Michael Kimmel – författare

We hear them on talk radio airwaves bellowing about minorities. We watch them organize anti-immigration demonstrations on the border. We read their opinions regarding the demise of white male privilege. And sometimes, tragically, we witness their aggression through vigilante violence, as in the cases of Wade Michael Page, James Eagan Holmes, Elliot Rodger, George Zimmerman, and many more. They are America's angry white men, including "men's rights" activists who think white men are the victims of discrimination, as well as members of the "white wing" of the rightward fringes of the American political spectrum. Why are they so angry?Sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the leading writers on men and masculinity in the world today, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men in pursuit of an answer. Raised to expect unparalleled social and economic privilege, white men are suffering today from what Kimmel calls "aggrieved entitlement": a sense that those benefits that white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them. In Angry White Men, Kimmel presents a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage.

This anthology on sexuality addresses such key questions as: How are sexualities socially constructed? Why are sexualities more than just natural "urges"? and How are sexualities personal, social, and political? Using multiple disciplines, international populations, and theories to explore sexualities, it opens with classical and contemporary theories, and then explores the ways in which we learn about sexual activities and develop sexual identities. Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society has a strong sociological approach, but also considers other important perspectives (psychology, biology, history). It is rigorous, yet accessible and engaging, covering classical and contemporary arguments and perspectives. For this second edition, the author and contributors have thoroughly revised the manuscript to include a wide variety of additional topical coverage, added critical thinking and discussing quesitons to each article, and created a glossary of key terms.

By the time Matthias was in seventh grade, he felt he’d better belong to some group, lest he be alone and vulnerable. The punks and anarchists were identifiable by their tattoos and hairstyles and music. But it was the skinheads who captured his imagination. They had great parties, and everyone seemed afraid of them. “They really represented what it meant to be a strong man,” he said.  What draws young men into violent extremist groups? What are the ideologies that inspire them to join? And what are the emotional bonds forged that make it difficult to leave, even when they want to?  Having conducted in-depth interviews with ex–white nationalists and neo-Nazis in the United States, as well as ex-skinheads and ex-neo-Nazis in Germany and Sweden, renowned sociologist Michael Kimmel demonstrates the pernicious effects that constructions of masculinity have on these young recruits. Kimmel unveils how white extremist groups wield masculinity to recruit and retain members—and to prevent them from exiting the movement. Young men in these groups often feel a sense of righteous indignation, seeing themselves as victims, their birthright upended in a world dominated by political correctness. Offering the promise of being able to "take back their manhood," these groups leverage stereotypes of masculinity to manipulate despair into white supremacist and neo-Nazi hatred.  Kimmel combines individual stories with a multiangled analysis of the structural, political, and economic forces that marginalize these men to shed light on their feelings, yet make no excuses for their actions. Healing from Hate reminds us of some men's efforts to exit the movements and reintegrate themselves back into society and is a call to action to those who make it out to help those who are still trapped.

In Women in College, feminist and sociologist Mirra Komarovsky interviewed women who entered Barnard College in the fall of 1979, finding that the demands of college life facilitated and occasionally forced many of these women to change their self-concept. Many felt trapped between new ideals of femininity - including action, vigor, rational competence, and effectiveness - and traditional notions of femininity, centered around emotional nurturance, passivity and kindness. This study forms the basis of her critique of the struggle that arose from the differences in what were seen as the mutually exclusive roles of homemaker and those who pursued work outside the home.

In Dilemmas of Masculinity, noted sociologist Mirra Komarovsky turns her attention to the consequences of feminism among women on the lives of men. As she'd documented in Women in the Modern World, and would again in Women in College, women's lives had changed enormously in the thirty-plus years Komarovsky taught at Barnard College. Women now are able to own their intelligence without apology, and most of the women had career aspirations that were equal to the men across the street at Columbia. In fieldwork conducted with Columbia College seniors in 1969-1970, she continually found that women's newly claimed freedoms, however, sat uneasily on men who had been raised in traditional homes. On the one hand, they respected women's intellectual achievements and even welcomed women's career aspirations. The campus ethos "demanded that men pay at least lip service to liberal attitudes towards working wives," Komarovsky wrote in an article based on the research. On the other hand, they didn't want to sacrifice any of the privileges they had been taught to expect - that their wives would do virtually all the child care and housework. As a result, the men were utterly unprepared for the new world of gender equality that women were beginning to demand.

