makes it seem like the posters here think feminists are “out to get” men. That’s not the point.
Manginas? What’s with that? Can a man not be a “man” if he supports feminism?
Some of this seems to be more of the detestable stereotyping, generalizing, and demonizing of the other side (women/feminists). I’m really tired of all this back-and-forth flaming that goes on between the pro- and anti- feminists. Please just get along.
If anyone feels I have misinterperated their statements, please say something so I know.
This sounds like a key turning point and given that Lionel Tiger is co-chairing the conference, I have every faith in the outcome. I consider him one of the most important thinkers alive today and probably nobody has a greater insight than he into the fundamental psycho-sexual dynamics that are driving feminism and misandry.
Relevant, from LewRockwell.com
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/testosterone-genial.html
Testosterone, the Hormone That Makes You Kind and Genial
It is often blamed as the catalyst for aggression and risk taking in humans.
But it seems testosterone may have had a bad press.
The sex hormone may even be the source of very different human acts such as kindness, friendliness and fair play, research suggests.
A bargaining game where female participants were either given a single dose of the hormone or a dummy pill found those who received testosterone behaved more fairly, had fewer conflicts and were better at social interactions.
But women who simply thought they received testosterone – whether or not they actually did – behaved more unfairly than those who believed they received the placebo, whether they did or not.
Researchers said the negative connotation of increasing testosterone levels seems to be strong enough to cause negative social behaviour even when the biological result is the opposite.
Dr Christoph Eisenegger, a neuroscientist at the University of Zurich said: ‘The preconception that testosterone only causes aggressive or egotistic behaviour in humans is thus clearly refuted.’
It pays to look closely at the people involved in initiatives of this kind.
I know about Lionel Tiger, Judith Kleinfeld, Young & Nathanson. They have proven track records of understanding men and opposing misandry.
Rocco Capraro I have never heard of, and I can’t find anything of substance about his views and personal history.
But Gar Kellom worries me. Here is his page at Minnesota Saint John’s University:
http://www.csbsju.edu/menscenter/leadership/Gar%20Kellom%20Resume.htm
Scroll down to his “Selected Recent National Consultation and Conference Presentations off campus” and you find he has addressed the NOMAS national conference. He is also an affiliate of NOMAS. Remember them? In case you need reminding, they are the National Organisation for Men Against Violence. Nothing wrong in that; I am heavily against violence myself. But their website explains their particular slant: they are “pro-feminist, gay-affirmative, anti-racist, enhancing men’s lives”. How the first is compatible with the fourth, God only knows. You can get more of their flavour here:
http://www.nomas.org/
A tour around this site will tell you that NOMAS is just a front for feminism. They are certainly no friends of men.
I now ask myself how Gar Kellom got on board. And I also ask myself what role he will play. Whatever it is, I seriously doubt it will be for the good of men or boys as the MRM understands the need.
So Paul you will understand why I am at present not inclined to welcome this initiative with open arms. It may indeed prove to be brilliant; but I respectfully suggest the Trojan horse(s) need to be removed first.
Thank you, MND, for having the vision to publicize the creation of this New Academic Discipline: Male Studies.
Right now, there are over 380 women’s studies programs across the USA and only one undergraduate program on men.
Net effect: thousand of women and men graduate from our universities each year with a gynocentric view of society, join NGOs and work in congress people’s offices lobbying for a single gender.
If our society, or for that matter any society, is going to work, it has to walk on two legs. We have been hopping along as if men and boys didn’t exist.
Male studies is not meant to imitate women’s studies. We want the study of men and boys as an a-political inquiry that will benefit all
Read more as we go along and spread the word
Ed Stephens, MD
Chair, On Step Institute
It’s a significant move in the right direction. Will there be attempts to derail it, hijack it, demean it? Of course. So? Consider what’s at stake. Fight.
It is unlikely that the mainstream media will pick this up. However, this could be an excellent opportunity to prove the strength of men connecting via the web and spreading the message of mens activism.
[...] News Daily, The On Step Institute issued a press release announcing a convention on creating men’s studies programs at the university level. This is not just more of what we have seen in the past in men’s [...]
Mr. Deluca
Consider it matched.
So men are gonna finally be the ones that help show men how to be men?
Good stuff…
A special request to all MRA’s with blogs or websites. Please link to this article and help us get the word around.
Thanks
Quite right. Thanks to Ray for speaking out so clearly. I left a comment and will link the article to Sex and Metropolis.
One more thing, thank you Ray for standing up for Men’s Rights at your local College. Keep fighting the good fight brother, there are more of us at your side growing everyday!
Mr. Elam,
As soon as you get the online donations set up, I will match as well at $50.
Thank you for your post Mr. DeLuca, and more importantly thank you for your military service as well.
