Michael Kimmel: Why gender equality is good for everyone — men included
Michael Kimmel: 男女平等有益于每个人——包括男人
The author of "Angry White Men," Michael Kimmel is a pre-eminent scholar of men and masculinity. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to support gender equality.
with gender equality?
as a middle class white man.
a middle class white man.
when I was in graduate school,
got together one day,
there's an explosion
in feminist theory,
typically do in a situation like that.
11 women and me got together.
and have a conversation about it.
that changed my life forever.
and one was black.
very anachronistic now --
face the same oppression as women.
situated in patriarchy,
of intuitive solidarity or sisterhood."
"I'm not so sure.
says to the white woman,
and you look in the mirror,
"You see, that's the problem for me.
and I look in the mirror," she said,
race is invisible. You don't see it."
something really startling.
to those who have it."
to the white people sitting in this room,
every split second of our lives.
to those who have it.
the only man in this group,
"Well what was that reaction?"
in the morning and I look in the mirror,
I have no race, no class, no gender.
I became a middle class white man,
were not about other people,
kept it invisible to me for so long.
this story ends 30 years ago
at my university where I teach.
both teach the sociology of gender course
for me when I teach.
for her when she teaches.
to give a guest lecture,
looks up and says,
my colleague opened her mouth,
based on gender in the United States,"
you'd say that.
"Wow, is that interesting.
How do you spell 'structural'?"
men so often wear ties.
disembodied Western rationality,
of disembodied Western rationality
and the other end points to the genitals?
to support gender equality.
about gender equality,
that's fair, that's just,
the lightning bolt goes off,
yes, gender equality,"
to mansplain to you your oppression.
something akin to the cavalry,
to our attention, ladies,
to call 'premature self-congratulation.'
that actively resists gender equality,
as something that is detrimental to men.
opposite four white men.
I wrote, 'Angry White Men.'
white men in America,
in the workplace.
about how they were qualified for jobs,
they were really angry.
is I want you to hear the title
qualified for promotions,
just one question for you guys,
one word in the title.
it was your job?
'A Black Woman Got the Job?'
men's sense of entitlement,
why so many men resist gender equality.
is a level playing field,
even a little bit,
water's rushing uphill.
greatest affirmative action program
some of the obstacles to engaging men,
it's right and it's just.
in our interest as men.
about what they want in their lives,
for us to get the lives we want to live.
that are the most gender equal
on the happiness scale.
they're all in Europe.
that are more gender equal
has shown conclusively
They have lower levels of attrition.
higher job satisfaction,
in companies is,
that's really going to be expensive, huh?"
what you have to start calculating
is already costing you.
we want to live,
have changed enormously,
that are animated
with their children.
their spouses, their wives,
to their careers as they are.
an illustration of this change --
there was a riddle that was posed to us.
to remember this riddle.
are driving on the freeway,
to the hospital emergency room,
into the hospital emergency room,
sees the boy and says,
with my 16-year old son.
hanging out at the house
this riddle to them,
and said, "It's his mom." Right?
"Well, he could have two dads."
of how things have changed.
to be able to balance work and family.
dual-carer couples.
work and family with their partners.
our relationships,
are quite persuasive here.
the data, to prove to men
is not a zero-sum game, but a win-win.
the process of engaging
that we use to describe what we do.
something a little bit more radical,
of absenteeism,
to be diagnosed with ADHD.
to see a child psychiatrist.
to be put on medication.
to see a therapist,
with depression,
more likely to go to the gym,
of marital satisfaction.
take recreational drugs less often.
for routine screenings.
with depression,
prescription medication.
Men's Health magazine put on its cover?
over a really long period of time,
I'll do the dishes tonight."
over a really long period of time.
put it on their cover,
you'll love this, "Choreplay."
is something really important,
is not a zero-sum game.
that women have identified
they say they want to live
that we say we want to live.
of the great suffrage demonstrations
wrote an article in a magazine,
of that article:
for the first time for men to be free."
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Kimmel - SociologistThe author of "Angry White Men," Michael Kimmel is a pre-eminent scholar of men and masculinity.
Why you should listen
Sociologist Michael Kimmel is among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world. He's the executive director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University, where he is also Distinguished University Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies.
He is the author of many books, including Manhood in America, Angry White Men, and the best seller Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. An activist for gender equality for more than 30 years, he was recently called "the world's preeminent male feminist" by the Guardian.
Michael Kimmel | Speaker | TED.com