Anne-Marie Slaughter: 'I think we need a men's movement'

Submitted by Mastodon on Mon, 2013-07-22 21:20

Article here. Excerpt:

'Anne-Marie Slaughter strides backstage after her latest TED talk, fast-talking and hungry – she hasn't had time for breakfast yet, and it's well past midday. A little over a year ago, Slaughter was a highly respected but relatively anonymous academic. Her life changed last June, when her article for The Atlantic, Why Women Still Can't Have It All, became the most read in the magazine's history. Almost 220,000 people shared it on Facebook.

The speech she has just given, entitled Real Equality, considers what it would take for those twin pillars of human life – caregiving and breadwinning, as she terms them – to be given equal value, and for men and women to reach proper parity, at work and at home. The article and subsequent talk followed her decision to leave her job as the first female director of policy planning at the US state department, after a two-year stint working under Hillary Clinton. She left after concluding that "juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible".
...
But that's not to say men aren't concerned about these issues. In 2008, 60% of American men reported feeling a conflict between their work and family life. "I really think we need a men's movement," says Slaughter, "and you're starting to see it. Guys are starting to speak up for themselves about masculinity, about care-giving. You know, women are hypocrites this way, because we would go crazy if men treated us in the workforce the way we typically treat them at home – if a guy in the workforce assumed he was more competent than you are, and told you what to do – but that's the way most women treat men in the household."'

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... she's leaving out all the other stuff, like, hmmm, let's see... reproductive choice, presumed innocence, etc., etc. ... Well, it's a start from her, anyway.

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Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2013-07-22 23:37

One doesn't need to fight every battle in every discussion. She may not have raised those issues, but she didn't deny them ether. And she's supportive of a men's movement in general. I'd really hate to see the men's movement become like feminists, unable to accept a victory, always expecting and demanding more. There was a TED talk supportive of a men's movement, enjoy the victory.

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Submitted by Kratch on Tue, 2013-07-23 05:13

It was something, and notice I did say it was a start for her, anyway (assuming her ideas evolve at all from there). But I don't see what she said as constituting a "victory". That's a word I'd reserve for something like a bill that allows men parity in repro rights, for example, becoming law somewhere.

Also, she says "we need a men's movement". Well, we already have one, but it's a "men's rights movement", too. She never mentions men's *rights*, not the way the typical MRA would likely define them. Her idea of what a "men's movement" may look little like what most MRAs' idea of it is. Devil's in the details. There are ppl who go around saying for example they think there needs to be "men's studies" on campuses, but they take a decidedly feminist approach to the topic.

If anything I can be rightly accused of skepticism. That, I'll readily cop to. Given the Trojan horses that managed to get into the feminist movement back in the 70s pretty good, there's no reason to think it couldn't happen to the MRM even as it continues to just form a base.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2013-07-23 16:52