-cdub
It is high time we see men’s studies programs established on college and university campuses. Not just this one, but many others as well. This effort needs to be made and it needs to succeed. Just this past week, I was successful in getting an opinion on male disposability published in my local college newspaper, but I encountered strong opposition from a person who apparently held strong feminist sentiments, and after the article was published a few posters attacked the opinion with little more than put downs and insults.
http://tinyurl.com/yg5fual
That’s the climate males face on most college and university campuses in America today and it’s wrong. I’m sure this larger effort (men’s studies program) by these far more astute scholars will face similar opposition from the politically aligned, gender feminist forces in education – but still I support their efforts. In fact, as I read this article I kept wondering how we could expand their efforts to California.
This effort (men’s studies program) must succeed somewhere before men can begin to be freed everywhere, IMO. I am tired of the disposable sex, becoming more disposable with each new gender feminist class on a college campus and each new anti-male piece of legislation authored in government. If not men’s studies now, when? If not men’s studies in New York, then where?
Mr. Deluca
Consider it matched, and I pass the challenge on to the next reader.
I will speak with DE regarding their donation efforts and see if we can work out a banner or link from the site if they are set up for online donations.
About effin time.
We also need to spin out a smaller version that can be taught at the high school level. Talking sense to young males sooner rather than later is always the better way to go.
It is absolutely imperative that high school boys get the message.
@Paul
You are welcome, you earned my respect a while ago. I’m looking forward to any interviews you may be able to get with any of the aforementioned men and women listed in this blog that will be heading the meetings.
I will do some research in the coming days on my own end so I can get more antiquated wtih the backgrounds of the folks provided here. And I do apologize as I admit I did skim over some of the names. I am familiar with Nathanson & Young and their books have been on my reading list for some time. I’m also familiar with Mr. Lionel Tiger as well, a definate asset to the MRA community.
Thanks to all that are making this happen, this is VERY good news!
Our young men need this more than ever!
cdub – and others who might not know about Nathanson’s work or Judith Klienfeld. Google Judith Klienfeld PhD and read MYTHS. It’s a bit over 30 pages and debunks the BS from women’s groups about how girls faced “Hostile Hallways” in our school system, now and in the past. I graduated from high school in 64 with a twin sister and we never noticed Hostile Hallways for males or females. We did consider that lower class people had problems in school but gender was not an issue.
We had many bright female students who were not afraid to speak up and who did just as well as the smart boys. My 1st wife graduated with us – genius, I never heard her ever suggest that teachers were unfair. Meanwhile the “boys” were signing up for the military and some of us ended up with 100% disabilities or dead)
I have purchased two of Nathanson’s books which sometimes are poorly reviewed. Feminist hunt down such books and try to convince others that they are not worth reading. If you have a library about gender you need their books. We should all buy any positive books about men and help write reviews. With the billion$ women’s groups get I am sure there is a group somewhere that just writes poor reviews of positive books about men. Sounds paranoid but I did find some feminst propaganda as a prize in a Cracker Jacks box – and haven’t purchased Cracker Jacks since.
Lionel Tiger is a man, not a feminist dupe.
I took home economics in 1964, the year I graduated. Years later I heard from feminist teachers and journalists that the 60′s were a war zone for women and they couldn’t take shop class. Well, I am sure if they had wanted shop class they could have it. just as the boys who wanted to learn to cook, sew buttons, were doing. (Likely the class was started by a feminist teache but it was fun and no, I am not a sissy boy)
Women saying “WE didn’t get to take shop class is like women saying “We didn’t get to run marathons cuz men wouldn’t let us, sexist pigs” What would my best friend and I do if men were not allowed to race in Marathons because women wouldn’t let us? Let’s see, we would moan about women being sexist pigs for a few years and try to sneak into their races…NO< we would tie on our running shoes, tell the press we were going to race, and then we would run 26 miles to show we could do it. And if women were faster than us we would not ask for a 20 minute head start and collect first place cash as if that was equal work for equal pay either. We wouldn't demand to be in women's races and have equal prize money if they were faster and then not allow them to run in our races. Men who go along with this are castrated.
I am happy to see this event coming up. Looks like they have the right people too. When I was in college I was suffering from a few things. PTSD was one, army. Worse. I was one of those boys who got behind early on in schools designed for girls by women. Got out of high school with a 1.4 GPA. College was hard enough without feminst teachers wanting me to spread their lies to get a good grade. Feminist teachers made college harder than it needed to be.
Growing up with a twin sister you learn alot about gender. Growing up with child abuse, and then being in the military police, later working with teen girls in a treatment facility, and married, BEFORE I started college, I didn't "bow down" to the feminist teachers because I knew in my heart they were wrong about men and boys. I had seen child abuse in the work I did and in the home I grew up in. Child abuse, most of it, is by women and was common in the housing projects. I knew in my heart the feminist had it wrong about women being angels and men being pigs but most of the students bought into it. It didn't take much research to prove these women wrong but proving them wrong affected your class grades. ( I did graduate on the honor roll) More than once a feminist teacher threatened to kick me out of her class for daring to challenge her views… and more than once it was female students that protected me, and stood with me, not males. Smart honest women and I have always got along and these women knew I was simply not willing to kiss ass to feminist to get a grade.
It's taken 30 to 40 years to get to this point and to this program on the 7th. Despite Obama, Pelosi, and the Clintons, Biden too, buying into feminist propaganda, we have seen more progress regarding men's issues in the last ten years than in the 30 years before.
