Make us whole!: Deconstructing gender narratives to build solidarity

Abstract

In the “post-feminist” era many popular gender narratives reinforce essentialist and biological understandings of gender difference, pit the genders against one another in a zero-sum game of social power, and posit that men have become the real victims of gender discrimination. The currency of these narratives presents both a challenge and a pedagogical opportunity in the classroom. Focusing on deconstructing the narrative of male victimhood offers an opportunity to engage male students by considering the ways that men suffer from patriarchy without abandoning a consideration of the power dynamics that provide the context for that suffering. An approach is presented in which students are encouraged to build empathy and solidarity through a process in which they identify dichotomous gender constructions, link them to the gendered distribution of power represented by patriarchy, discuss the harm such constructions pose to both men and women, and use these discoveries to rewrite gender narratives that re-interpret the subjective experiences underlying the male victimhood narrative.