Feminism Is forBeginners

Learning from Straight Men Doing Queer Feminism

Bibliographic Data

ID4753252
AuthorsRamzi Fawaz (corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume122
Issue3
Pages591-625
Publication date2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Atlantic Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-2876 • E-ISSN: 1527-8026
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00382876-10644057
OpenAlexW4386128164
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

This essay argues for the importance of cisgender straight male perspectives to contemporary feminist theory and practice. I identify four lessons to be learned from what I call male affirmative feminist theory written by people of all genders, defined as any feminist thought that considers cis men critical interlocutors to feminism and legitimate subjects of gender and sexual freedom projects. These lessons include the value of androgynous thinking; the necessity of anti-essentialist approaches to male gender; the importance of understanding nonviolent and anti-sexist male perspectives on gender dynamics; and the potential queer investment that cis straight men might have in feminist politics, namely the freedom from heteronormative policing. I offer an intellectual genealogy of cis male contributions to feminist thought, followed by a close reading of Mike Mills's Academy Award-winning film Beginners (2010). The movie presents a visual account of straight male masculinity as it is positively impacted and influenced by feminist and queer perspectives, without necessarily becoming them. The film makes a powerful male feminist argument for the value of "beginning," asking what feminist and left social justice projects might gain by splitting their gaze between a focus on failed relations across gendered difference-grounded in the seemingly endless betrayal of women and queers by straight cis men-and a productive openness to the inauguration of unexpected relationships between all gendered subjects

Argument (complex analysis) · Essentialism · Feminism · Feminist theory · Masculinity · Political science · Politics · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

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