This new program is going to spread the word. Very cool. We are reaching critical mass. Pretty soon you will hear our granddaughters and grandsons asking us to stop male bashing in the media, to stop kicking boys in the nuts for entertainment and stop pretending it's not mostly males who die in work and war as they provide for women and children.
Steven DeLuca US Army retired.
PS maybe we should do some fund raising to help advertise this program. I would be in for $50.00 if someone will match it.
Godspeed and blessings to all who attempt at such healings…with my fingers crossed, I’m truely agog !
And I am very familiar with the work of Lionel Tiger. He is no mangina. His books were some of my first in real MR literature and helped me to become a MRA.
I say thanks to all at SYG, GlennSacks, MND, MRA and Antimisandry for keeping up the pressure that, I am sure, contributed to the progress we are now seeing.
End of tunnel, meet light.
@ cdub
Your stated trust is much appreciated, and I fully understand your interest in finding out more about the individuals involved in this initiative.
Nathanson and Young’s series on misandry are staples in the MRM literature. As you can see looking across to the right of this post, we have linked to the “Spreading Misandry” page on amazon.com for some time.
I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few months phone conferencing with Dick and Dr. Stephens in advance of this press release. I find them to both be men who possess full cognizance of the issues involved and understand well what they are undertaking.
Perhaps in the not too distant future I will be able to interview others affiliated with these initiatives and present those conversations in the form of articles here.
What I can tell you for the time being, and without reservation, is that I am convinced OSI, if supported, will make significant inroads into ameliorating some of the damaging consequences of misandry in modern culture.
I for one am absolutely ecstatic. And I’m hoping there’s a public portion to the thing, as I would like to attend and see what’s on the agenda!
This is bigger then pretty much everything that has come before it (building on the shoulders of giants), nothing less than the end of Feminist hegemony, and the beginning of justice for men.
I wholeheartedly support this.
Like Jay R said this will be meant with heavy feminist and media opposition.
Furthermore, I would like to find out more background information about the leading scholars that are to head this group. I trust Paul and that he wouldn’t just be excited about this if he didn’t believe that this group will have the MRA’s best interests at heart. But after years of Misandry in the pop culture I tread lightly. I hope this is legit, and springs us into bigger and better things.
This is a fantastic development!
Want to bet that it is criticized, and opposed, by feminist organizations?
@ poiuyt,
Perhaps not so bad and a part of the revolutionary spirit of the MRM.
But we can’t overlook the importance of this development. It has been feminist hegemony in academia that has been pivotal to several strongholds for misandric activism. Women’s groups have long used studies from feminist academics to gain a voice with the media. News outlets love to cite studies, even when they don’t understand the results or methodologies involved. The wage gap myth is a prime example of this.
Two, studies from those same program have been used to justify legislation like VAWA. Three, perspectives from women’s studies have literally influenced the collective consciousness of the culture, their language and ideals rigorously disseminated throughout the population to the point that other voices have been stymied.
The list goes on, but I am hoping you get the picture here that not only should MRA’s applaud this, they should be cheering and howling and reaching for their check books to support what is happening here.
If the OSI succeeds in their ambitions, it will result in a tectonic shift in the academic landscape that will finally start to address the imbalances and injustices that institutionalized misandry has created. And it will give a voice to those concerns that almost literally cannot be ignored or dismissed.
This isn’t just big, sir. It is HUGE.
The down trodden male population may be unwise to applaud too readily, the emmergence of a mens studies program at university level or any level in america. Why ?
1.
It may be used as a further vehicle by the powers that be, to desseminate more negative male propaganda and justify further and expanding male burdens. And going by historical example, existing systems never ever sow institutional seeds to bear fruit, not of a digestible and palatable nature to existing structures.
2
It may be a cynical sop inserted to diffuse the growing retsiveness and aggitation amongst young males in society. The reasoning being that the system needs to get at those young, brave and energetic males first and definitely earlier than the mens movement. That is, before they become too aware of their condition as males without any right or status in western society.
3.
State, Public or Government funded political or educational initiatives on gender, rarely if ever are objective projects. An objective political, legal, economic and social study of the condition of maleness would nescessarily amount to a public concession, purely by dint of being studied, that men are no less human too in the sense that women are human. Is western cynicism, hypocracy, chauvenism and bigottry ready for such an admission ?
This could be something good–very good. I believe we are beginning to see the fruits of so much sacrifice and heartache of men who have been relentless pursuit of justice despite the deep wounds they have received.
My hope is that this educates people on the importance not only of men, but of the relationship between men and women, and the role of both in preserving the family against the legal juggernaut. I hope this does not eventually degenerate into what feminism has become–a grossly unjust and unjustifiable carping and crowing of perceived injury and dominance.
It is our modern absurd notion of the “equality” of man and woman, without recognizing the merits and weaknesses of each, and importantly, their complementarity, that has and continues to pervert what has been ordained by God.
This is big.
This is great news and heartfelt thanks to all those who are putting this together.