Not A Real Man

Every year, the Anti Rape Task Force holds a contest where men can fill out an application saying exactly how bad they believe rape to be. These men are honored for their views on sexual violence, and in some cases public service, by having their portraits printed upon posters which are displayed all over campus. They are the UB Real Men.

Violence is a social ill that plagues the entire world, and the efforts of ARTF in combating the sexual aspects of it both on and off campus are to be lauded, appreciated, and respected--but philosophically, the UB Real Men project leaves much to be desired.

If there is such a thing as a "real" man, then the converse must be true as well, there exists a "false" man. While the case could be argued that the nice sensitive guys wearing powder blue sweaters and sheepish grins at Lilith Fair are the real men, and the sexist Neanderthals over at the local pub are fake--just as more conventionally the opposite would be argued--a question is immediately raised: who has the right to define another human being? By separating men out into two distinct groups, good or bad, safe or dangerous, enlightened or base--UB Real Men is drawing on the same macho inspiration of old. While it has changed the parameters, the ranking and sorting of men into alpha, beta, and gamma categories still takes place, only now in regards to their acceptability to the sensibilities of women.

Indeed, men are always in danger of becoming fake men--such is the danger of masculinity. It was bad enough when it was imposed upon us by other men, but when it is created and defined by women, no man can ever measure up, and go from being merely male to being human, a real man. (consider how often you see the term male used for people of one sex, and women for people of another within the same sentence, e.g. "male violence against women.") Not a year goes by than ARTF is not criticized as being a bastion of men who are fulfilling their patriarchal right to protect women, and even the White Ribbon Campaign by Canadian men who were inspired by the 1989 Montreal Massacre at the École Polytechnique to raise awareness of all violence against women have come under fire themselves by women who feel that they are merely taking attention away from women by being involved in the struggle.

The Real Man contest has the added result of making it appear that it takes a special and holy motivation for a man to be concerned with sexual violence, after all, there is no UB Real Women event--as you would expect women to be against rape. Hold the phone, while women are many times more likely to experience an assault, and more realize the full extent of the problem as it faces us as a society, by no means does that mean that the average man should be especially honored if he does take a stand against rape. There is a distinct trend in our modern divided society where people of group "A" tend to glorify those of group "B" who tend to identify more with group "A" than their own. Right-wing conservatives love Alan Keyes, an African American man who is against affirmative action, just as feminists embrace John Stoltenberg for his book _Refusing to be a Man_, while anti-feminists love Camille Paglia, a proud lesbian who believes that feminism is all washed up, and Pat Robertson would like nothing more than to get his hands on a reformed homosexual who has learned the error of his ways. All these people are operating under the flawed assumption that if someone agrees with them on something, who they would assume to hold a differing opinion based upon whatever stereotypical social classification to which they belong, that it somehow makes their own opinion more valid.

A real man isn't any more important to have around than a real woman, or even a few fake ones. Ditto the reverse. A poster which depicts all of the hard working women and men of ARTF would be a much better way to honor the efforts of the people really making a difference--instead of just honoring a few men who say exactly what we want to hear.

For Generation, this is

Richard Leader