A Century of Men in Feminism
Modern Manhood episode one: Feminism for Men
From the Future of Masculinity weekly newsletter, where our community’s hearts and minds come together each week to do the work, tell the stories, and build the blueprint for a future where men and boys experience less pain and cause less harm.
In a 2019 video entitled “Men” popular progressive Youtube video essayist Natalie Wynn a.k.a. Contrapoints, unpacked masculinity and the specifics of what a lot of young people are concerned about. The note Natalie ended her thirty-minute essay was this:
“I think what we need is a new, positive ideal of manhood. Which I don’t think is something that women cannot create for men, even if they wanted to. And honestly the best way for that to happen may actually be some kind of men’s movement”
As much as I like Natalie (and I do, I like her a lot), this is a repeated trope in anyone discussing toxic masculinity or the general topic of “what is wrong with the boys.”
I call this the “Dear Men” article. The pattern of these types of articles are painfully predictable — they will do a thorough job detailing the problem followed by the conclusion that the way to solve this is for men to come together to deal with this issue of masculinity. Maybe there’s a call to organize together, or wish that there would be an organization dealing with this. Or as Natalie puts it, make some kind of men’s movement.
But a little research would show that not only are men already organizing to talk about masculinity, but they have been doing so for a long time. And one of the issues is that we don’t really know our history. The enormity of this problem was shown to me when I read this quote:
“Feminism is going to make it possible for the first time for men to be free.”
This quote was written in an essay titled Feminism For Men, written in 1914, in a socialist magazine titled “The Masses.” The essay lays out that men should be involved with feminist thinking, because it is closely tied to their economic liberation. As women entered the paid work force they are taking matters into their own hands— and men should follow. In his words, the world “wants men who can call their souls their own. And that is what feminism is going to do for men—give them back their souls, so that they can risk them fearlessly in the adventure of life”
I was struck by this quote. It was fascinating that these ideas of male liberation were being discussed more than a hundred years exactly before Next Gen Men began. It encouraged me to dig deeper into the history that I already knew about male movements.
Throughout my research, I also wanted to set things straight, for example, that Floyd Dell wasn’t a solitary man with a mission; he was just a writer with an article. One of my goals is to demystify the idea of the Great Man (or person) that leads the charge, lighting up the hearts and minds of those and changing history forever. It’s an individualistic view that hides not only the things that were already happening at the time but the community that was already sharing these ideas together.
And what you’ll find in 1914, in Floyd Dell’s time, is many people fighting together. Either fighting to keep the status quo of masculinity, change it completely, or just help people win valuable rights, like voting. People like the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage who were men who helped the suffrage movement, or the Muscular Christians who wanted to have a more physical version of masculinity.
You will have a society that wants women to be working or women to be mothers. We found presidents wanting to go into the wilderness and poets who imagined a world of gender equality. All of these people were involved in the changing world which saw the start of industrialization, men leaving the farms for the cities, and women joining the workforce.
Floyd Dell was only one man with some encouraging words to say, but the rest of history is much more fascinating than this one person could write. And it shows that men have been thinking about and talking about male liberation for a long time. Another thing you will find is that history repeats itself more often than you think, and the themes that were present not only in the 1900s but in the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, and the 2010s will be present in the 2020s.
I want to talk about the men’s movements, so people will stop saying that this has not been tried. But most importantly, I want to talk about the men’s movements so we can learn from their mistakes and not reinvent the wheel.
This is our history, and we need to know it. So I’m happy to present to you the new season of Modern Manhood: the History of Modern Manhood and we will start in the 1900s.
I hope you enjoy it.
German is a community developer by work, educator by trade, podcaster by hobby, systems thinker by thought, and a laugher by heart. He's an immigrant that's lived in Canada for 30 plus years, and has been involved with ideas around gender since 2013 mostly involved with Men Edmonton and with producing the Modern Manhood podcast since 2015. You can talk to him about how 1997 was the best year for music. He joined the Next Gen Men Board in 2020.