Men politics

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Men politics

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An emancipatory critique of the dominant understanding of ‘man’ as a category, and of masculinity

The division of gender into female and male is
predominantly viewed as given and natural (For more information see: Conference
‘Alles Gender? Oder was?’). The term men’s policy is then liable to lead to
questionable expectations about similarities to women’s policy. Despite this,
the way in which women’s policy came about historically rules out any such
analogy.

The term ‘men’s politics’ can be used to
describe:

  • policies and politics made by men;
  • policies which promote the interests of men as a social group or of
    specific groups of men, such as fathers, i.e. an identity policy approach;
  • an emancipatory critique of the dominant understanding of ‘man’ as a
    category, and of masculinity. In this sense men’s policies consist of
    questioning and making visible dominant gender norms, role expectations and the
    functions ascribed to men and masculinity.

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