In Dilemmas of Masculinity, noted sociologist Mirra Komarovsky turns her attention to the consequences of feminism among women on the lives of men. As she'd documented in Women in the Modern World, and would again in Women in College, women's lives had changed enormously in the thirty-plus years Komarovsky taught at Barnard College. Women now are able to own their intelligence without apology, and most of the women had career aspirations that were equal to the men across the street at Columbia. In fieldwork conducted with Columbia College seniors in 1969-1970, she continually found that women's newly claimed freedoms, however, sat uneasily on men who had been raised in traditional homes. On the one hand, they respected women's intellectual achievements and even welcomed women's career aspirations. The campus ethos "demanded that men pay at least lip service to liberal attitudes towards working wives," Komarovsky wrote in an article based on the research. On the other hand, they didn't want to sacrifice any of the privileges they had been taught to expect - that their wives would do virtually all the child care and housework. As a result, the men were utterly unprepared for the new world of gender equality that women were beginning to demand.

In The Unemployed Man and His Family, noted sociologist and feminist Mirra Komarovsky poses the question: what happens to the authority of the male head of the family when he fails as a provider? Between 1935 and 1936, Komarovsky interviewed 59 families in 1935-36 in which the male had been unemployed for at least a year. Interestingly, in many cases, the husband's struggle in the economic sphere did not offset the solidity and happiness of the marital relationship. But unemployment seems to have affected the men's sense of their own position as head of household and providers. For one thing, it undermined their sense of themselves as breadwinners. Most found it unbearably humiliating to accept relief. Perhaps her most important finding—which still resonates today—was that those men who thought of themselves exclusively as providers suffered far more than those who had developed alternative identities as father and husband.

In The Unemployed Man and His Family, noted sociologist and feminist Mirra Komarovsky poses the question: what happens to the authority of the male head of the family when he fails as a provider? Between 1935 and 1936, Komarovsky interviewed 59 families in 1935-36 in which the male had been unemployed for at least a year. Interestingly, in many cases, the husband's struggle in the economic sphere did not offset the solidity and happiness of the marital relationship. But unemployment seems to have affected the men's sense of their own position as head of household and providers. For one thing, it undermined their sense of themselves as breadwinners. Most found it unbearably humiliating to accept relief. Perhaps her most important finding—which still resonates today—was that those men who thought of themselves exclusively as providers suffered far more than those who had developed alternative identities as father and husband.

Peter. Pecker. Wiener. Dick. Schlong. Penis. Whatever we choose to call it, the penis is more than just a body part. This A-to-Z encyclopedia explores the cultural meanings, interpretations, and activities associated with the penis over the centuries and across cultures.Scholars, activists, researchers and clinicians delve into the penis in antiquity, in art, in religion, in politics, in media, in music, and in the cultural imagination. They examine the penis as a problem, a fetishized commodity, a weapon, an object of play. Penile décor and fashions—from piercings to koteka—are treated with equal dignity. Explanation of common medical terms and not-so-common subcultural practices add to the broad scope of the book. Taken together, the Cultural Encyclopedia of the Penis offers refreshing, thoughtful, and wide-ranging insight into this malleable, meaningful body part.

This past decade has witnessed an extraordinary transformation in men's lives. For years, wave after wave of the women's movement, a movement that reshaped every aspect of American life, produced nary a ripple among men. But suddenly men are in the spotlight.Yet, the public discussions often seem strained, silly, and sometimes flat-out wrong. The spotlight itself seems to obscure as much as it illuminates. Old tired clichTs about men's resistance to romantic commitment or reluctance to be led to the marriage altar seem perennially recyclable in advice books and on TV talk shows, but these days the laughter feels more forced, the defensiveness more pronounced. Pop biologists avoid careful confrontation with serious scientific research in their quest to find anatomical or evolutionary bases for promiscuity or porn addiction, hoping that by fiat, one can pronounce that "boys will be boys" and render it more than a flaccid tautology. And political pundits wring their hands about the feminization of American manhood, as if gender equality has neutered these formerly proud studs. Misframing Men, a collection of Michael Kimmel's commentaries on contemporary debates about masculinity, argues that the media have largely misframed this debate.Kimmel, among the world's best-known scholars in gender studies, discusses political moments such as the Virginia Military Institute and Citadel cases that reached the Supreme Court (he participated as expert witness for the Justice Department) along with Promise Keepers rallies, mythopoetic gatherings, and white supremacists. He takes on antifeminists as the real male bashers, questions the unsubstantiated assertions that men suffer from domestic violence to the same degree as women, and examines the claims made by those who want to rescue boys from the "misandrous" reforms initiated by feminism.In writings both solidly grounded and forcefully argued, Kimmel pushes the boundaries of today's modern conversation about men and masculinity.

