Robert Jenson

Anti-Sexism | Feminist Movement | UN Fourth World Conference on Women - Bejing, China | GLBTQ | INCITE | Men's Liberation | Conclusion| Anti-Sexism Sources

Robert Jensen teaches women's studies and writes about feminism and gender equality. Jensen's Men's Lives and Feminist Theory, supports the idea to suggest "that femist theory- a perspective that focuses attention on the importance of gender as an element of social structure- can help men and women understand the politics of their personal problems and come to terms with those problems." Jenson discusses and believes if men become pro-feminist that patriarchy will then decline.

To do so, Jenson discusses Identity, Taking Feminism Seiously, and Taking Feminism Personally.

Description

=Male Identity= "Identity is not static and dictated by biology, but is the product of the obstacles or priveileges that the culture in which ones lives attaches to one's characteristics... In my own life, feminism was the first critical approach I discovered, and what I learned about power and oppression from feminist theory led me to a newe understanding of racsim, heterosexism, and the workings of class/wealth privilege" ( Jenson, 421).

=Taking Feminism Seriously= Many men do not take feminism seriously, but they do take it into consideration only to better themselves. Jenson brings up two factors that enable men to toss feminsimto the side.

==Family== Jensen writes that now he can "see how the ways in which I suffered at the hands of my father and my mother were directly tied into the systematic, institutionalized, and unjust distribution of power in my family and in the culture. The root of the problem was the power my father could weild in a patriarchal family and culture." ( Jenson, 424)

==Sex and Intimacy== Jensen uses intimacy and sex with women to show how "that sex is an exercise of power and a form of control" Again, Jenson includes his experience and how it "has showm men that the task of untangling myself from the norms of patriarchal sex and rebuilding an egalitarian sexuality is extroadinarly difficlut... I have gradually become more aware that the core sexual lessons I learned as a child and young man in this culture were about objectifying and consuming women and their sexuality." ( Jenson, 424)

=Taking Feminism Personally= Jensen believes this to be the hardest step because many men can call themselves pro-feminists, but in real life situations don't commit to feminist theory and act differently. For example, he uses the concept of rape. Jensen describes the idea that, "The implication is that men in comtemporary culture are trained to be rapists, which suggest that to not rape takes effort. If that is true, and i think it is, then the inescapable conclusion is that most men have raped or tired to rape. By that, i don't mean that most men are guilty of rape as it is legally defined, but rather that "norma" sexual activity has rape-like qualities" (Jensen, 426). Again Jensen uses a personal experience wher ehe belives that the lanuage he used, persuaded a girl, who he was dating at the time, to have sex with him. "Legally they were not, but politically and morally, I think that I can be said to have tried to rape her" (Jensen, 426).

• Note that the correct spelling is Jensen, but links were created and thus need to remain spelled Jenson

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