Essay On Angry White Men

Angry White Men Case Study The article in The New York Times titled “Angry White Men,” goes on to discuss the effects a changing world has had on the longtime beneficiaries of privilege. The ever evolving gender relations and shedding of long held traditional gender stereotypes regarding roles in society are depicted as reasons for infuriating some of today’s white males. This case study also details many of the phenomena portrayed in this unit, sociology of gender. “Angry White Men” is a book written by sociologist Michael Kimmel, who through many encounters and observations, shows the reader the plethora of forms the displaced and frustrated white man takes in society. The neo-nazi, wife-beating, deranged men have resorted to dangerous
and violent rhetoric, and even action, to voice their displeasure with their perceived loss of social standing. The men, who refuse to relinquish their preferential treatment in the structures of society use these tools of violence to aimlessly attempt to prevent “their country” from becoming one where gender and racial equality are present.
This illustration is also depicted in the Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture where the author states “For men in high-risk fraternities, women threatened their brotherhood; therefore, brothers discouraged relationships and harassed those who treated women as equals or with respect.” (Boswell, Spade, 1991). For many men, the idea of gender equality is treated as a form of destruction to their manhood, so without reluctance they take any action they can in order to stall this supposedly devastating change in american gender relations. Aside from all of this however is a silver lining, when describing the unjust treatment of men regarding custody in divorce courts The New York Times article states “They fail to recognize that fathers these days do a lot more child care than they used to, that
mothers should not always be the default caretakers, and that fathers often want to remain an active presence in their child’s lives, as something beyond a steady paycheck- another sign that many men are in fact getting used to a new world order.” (Rosin, H, 2013). This principle, one of a revolution in former pigeonholed gender roles and an acceptance of a man’s role as one who can also help with the hometasks reveals a sizeable shift in what some men perceive their role as. This idea of a changing male role in the family is also displayed in the reading titled The Second Shift, “He might become a “superdad”-working long hours and keeping his child up late at night to spend time with him or her. Or he might cut back his hours at work.” (Hochschild, 1989). While much progress is still to be made, examples like this show change is occurring, slowly but steadily. Throughout reading this article I was struck with many parallels to a previous reading during the semester, White Privilege and Male Privilege, by Peggy McIntosh.
In many instances, the article “Angry White Men” cites the entitlement and perception of an almost god given birthright of white men to be the beneficiaries of preferential treatment. This draws many similarities to the ideas exhibited throughout the White Privilege and Male Privilege reading, for instance, “Whether through the curriculum or in the newspaper, the television, the economic system, or the general look of people in the streets, I received daily signals and indications that my people counted and that others either didn't exist or must be trying, not very successfully, to be like people of my race.” (McIntosh, 1988). This quote exemplifies the attitude white males can possess, an air of superiority or idea that they are the type of people deemed proper and all others are not of this grace. Although progress has been made to eradicate some of these ideas, unfortunately, like the main idea of this case study displays, there are many out there who still hold these radically outdated ideals. A task for our generation is to continually challenge and persist on the elimination of this perceived superiority and hopefully one day grant all genders and races the same
luxuries.