What’s real and what’s imaginary about the crisis of masculinity? Political commentary on the left and right positions men’s struggles in education, wages, mental health, and close relationships as evidence that men and boys across the Global North are lost. In this Clayman Conversations event, leading scholars and journalists discuss how masculinity has emerged as a cultural concern and the role of the feminist movement in contributing to an unfolding dialogue on the state of men.
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Speakers Include:
Tristan Bridges is professor of sociology and faculty affiliate of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is co-editor of the Sage journal, Men and Masculinities, and interim director of an interdisciplinary center at UCSB focused on public-facing scholarship. Bridges’ research examines issues of gender and sexuality, inequality, and change. He has studied communities of bodybuilders, fathers’ rights activists, pro-feminist men, men with “man caves” in their homes, connections between American masculinity and mass shootings, gendered transformations in U.S. sexual demography, and gendered patterns in internet searches. His work has appeared in Gender & Society, Signs, The Lancet, the International Review of Sociology, and other venues.
Christine Emba is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she focuses on ideas, society, and culture. Her work ranges widely, exploring questions of gender, relationships, and the moral economy. Previously, she was an opinion columnist, editor, and editorial board member at The Washington Post. Emba was named one of the World’s Top 50 Thinkers by Prospect Magazine in 2022, and received the National Press Club’s Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism in 2023. Her first book, Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, is about the failures and potential of the sexual revolution in a post-#MeToo world.
Taveeshi Gupta is the Director of Research, Evaluation and Learning at Equimundo. Her expertise lies in understanding the role of gender norms in perpetuating violence against women and children, creating inequitable home and workplace environments, and reinforcing inter-generational transmission of harmful gender identities for boys and girls. She is part of the Lancet Commission's Scientific Advisory Committee on Child Maltreatment and Violence Prevention, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Embracing Carers group, and has been invited to join the advisory for the OECD technical group on masculinities, the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring report and more. Before joining Equimundo, she worked as an independent consultant with Overseas Development Institute, UNICEF ROSA, Plan International, and Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Moderator: Angelica Ferrara, postdoctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute, is a developmental and social psychologist. Her writing and research seek to understand how gender ideologies manifest in human behavior throughout the lifespan and across cultures. Ferrara’s postdoctoral work is Men Without Men, a book that examines boys’ and men’s friendships across history and cultures.