English

Masculist Archive (former Maskulinist.no) is a website for discussion of men’s experience and for developing a new men’s perspective. Ultimately, improved gender relations in Western societies would be the goal.

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 of the fragments seen are features traditionally seen as female. Any kind of certainty is sparse.

Developing male identity has been a concern at this website since its start in 2006. (The more recent debate over “identity politics” we do not see 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 satisfactorily 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 a suggested abstraction containing 4 characteristics of masculinity and 4 characteristics of femininity (mutually complementary).

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

We suggest no ranking. Starting here, we can seek relevant, modern specifications.

An example

As an example, let’s try to apply the above characteristics (as adverbials) to participation in public debate and discussions.

It is a well-known quality to speak with clarity. This may be convincing (albeit not always). The opposite, diffuseness, may, however, be more unifying, say before an audience consisting of two or more groups or categories with different experience, views, or attitudes.

The difference between shut and open I guess is more subtle. You can appear open, but there may be a difference between appearance and what you really are. And not every situation calls for openness. Sooner or later a discussion may have to be ended. To shut down may be required.

What would hard and soft mean? Or could they be combined? At the outset, the feminine and the masculine as defined above are opposites. However, at least over time, you can switch, say between hard and soft statements to some degree. But your statements also accumulate, say into a view, or even to a type of person (or agent, like hard-liner versus «soft-liner»).

To which extent the surroundings tolerate switching between hard and soft (or other combinations of masculine and feminine) is partly an empirical question. A further empirical question of interest would be if there are systematic variations in this tolerance, say conditioned by age, sex or other features.

We can also ask if masculinity and femininity, as here defined, are related to biological sex. We would suggest that there is some relation (a tendency, but no full determination).

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 facilitation. Anyone – or any two – holding a precious source of energy should beware of exploiters.

Gender dialogue presuppose both genders having a voice. And behind a voice we need awareness and thinking. At Masculist Archive we articulate men’s experience and work on developing a men’s perspective.

Some readers may find this article somewhat unusual. We neither bow to women nor hate women. You can simply read it twice in order to escape possible alienation induced by this (alienation perhaps unfounded in your own beliefs). 

E-mail: redaksjonATmaskulinist.no   Replace AT with @

Articles in English:

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