Male Allies and the Politics of Feminist Accountability with Michael Messner

This is an Archive of a Past Event

What does it mean for men to join with women in preventing sexual assault and domestic violence? Based on life history interviews with men and women anti-violence activists, Messner's new book Some Men illuminates both the promise of men's violence prevention work, as well as the strains and tensions that inhere, both for men as feminist allies, and for the women they work with.

In this talk, Messner will focus on promise and contradictions of what it means to be an ally, cutting across three generational cohorts: a "movement cohort" of men who engaged with anti-violence work in the 1970s and early 1980s, during the height of the feminist anti-violence mobilizations; a "bridge cohort" who engaged with anti-violence work from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, as feminism receded as a mass movement and activists built sustainable organizations; a "professional cohort" who engaged from the mid-1990s to the present, as anti-violence work has become embedded in community and campus organizations, non-profits, and the state.

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About the speaker:

Dr. Michael Messner recieved his B.A. and M.A. from C.S.U. Chico. Following this, he recieved his Ph.D. in sociology at U.C. Berkeley. His research focuses on how social relations in gender have changed over the last 40 years. A key focus point is the effects of the social justice movements of the 60's and 70's. Messner studies how the current state of the world is shaped by these movements, and what future movements may develop out of the current environment. His research centers on three areas: gender and sport; sports media; and men, feminism, and politics.