[EDEQUITY] Sommers study

From: Jan Mokros (jan_mokros@terc.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 21 2000 - 16:46:19 EDT


I have been struggling with how to explain/respond to Sommers' work, and
recently found a great one page argument written by Michael Kimmel in the
spring/summer 2000 edition of the Research Report from the Wellesley
Centers for Women (p. 7). Kimmel says,
 "What's wrong with the 'what about the boys' debate? First it creates a
false opposition between girls and boys, pretending that the educational
reforms undertaken to enable girls to perform better actually hindered
boys' educational development. . . I believe that it is *masculinity* that
is missing in the discussion. Introducing masculinities into the
discussion alleviates several of the problems with the "what about the
boys?' debate. . . If we really want to rescue boys, protect boys, promote
boyhood, then our task must be to find ways to reveal and challenge this
ideology of masculinity, to disrupt the facile 'boys will be boys' model,
and to erode boys' sense of entitlement. Because the reality is that this
ideology of masculinity is the problem for both girls and boys."
Kimmel is a prof os sociology at SUNY Stony Brook and his most recent
book is The Gendered Society (Oxford Press, 2000).
"Jan Mokros" <jan_mokros@terc.edu>



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