Recently I posted a response article here to Christopher Kilmartin’s article at goodmenproject.com, where he not only asserted that violence is a “men’s issue,” but justified that position by alleging that men, as a monolithic group, are actually culpable for the problem of violence in our culture.
It isn’t just a men’s issue, but it’s men only; a boys club. And we all need to call each other to account for “our” denigration and violation of women.
I also submitted my response to Henry P. Belanger, Senior Editor of The Good Men Project Magazine, and to his credit he has published it (with reasonable edits).
As you can also see here in the comments to my original article, Kilmartin, a member of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (SPSMM), aka Division 51 of the American Psychological Association, an organization of gender activists, posted a comment expressing his frustrations at what he called my “distortions,” of the subject. He also posted a list of studies and invited me to scrutinize them, saying “After you read them, I will look forward to your reasoned criticism of the scholarship.”
I think this presents a unique opportunity. First, it is good to see the people of SPSMM reach outside their insulated academic enclave and take their ideology into forums where disparate views are allowed and encouraged. I also note that while I do not agree with some of the material presented in The Good Men Project Magazine, I am encouraged that its management is clearly not interested in an editorial orthodoxy and is willing to showcase a badly needed discussion directly in view of the public. Their support for this could provide a unique opportunity for increased public awareness of some very serious issues.
So rather than just respond to the studies posted by Kilmartin to this site at this time, I am opting to wait until he, or anyone else from SPSMM has had the opportunity to rebut the current article posted there from me.
I will respond in kind, and will certainly include my reactions to the studies provided in the comments here. And I will continue to respond as long as SPSMM does the same. This is an incredibly important subject, both in ideological and real world terms.
I expect, should the scholars at SPSMM allow their views to be vetted by the reading public in an open forum, there will be several comments from readers of this and other MRA sites. I would like to respectfully suggest that those responses be civil and within the Terms of Service for The Good Men Project Magazine.
