English

Masculist Archive (former Maskulinist.no) is a website for discussion of men’s experience and for developing a new men’s perspective in contemporary western society. Ultimately, improved gender relations is what we would like to see and what we aim at.

Men’s position and identity

We believe it is necessary to explore and re-examine men’s own position. We should acknowledge possible discrimination/oppression of men as well as identify areas of unjustified male superiority.

Position in society is important, but so is identity. In Scandinavia today men’s identity as sex is «muddled». We tend to be seen as a negative contrast to women. Suggestions for a new identity abound, but but mostly as fragments. And most fragments are features traditionally seen as female. Any kind of certainty is sparse.

The above call for male identity has been a concern at this website since its start in 2006. The current debate over “identity politics” is a much more recent debate and we do not see our quest for male identity as related to that.

We seek a new male identity based on tradition, modernised by experience and reason.

Men’s rights?

Is Masculinist Archive a ”Men’s rights” initiative? Not exactly. Men’s rights, and in general the term rights, typically refers to government-granted rights and benefits. We, however, would like to see reduced state interference between the sexes rather than increased activity beneficial to men. One example would be men’s legal, social and cultural position regarding children. In this area we claim that oppression of men prevails (or better: exploitation prevails), and perhaps this can be quite satisfactory alleviated by abolishing parts of present law and law enforcement detrimental to men. Legal amendments positively supporting men may not be necessary.

Masculinity and femininity

Masculinity and femininity mutually define each other. To achieve a modernized understanding of the two concepts, we suggest first abstracting from tradition. Please below find our suggested abstraction containing 4 characteristics of masculinity and 4 complementary characteristics of femininity.

masculine	feminine
clear	diffuse
shut	open
at a distance	close
hard	soft

We suggest no ranking, neither vertically nor horizontally. From here we can seek relevant modern specifications.

Gender dialogue

We believe the inter-gender relation is a rich and manifold source. The relation can fuel activity and be a source of meaning. The state, on the other hand, is tragically sexless. Men and women should deal with each other directly, also as groups (analogous to interest groups, classes) in society, rather than rely on state framing. Anyone – or any two – holding a precious source of energy should beware of exploiters.

Gender dialogue requires both genders having a voice. And behind a voice we need awareness and thinking. In Masculist Archive we are busy articulating men’s experience and developing a men’s perspective.

(We recommend that you read this article twice. First you may struggle with, or even feel alienated by, the unusual combination of views. We neither bow to women nor hate women. By second reading you may have more room for our specific reasoning and perhaps find it reasonable as well.) 

E-mail: redaksjonATmaskulinist.no   Replace AT with @

Articles in English:

• Renewing Henrik Ibsen’s Gender Roles
• Divorce Detrimental to Children