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‘Gender nonconforming’ professor says men can be victims of patriarchy, too
A Yale University philosophy professor’s new book “Real Men on Top” argues that the “patriarchy” is a system of “violence, marginalization, and exploitation” that harms men as well as women by fostering division between them.
In a recent interview with The Nation, Professor Robin Dembroff explained how the book expands on a controversial tweet she wrote in 2020. Dembroff described herself as “gender nonconforming” in a separate interview and wants people to use “they” instead of “she” to refer to her.
“Many men experience violence, marginalization, and exploitation not despite patriarchy, but because of it,” Dembroff tweeted at the time.
Her book, published in May, “rethinks patriarchy as a system based on a mythology that legitimizes ‘economic exploitation, political injustice, and social cruelty,’ all while harming women, children, animals, and the majority of men,” according to The Nation.
Dembroff said the book argues that society needs to revise its views about “patriarchy,” much in the same way that it has done on issues like what constitutes sexual harassment.
And society must deconstruct its current ideas about “male” and “female”: The “rigid categories of Man, Woman, Animal, and Child” are divisive concepts of the patriarchy, according to her book description.
“These categories are presented as natural truths, but Dembroff reveals them as man-made myths — ones that construct a reality in which being characterized as Woman, Animal, or Child marks moral degradation,” the description states.
“So ‘Man,’ for instance, is an identity conferred on certain people, and with that identity come a lot of expectations and prescriptions about how those people ought to be,” she told The Nation:
Feminist theory previously understood the identity of “Man” in opposition to the identity of “Woman.” Notions of biological sex and of the difference between male and female were the singular dimension on which gender and gender oppression were subsequently analyzed.
My view says: “No, that’s one dimension of ‘Man,’ but ‘Man’ is really a tripartite identity constituted by the identities of ‘Male,’ ‘Adult,’ and ‘Human.’” When we focus on “Man” as a mythological character instead of a supposedly biological definition, we open the door to seeing how this identity gets weaponized against people.
For example, the professor said, comparing a “Man” to “a woman, a child, or an animal … is equivalent to being degraded.”
When asked how the “patriarchy” hurts men, Dembroff brought up loneliness and high suicide rates.
“Patriarchy requires the isolation of men, because the identity ‘Man’ demands that you see yourself as superior to women, children, and animals, and in constant competition for manly status with other men,” she said.
“That’s going to create a lot of loneliness and detachment, especially when you combine that with the fact that the expression of emotions and emotional intimacy are considered feminine,” Dembroff said.
“Patriarchy’s myths celebrate the identity Man, but these myths are no friend to most men. Promising strength and superiority, they instead fuel isolation, emotional repression, and relentless pressure to prove oneself while propping up systems that enrich the powerful few,” the book argues.
The answer, according to her book, is to “grappl[e] with” these patriarchal “myths” and “find new possibilities for living, relating, and becoming human.”
On her personal website, Dembroff describes growing up homeschooled in a conservative Christian home and then studying at Biola University before veering to an academic career focused on the “philosophy of gender.”
MORE: Brown theatre department offers course on ‘white male patriarchy’