A sociological examination into the emergence of male homosexuality with a traditional masculine ethosBefore gay liberation, gay men were usually perceived as failed men—"inverts," men trapped in women's bodies. The 1970s saw a radical shift in gay male culture, as a male homosexuality emerged that embraced a more traditional masculine ethos. The gay clone, a muscle-bound, sexually free, hard-living Marlboro man, appeared in the gay enclaves of major cities, changing forever the face of gay male culture.Gay Macho presents the ethnography of this homosexual clone. Martin P. Levine, a pioneer of the sociological study of homosexuality, was among the first social scientists to map the emergence of a gay community and this new style of gay masculinity. Levine was a participant in as well as an observer of gay culture in the 1970s, and this perspective allowed him to capture the true flavor of what it was like to be a gay man before AIDS. Levine's clone was a gender conformist, whose masculinity was demonstrated in patterns of social interaction and especially in his sexuality. According to Levine, his life centered around the "four D's: disco, drugs, dish, and dick."Later chapters, based on Levine's pathbreaking empirical research, explore some of the epidemiological and social consequences of the AIDS epidemic on this particular substratum of the gay community. Although Levine explicitly refuses to pathologize gay men afflicted with HIV, his work develops a scathing, feminist-inspired critique of masculinity, whether practiced by gay or straight men.

In the late 1960s, two sociologists, John Gagnon and William Simon, developed the concept of sexual scripts as part of a larger project of treating sexuality like any other social phenomenon. In the end, their vision of social construction turned Kinsey on his head, and their model became the dominant paradigm of social science inquiry into human sexuality, and spurred the development of an entire field of Sexuality Studies. Sexual activity, they argued, was like other social processes, yet one of increasing importance in the construction of the self. Michael Kimmel has gathered together essays from three generations of scholars influenced by this perspective on sexuality. These include many of the foremost social scientists writing and researching sexuality today. The book begins with Kimmel's reflections on the unusual careers of Gagnon and Simon, examines the construction of both sexual identity and sexual behaviors in a variety of settings, and ends with the two of them speaking in their own provocative voices about their perspective in interviews conducted originally for a German journal in 1998.

In the late 1960s, two sociologists, John Gagnon and William Simon, developed the concept of sexual scripts as part of a larger project of treating sexuality like any other social phenomenon. In the end, their vision of social construction turned Kinsey on his head, and their model became the dominant paradigm of social science inquiry into human sexuality, and spurred the development of an entire field of Sexuality Studies. Sexual activity, they argued, was like other social processes, yet one of increasing importance in the construction of the self. Michael Kimmel has gathered together essays from three generations of scholars influenced by this perspective on sexuality. These include many of the foremost social scientists writing and researching sexuality today. The book begins with Kimmel's reflections on the unusual careers of Gagnon and Simon, examines the construction of both sexual identity and sexual behaviors in a variety of settings, and ends with the two of them speaking in their own provocative voices about their perspective in interviews conducted originally for a German journal in 1998.

Using a range of in-depth historical case studies, this timely work excavates the oft-forgotten tradition of progressive populism and highlights the relevance of such movements to our own tumultuous times.Populism in its 21st-century guise is often centered around exclusionary notions of nationality and the exultation of an authoritarian leader. Yet, as this book demonstrates, this has not always been the case. As demonstrated by the Levellers in the English Civil War and the Sans-Culottes in the French Revolution, the ideas of progressive populism have often surfaced in the midst of revolution where they have sought to ensure that revolutions do not deviate from their lofty ideals. Progressive populism has also emerged during periods of crisis and social dislocation, reasserting conceptions of the “moral economy” and a romanticized view of the past in support of their goals. By looking at the trajectories of past iterations of these ideas, Michael Kimmel retrieves a different populism, based not upon the illusory entity of “the people,” but something more concrete: the capacity of real people, living their lives with a sense of both autonomy and community.This book will be of interest to students and scholars in disciplines including sociology, history, and political science.

