The Gender Knot - Allan Johnson

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Hi all,

Largely in response to the recommendations which appeared on this  
list in previous years (gleaned from the archives) I've decided to  
use Allan Johnson's book The Gender Knot as a central narrative text  
in my Masculinities class next year to complement the Kimmel/Messner  
reader Men's Lives. But I'm interested if anyone on the list uses  
Johnson's text in their classes and how, and if anyone has comments  
on the revised second edition? All replies gratefully received.

Best,

Michael J. Murphy
Doctoral Candidate, Art History/Gender Studies
mjmurphy  AT  wustl.edu

Hi Michael,  I think that his book is wonderful, but for my students 
(undergrad, very conservative typically, and hate to read)it's a little 
too dense (I mean that in a good way) so I use his smaller book, 
Privilege, Power, and Difference...which I like a lot, says some of things 
in the Gender Knot, but in shorter bites.  Still, unfortunately, most 
students don't like it, or think it important.  I persist though, for 
those few that get something from it.  Let us know how it works for  you, 
I'd love to hear some encouraging feedback, since I really do like the 
book, a lot. I haven't looked at or heard anything from the revised 
edition, do you think it is a significant revision?  As in, should I buy 
the new one to read for myself?
Susan



 "For if the mind can imagine it, the mind can make it so..."

 Dr. Susan Clark-Cook
 Clinical Psychologist
 Counseling and Student Development
 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Behavioral and Political Science

What I found particularly useful in this book in working with students is
chapter 4, about Patriarchy as a social system.  It's really good on
explaining how a social system is larger than the individuals within it, how
it encourages certain forms of behavior and rewards people for them even
against personal inclinations, how it provides "paths of least resistance"
that make it easier to go along with business as usual, etc.  The use of a
game of Monopoly as a metaphor for a social system has proved useful for me
in getting students to grasp all this.

Also effective with students is the definition of patriarchy in the first
chapter as male-dominated, male-identified, and male centered.  Johnson uses
movies and their protagonists as the example of male-identification and
male-centeredness, and I have had good luck with having students go through
lists of Academy Award nominated movies to see how many are female-centered
as opposed to male-centered.  This really seems to make the point to them.

It is true that the book is a tad long, and even students who basically like
it get bored with it toward the end. 

  -- Gina Oboler <roboler  AT  ursinus.edu>

That's very interesting, and I would agree with you, those concepts are 
ones that some students can grasp.  Although many of my students seem to 
feel that he took the Monopoly analogy too far, and they didn't see the 
relevance.  They often tend to be very literal minded, maybe because they 
are business students?  I have a tape of Johnson that I use, we brought 
him here to speak and he stresses those things in his speech he gave here 
(on patriarchy after 9/11) and I often use the tape because it seems to 
bring it home more than the reading of it.  (If indeed they read it, often 
not, unfortunately)
Susan


 "For if the mind can imagine it, the mind can make it so..."

 Dr. Susan Clark-Cook
 Clinical Psychologist
 Counseling and Student Development
 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Behavioral and Political Science
 

Hi Michael,

I haven't used The Gender Knot, but I did use Johnson's _Privilege, 
Power, and Difference_ (2nd ed.) this year in a class and found that the 
students responded very well to his general writing style (very 
accessible, uses a lot of analogy to explain difficult theoretical 
concepts, etc.), so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend using his work in 
general!

There's also a discussion about The Gender Knot in the WMST-L archives: 
http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/genderknot.html

Best,
Blaise

-- 
***********************************************************************
Blaise Astra Parker, PhD
Asst. Director of Women's Studies
101 Benson Building
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, 30602
706-542-2846
blaiseparkerphd  AT  gmail.com
http://www.uga.edu/~wsp
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~blaze

"You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-knit
group of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of those people
as yourself and your friends." - Robert Anton Wilson
***********************************************************************

My students had no trouble understanding it, but they did get bored  
with it after a while and suggest in midterm evaluations that it's  
not necessary to read every chapter.  The definition of patriarchy is  
very effective.  In office hours, one of my students (not a WS major)  
said, "Patriarchy!  I never heard of it before and now I see it  
everywhere."  The chapter about patriarchy as a social system is key,  
both because it helps students see the way the system works and  
because it makes clearer a claim that he makes throughout:  it's not  
an issue of mean or prejudiced people, it's about a system that  
encourages and rewards all things male and denigrates and dismisses  
all things female.

So the smaller book is repetitive, too?  I had thought of using that  
instead, but maybe it's best just to assign the key chapters.  Has  
anyone tried that approach?  I always feel bad making students buy a  
book they only read a couple of chapters in . . .

Joan


******************************************************
Joan Sitomer, J.D.
Ph.D. Candidate
Political Science Department
Women's Studies Program
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI   48109
jsitomer  AT  umich.edu

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,  
signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are  
not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953