Gegen die "Gender-Wächter": Kann an unseren Unis wieder Platz für Männer sein?

Das von mir letztes Jahr noch empfohlene "Good Men Project" ist in den letzten Wochen etwas ins Gerede gekommen, nachdem dort immer mehr Autoren das Sagen haben, die stärker feministisch ausgerichtet sind. Besonders stark kritisiert wurde ein Artikel, in dem ein Autor des Good Men Project in selbstgerechtem Tonfall schildert, wie er seinem vierjährigen Sohn eine Lektion zum Thema "Vergewaltigung" hielt, weil der eine Spielkameradin geküsst hatte, ohne sie vorher zu fragen.

Aber es gibt auch bessere Artikel auf dieser Website. Ein in meinen Augen wirklich gelungener Beitrag widmet sich aktuell der auch auf Genderama intensiv diskutierten Frage, ob Männer es wieder schaffen werden, auf dem Campus unserer Universitäten allmählich auch ihre Perspektive wieder zu Gehör zu bringen. (Typisch für die neue Ausrichtung des Good Men Project ist allerdings, dass die Überschrift des Artikels nach LeserInnenprotesten geändert wurde von "It Is Time for Men to Reclaim the Campus" zu "Why Do Men Need Male-Only Groups on Campus?" Das erste war vermutlich viel zu kämpferisch, in der neuen Überschrift schwingt so schön eine Unterstellung von Sexismus mit, die der Beitrag selbst gar nicht hergibt.)

Ich möchte diesen Artikel gerne etwas ausführlicher zitieren als ich das bei anderen Beiträgen tue:

The widening gap between the proportion of men and women who attend university seems to be coinciding with a rise in militant opposition to men and men’s issues on campus.

Have our alma maters really become so matriarchal that men now need to take action to reclaim the campus? Recent events in Canada certainly suggest that something is amiss.

The University of Toronto has become a symbolic battleground in the gender wars, with violent opposition to a series of talks by leading experts on men’s issues rapidly becoming a cause célèbre for men’s rights activists around the globe.

(...) So is this an isolated drama stirred up by a handful of troublemakers who see it as a perfect opportunity to vent their political grievances, or is it symptomatic of a more widespread anti-male campus culture?

(...) The World Economic Forum, which produces a league table of gender equality in more than 130 countries, reveals that two thirds of those countries send more women to university than men. Ironically, some of the biggest university gender gaps are found in the countries that are rated as the most gender equal. In New Zealand, for example, 46% more women go to university than men, in Sweden it’s 54% in Norway 63% and in Iceland 87%.

(...) As the conflict in Canada has shown, there is certainly fierce opposition to men’s issues being discussed on campus. At the University of Toronto, the Student Union wants to ban the Men’s Issues group, which invited experts like Farrell to speak.

At nearby Ryerson University, the students’ union (RSU) is one step ahead of the game and has successfully prevented three students—two of them women—from setting up a men’s issues club on campus.

Samuel Greenfield, a Ryerson student, says the decision is political: "The principle is this: if you challenge official narrative, you don’t have the right to speak. It’s as if the spirit of closed-minded religious dogma has jumped into bed with modern political correctness to prevent blasphemy against RSU ideological orthodoxy."

(...) Miles Groth, a psychology professor at Wagner College, New York, who edited the anthology "Engaging College Men: Discovering What Works And Why", suggests that the resistance to men’s issues is consistent with a campus culture that tends to opposes "male positive" activities. He told me:

"The formation of men’s groups on campus is discouraged. At Wagner College, as most places, there are ‘gender guards’, faculty who report any activity that would be considered male-positive since such activity is deemed anti-female and indicative of continuing to favor males."

Warren Farrell, who has led anti-sexism workshop sponsored by feminist organizations on college campuses in the past, also believes that some aspects of university life are anti-male saying:

"Freshman orientation alone has had a distinctively anti-male cast for years: heavy emphasis on date rape, stalking, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual harassment amount to an unmistakable message that males are patriarchal oppressors and potential sex criminals."

(...) Sarah Santosh, one of the female students who co-founded the men’s issues group said:

"The ironic thing is my voice is being silenced right now because I can’t even form a group without having to face this really back-handed deal that’s really attacking our group."

As we start to unpick what seems to be happening on campuses in Toronto and beyond, it becomes clear that this isn’t so much a gender war as a gender ideology war.

When you filter out the loudest and most extreme voices on both sides of the argument you find men and women who simply want some space to view things and do things differently.

One such man is Dennis Gouws, a Professor of English and Director of Arts and Education, of the Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies (AIMHS).

Gouws is one of a group of scholars who are working to pioneer a male-positive approach to academia in America, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Europe. Their initiatives include publishing an international journal on New Male Studies, promoting men’s centres on college campuses and developing post-graduate courses in Male Studies which are due to launch in 2014.

Gouws has developed a British-Literature course on Victorian Manhood that offers students a male-positive approach to understanding the texts. He has found that the course gives both men and women fresh insights into literature, history and the way they view men.

One of his students, Alex, summed up the experience as follows:

"Throughout my life I had never really thought about a male positive approach to anything. I will always read and analyze stories with a slight male-negative view out of habit, but now I know to stop and look at the same story from a male-positive view in classes and in life."

As a result of taking the course, Alex said he was committed to becoming "a better me based on what I want and not on what others project onto me."

There can’t be many university courses that leave young men wanting to be “a better me” and yet this male-positive, non-feminist approach to understanding men is so at odds with mainstream gender studies that its proponents have called it ‘male studies’ to distinguish it from pro-feminist ‘men’s studies’.

For some people there is a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ to think about gender and this fundamental belief can drive them to violently oppose those who they think are looking at gender in the ‘wrong way’.

It is too simplistic to say that this fundamental view of how gender should be viewed is causing more women to go university than men. There are, after all, still plenty of courses where men are in the majority.

But when it comes to tackling our failure to educate men and boys to the same standards that we educate women and girls, surely we are more likely to address this gender inequality by encouraging the discussion of men’s issues on campus, rather than opposing such activity.

The Toronto students are not the first to campaign against men’s groups. A similar storm broke out in England in 2009, when a student at Manchester University, Ben Wild, set up the MENS Society with fellow students (male and female).

Jennie Agg who was editor of the city’s student newspaper at the time said:

"A whole lot of valuable feminist energy has been directed at prohibiting groups like these – and to what end? It seems that all that has been achieved is a rather soured relationship between those defending women’s rights and those who would tackle enduring male stereotypes. Hardly a brick in the road to true gender equality."

Reflecting on his experience four years on, Ben Wild told me:

"The resistance that we encountered was initially surprising, however with dialogue came understanding and acceptance. My advice for those setting up their own initiatives would be: first, develop your ideas and learn from others. Those that will initially oppose you are not usually crazy or ill-willed. They are almost always people with genuine motivations and concerns, so treat them as such."