2/11/10: 2nd Visiting Lecturer: Michael Kimmel

Michael Kimmel, sociologist and author of "Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men", came to speak at VCU on the 11th. His groundbreaking work on masculinity has made him a household name. Michael Kimmel is author of works such as: Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinity (1987), Men Confront Pornography (1990), The Politics of Manhood (1996), The Gender of Desire (2005), and The History of Men (2005). At first, I was reluctant and suspicious of this author.

He described himself as a "pro-feminist man for gender equality". The book of topic was Guyland, what he believes as a new stage of development between adolescence and adulthood. Adolescence is between the ages of 13 and 17 where children
find themselves". He talked about adolescence and when it was created as a term. Children used to go straight from childhood into adulthood. Now he talks about the idea of "10 is the new 20" and "30 is the new 20". There is more than a decade after adolescence until one achieves adulthood. There is this continuum with "Will they ever grow up?" on one side and "They're growing up so fast" on the other. Culturally, adulthood is when you finish the five pre-requisites: finish school, get a job, move out, get married, have a kid. When asked if anyone was an adult by these standards only one or two actually raised their hands in a theater that houses more than 100 students. 


He talked about four basic changes:

1. Demographic Revolution: people are living longer
2. Economic Transformation (different trajectory). Employers are no longer loyal so employees become less responsible/reliable. 
3. Change in parenting styles--(idea of helicopter parents always hovering), withdrawal of parents/adults into "real life" or college
4. Men threatened by successful women. 

 Students today find themselves in college because they were always supervised and guided when under their parents roof. Being initiated into manhood is no longer in the hands of adults, peers are the ones to gauge whether someone is ready (ie frats and sports teams hazing). Kimmel talks about how this is mostly due to men/boys but that it affects women's lives. He told us about going on an Oprah episode titled, "A Black Woman Stole my Job".