Michael Kimmel addresses conceptions of masculinity

Story here. Excerpt:

'Kimmel tackled the issue of gender visibility. Women make their gender visible, he said, while men are blind to their gender because it is a societal privilege. Men define themselves in relation to women, so therefore masculinity can only be characterized as non-femininity.

Finally, Kimmel talked about the discord between women’s advances in claiming their sexuality and sexual agency, and the last tenant of masculinity, “giving ’em hell.” Here, Kimmel largely addressed safe sex and rape. To men, based on masculine ideals, safe sex is an oxymoron. Sex, to men, is hot, passionate and explosive; safe sex, in the minds of men, takes away all of these ideas. According to Kimmel, the difference today between men’s and women’s sexuality is that for women, safe sex is a precondition.
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Until this precondition is guaranteed and observed, “unless a woman knows that her bodily integrity will be upheld, she can’t get to a point where she is comfortable.” Men, Kimmel said, have a huge role to play in this issue: men control the use of their bodies, and can end date and acquaintance rape. Kimmel ended with the idea that gender equality is the only way men can have the type of relationships they desire with women and with their families.'