Using a range of in-depth historical case studies, this timely work excavates the oft-forgotten tradition of progressive populism and highlights the relevance of such movements to our own tumultuous times.Populism in its 21st-century guise is often centered around exclusionary notions of nationality and the exultation of an authoritarian leader. Yet, as this book demonstrates, this has not always been the case. As demonstrated by the Levellers in the English Civil War and the Sans-Culottes in the French Revolution, the ideas of progressive populism have often surfaced in the midst of revolution where they have sought to ensure that revolutions do not deviate from their lofty ideals. Progressive populism has also emerged during periods of crisis and social dislocation, reasserting conceptions of the “moral economy” and a romanticized view of the past in support of their goals. By looking at the trajectories of past iterations of these ideas, Michael Kimmel retrieves a different populism, based not upon the illusory entity of “the people,” but something more concrete: the capacity of real people, living their lives with a sense of both autonomy and community.This book will be of interest to students and scholars in disciplines including sociology, history, and political science.

In 1902, Morris and Rose Michtom invented the Teddy Bear in the back room of their Brooklyn sweet shop. Together, they launched the Ideal Toy Corporation into a pre-war market rife with other first-generation American Jewish toymakers: the Hassenfield brothers of Hasbro, Ruth Moskowicz and Elliot Handler of Mattel, and Joshua Lionel Cowan of Lionel Trains. In Playmakers, Michael Kimmel documents the creation of the idealised American childhood in the twentieth century—an idea developed but not experienced by its creators, whose parents often were poor immigrants from Eastern Europe. From Barbie and G.I. Joe to Popeye, Superman and Mr. Potato Head, Kimmel follows Jewish toymakers as they climbed the ladder of success alongside Jewish comic book creators, children’s authors, parenting experts and child psychologists. Playmakers shows how the overlapping experiences of being a Jew and a child in twentieth-century America created childhood as we know it today.

In just one generation, age-old ideas about women have been swept aside ...but what does that have to do with men? Authors Michael Kaufman and Michael Kimmel, two of the world's leading male advocates of gender equality, believe it has everything to do with them,and that it's crucial to educate men about feminism in order for them to fully understand just how important and positive these changes have been for them.Kaufman and Kimmel address these issues in The Guy's Guide to Feminism. Hip and accessible, it contains nearly a hundred entries,from Autonomy" to Zero Tolerance",written in varying tones (humorous, satirical, irreverent, thoughtful, and serious) and in many forms ( top ten" lists, comics, interviews, mini-stories, and more). Each topic celebrates the ongoing gains that are improving the lives of women and girls,and what that really means for men.Informal and fun yet substantive and intelligent, The Guy's Guide to Feminism illustrates how understanding and supporting feminism can help men live richer, fuller, and happier lives.

Men of the Global South: A Reader is the most diverse and accessible volume yet published on men and masculinities throughout the developing world. A Reader that also offers a wide range of original contributions, it explores male experience in a uniquely vivid and accessible way. Adam Jones provides a framing introduction that surveys the growing literature on Southern men and masculinities, and links it to the broader study of gender and development. Six main sections portray different aspects of male experience in the global South: 'Family and Sexuality', ;Ritual & Belief', 'Work', 'Governance and Conflict', 'Migrations' and 'Masculinities in Motion'. The text, richly complemented by a number of photographs, serves as an ideal introduction to the lives of men and boys from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America/the Caribbean. This book will appeal to students and scholars of gender and development, as well as to general readers interested in gaining a greater understanding and appreciation of men’s roles, challenges, and contributions worldwide.

In this book Victor J Seidler, one of the leading contributors to the growing debate about masculinities, turns his attention to the lives of young men and their understandings of themselves as gendered beings. By contextualizing their experiences and subjectivities within a rapidly globalizing world, Seidler pays particular attention to the impact of the global media. How does the mass circulation of images of men's bodies, desires and sexualities affect their self-perception and behaviours, and how are these images framed within particular histories, cultures and traditions?Questioning universalist theories of 'hegemonic masculinities', the book argues that young men often feel caught between prevailing masculinities and their own struggle for self-definition. It explores both how the idea of men as 'the First Sex' has been established within the West and the ways in which men in other cultures and societies affirm their gendered identities. Seidler pioneers new methodologies that involve listening to the silences surrounding male experience as well as to oral testimonies. This enables innovative analysis of the contradictions young men are faced with in both creating their own gendered identities and establishing more equal relationships within a world of intense inequalities.