Where does Men’s Liberation Come From?
In a previous episode of Modern Manhood we discussed the 1900s to set the scene for men’s involvement in the suffragette movement; now we’re moving on to the Men’s Liberation in the 1970s.
BY GERMAN VILLEGAS
About five years ago or so, I was messing around on the internet, and I stumbled upon a Vox article titled There's a better way to talk about men's rights activism — and it's on Reddit, which introduced me to the Reddit subgroup called Men’s Liberation.
Men’s Lib was—and still is—one of the best places to discuss pro-feminist men’s topics on the internet. However, I learned that the title Men’s Liberation, which to me was already a pretty easy-to-understand term, originated somewhere else.
Despite the 70s Men’s Liberation movement coming in our second episode of The History of Modern Manhood season, it should be understood as the first chapter of the modern discourse around masculinity. Though the Men’s Lib movement wasn’t an overwhelming wave of change, it represents a critical moment for pro-feminist men everywhere.
The 1970s were characterized by a steady wave of energized and organized progressive movements like civil rights, gay rights, second-wave feminism, and the anti-war efforts to oppose the Vietnam War, to name a few. In short, if you were progressive, there was a cause you could join. This charged environment allowed for a robust discourse questioning the status quo.
Though the second wave of feminism was focused on anti-violence, many women questioned their own gender norms, which raised questions about male gender norms as well. If the liberation of women’s norms was happening, hell, why not for the men as well?
“Tomorrow men will look back on the 1970s and remark on the constriction affecting their sex. In future decades today’s male role will be remembered as a straight jacket. ”
The Men’s Liberation movement was focused on what was called “consciousness-raising,” a term used at the time not only in women’s circles but in Black empowerment circles as well. In modern parlance, this was to be “woke.”
The goal of the Men’s Liberation movement was mostly an awareness campaign, not only for women’s rights but against men’s stereotyping as well. These culminated in protests against The Playboy Club, media spots like Men’s Beauty Pageants to oppose things like Miss America, and most importantly, men’s groups.
These men’s groups were mostly run by well-educated, middle-class white men, with a lot of support from the female feminists of that time. However, the lack of Black or people of colour in those groups ultimately led it to its downfall, and racial exclusion became a severe blind spot for men’s movements for years to come.
Men’s Liberation also had a prominent spokesperson: Warren Farrell.
Farrell, who wrote a book called The Liberated Man along with many others, talked openly about Men’s Liberation with the media and even co-founded a Men’s Consciousness Raising chapter of the prominent feminist organization The National Organization of Women (NOW). He was even friends with Gloria Steinem.
Warren Farrell would later turn his back on the feminists and then later go on to write the bible for Men’s Right Activists, The Myth of Male Power (don’t worry —we’ll talk about that in episode three). But knowing that the Men’s Lib figurehead turned against feminism should give you a glimpse as to how precarious the Men’s Lib movement truly was. The movement never really gained any traction before dying out in the 1980s.
Regardless of the Men’s Lib's failure to launch, it remains an important point in history because it demonstrates the beginning of the idea that Female Liberation can go hand in hand with male liberation. It also created enough meaningful discourse surrounding men breaking away from male gender roles to fuel an actual movement, albeit a small one.
However, the Men’s Lib movement did show one of the main faults of many gender movements: That exclusion does not set a sound foundation for a social movement. The Men’s Lib movement was mostly for white middle age educated men, and the men that did not fit that description found it hard to be a part of that. And in the next few decades, we will see how exclusions from these movements hurt us all.
One thing we must learn from this period of time is that liberation must be liberation for all, not just for a few.
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. You can talk to him about rap music, the 2006 Oilers, and why everyone should listen to Raewyn Connell. He joined the Next Gen Men Board in 2020.