A Google search on “male studies,†(in quotes) just six weeks ago yielded 18,200 returns. Today the same search produces 61,400.
As we make the final approach to the April 7th Symposium on Male Studies, that spike in search returns represents an increasing amount of buzz about the subject, and the predictable ideological skirmishes that are now flaring up on many places across the net, even on some mainstream websites.
They Washington Post’s Daniel de Vise did a mercifully short piece in which he managed to bring Male Studies conference presenter Lionel Tiger, the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, into the story, by making fun of his name. de Vise’s other standout example of crack journalism was that he admitted he had never even heard the word misandry till he read the male studies promo.
Apparently at The Post, not having the vocabulary to understand an issue is no bar to writing about it.
On a brighter note, however, Dr. Michael Blumenfield wrote a largely supportive article for the Huffington Post, in which he dealt with the subject fairly and objectively, concluding that there should be no bar to the academic study of males. In fairness, the concept of male studies appeared just as novel to Blumenfield as it did to de Vise, but the doctor managed to handle it with a great deal more of intellectual prowess.
These two mainstream pieces served as an fitting microcosm of the overall reactions to the conference in less traveled venues, all of which indicate the same schism familiar to anyone familiar with modern sexual politics. Everyone is arguing, few are looking to learn more than what they already know, and the disagreements largely devolve into feminist vs. MRA firefights.
Part of that is attributable to the fact that the new discipline is just that, a new discipline. It has to be explained. And while explanations have been issued and reissued, it remains a concept that is slow to sink in. It is as though the concept of studying males with academic integrity vs. looking at men and boys under a microscope as though they were some sort of pathogens is testing the cognitive skills of the culture at large.
That lack of understanding was recently addressed by MND board member Dr. Edward Stephens, founder of the On Step Institute, which is parent to the male studies initiative and is sponsoring the conference.
“Male studies is continuously conflated with men’s studies and women’s studies.” says Stephens,  ”Stop! Catch a breath and say it out loud. ‘male studies.’ Hey, that’s the study of males. That’s not an ideology.â€Â
Dr. Stephens is just as clear about what is riding on this effort and who it will affect in the future.
“Go to the Center for Foundations website and type in ‘male studies.’ You can learn a lot about male frogs, fish, goat, gnats, etc., but nothing about human males. Then check out the major categories of giving for philanthropies and you find $2.9 billion for women and girls, but no category for men and boys.â€Â
The feminist reaction to all this has been unsurprising. Feminist-on-the-street sentiments in comment columns are all there, replete with insinuations that male studies is an attempt to undermine women‘s equality. Their response to concerns about every thing from the startling statistics on male suicide, the mortality gap between men and women and the disappearance of the modern male from higher education and employment can be summarized as follows:
Hey, before 1920 women couldn’t vote! What about that, huh?!
Predictably, sycophantic proponents of the similarly named but vastly different men’s studies have been dismissive and territorial. Organizations like NOMAS and AMSA already claim to have the study of men covered. Or, as Michael of Kimmel of NOMAS wrote me, “No need to think your conference at Wagner is “creating†a new field. The field is strong, diverse and remarkably exciting.â€Â
This was the same communication in which he explained that his “strong, diverse†field of study was actually an activism network for feminists, homosexuals, transsexuals, cross dressers, racial minorities and any other group that does not singularly identify as male.
Fact always was stranger than fiction.
In December of last year, Men’s News Daily was the first to bring you the announcement of the male studies conference. We have followed and helped promote it since that time. In these last days before the event, the fireworks that any legitimate male studies program was sure to inspire are indeed starting to rock the skies over the realm of sexual politics.
It is long overdue.
And one would wager that this is just the beginning. The conference is a precursor, a historic day 1 of what will hopefully be a needed change in the American academic landscape, and eventually in the lives of men across the western world.
After the conference, later in the year, the On Step Institute will host the first International Conference on Male Studies to continue the mission that officially launches at Wagner in just a week.
With a success at Wagner and the realization of the future international conference, we can expect an even more intense reaction from the media and the public at large.  And we can expect to hope for things not even imagined a year ago.
Interested persons can still register to watch the conference online via streaming media.
Paul Elam is the Editor-in-Chief of Men’s News Daily and the Publisher of  A Voice for Men.
