Dilemmas of Masculinity: A Study of College Youth

by Mirra Komarovsky, Michael Kimmel SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Stony Brook U

Overview

In Dilemmas of Masculinity, noted sociologist Mirra Komarovsky turns her attention to the consequences of feminism among women on the lives of men. As she'd documented in Women in the Modern World, and would again in Women in College, women's lives had changed enormously in the thirty-plus years Komarovsky taught at Barnard College. Women now are able to own their intelligence without apology, and most of the women had career aspirations that were equal to the men across the street at Columbia. In fieldwork conducted with Columbia College seniors in 1969-1970, she continually found that women's newly claimed freedoms, however, sat uneasily on men who had been raised in traditional homes. On the one hand, they respected women's intellectual achievements and even welcomed women's career aspirations. The campus ethos "demanded that men pay at least lip service to liberal attitudes towards working wives," Komarovsky wrote in an article based on the research. On the other hand, they didn't want to sacrifice any of the privileges they had been taught to expect - that their wives would do virtually all the child care and housework. As a result, the men were utterly unprepared for the new world of gender equality that women were beginning to demand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759107298
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	08/18/2004
Series:	Classics in Gender Studies , #7
Edition description:	Updated Edition
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mirra Komarovsky was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Barnard College and Past-President of the American Sociological Association. Michael S. Kimmel teaches at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Table of Contents

	Tables	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Series Editor's Introduction	xv
	Introduction	1
1	Images of Femininity and Masculinity: Beliefs, Norms, and Preferences	10
	Beliefs about Feminine and Masculine Personality Traits
	Ideals of Femininity and Masculinity
	Are Some College Majors Unfeminine?
	The Wage-Earning Wife of a Student-Husband
	Working Wives and Working Mothers
2	Relationships with Women: Intellectual Aspects	44
	Current Dating Status: An Overview
	Intellectual Companionship with Women
	The Troubled Men: Intellectual Rivalry with Women
	The Adjusted Majority
	Do Women Still Play Down Their Intellectual Ability on Dates?
3	Sex in the Life of College Males	60
	The Dominant Ethic and Some Alternative Norms
	Moral Censure of Premarital Sex as a Source of Guilt
	Moral Censure of Premarital Sex as a Source of Strain in Relation to Parents and the Community
	Modus Vivendi
	Anxiety over Sexual Performance with Experienced Partners
	Jealousy of Former Lovers of the Mate
	Anxiety over Pregnancy
	The Double and the Single Standards
	Guilt over Exploitation of Women
	Infidelity, Guilt, and Jealousy in Ongoing Affairs
	Affairs and the Question of Marriage
	The Young Marrieds, the Engaged, and the Committed
4	Sex in the Life of College Males: The Virgins	107
	The Virgins and Their Self-Feeling
	Relationships with Women
	Relationships with Male Friends
	Who Are the Virgins?
	Conclusion
5	Power and Emotional Relationships with Women	127
	The Failure to Live Up to the Ideal of Masculine Strength: The Extent and Varieties of Strain
	Avoidance of Women as a Defense against Strain
	The Search for a Stronger and Supportive Mate
	Mistrust of Women as an Obstacle in the Search for Support
	The Search for a Weaker Mate: "A Relationship I Can Handle"
	A Portrait of an Equalitarian Couple
	Religious Affiliation and Parent-Child Relations as Factors in Strain
	Ideal Norms and Cognitive Beliefs as Factors in Strain
	Psychological Tests of the Troubled and the Adjusted Men
	Conclusion
6	Intimacy and Isolation: A study of Self-Disclosure	157
	Method
	An Overview of Self-Disclosure to Six Role Partners
	The Female Friend as the Preferred Confidante
	The Exceptions: The Favored Confidant Other Than the Female Friend
	Communication with Parents
	Father's Education as a Factor in Self-Disclosure
	Religious Affiliation and Race as Factors in Self-Disclosure
	Psychological Profiles of Low and High Disclosers
	Conclusion
7	The Sons Judge Their Parents	182
	An Overview of Parental Relationships
	Fathers and Sons: The Sons' Dissatisfactions
	The Case against the Mothers
	The Struggle for Independence
8	The Future: Occupational Plans, the Draft, and Politics	207
	The Occupational Future
	The Draft
	The Role of the Citizen
9	A Theoretical Summary	222
	A Review of Areas of Stress
	Modes of Role Strain
	Religion, Father's Education, and Parent-Child Relationships as Factors in Strain
	The Uses of Psychological Tests
	Afterword: The Author's Envoi	247
	Bibliography	259
	Index	267