Do we need our own Men’s Resource Center? I find this “call to action” by Daniel Mejia-Cruz and Alex Thomas in last week’s issue of the Orient somewhat under-researched and notably unspecific. What would that look like? What particular opportunities are men deprived of that this center could provide? Would men actually use it? Addressing these questions would be an important start to thinking seriously about a Men’s Resource Center on campus. Until then, I have some further thoughts.
First, let’s get some facts straight. The Women’s Resource Center is located at 24 College Street. It is part of a house that shares its space and purpose with the director of gender violence prevention and education and the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. The latter sounds a lot like what you are asking for.
I understand your central point to be: “If we aim to fully address issues of sexual violence, gender norms and gender-based discrimination on campus, we must do a better job of engaging the entire student body.” With this, I wholeheartedly agree. But I would question whether we need a Men’s Resource Center to address these concerns. While many valid points are embedded in the article, the overall argument both misrepresents the purpose of the Women’s Resource Center and does not make a convincing enough case for a corresponding Men’s Resource Center on campus.
In writing my response, I have thought a lot about what it is like to be male: what it’s like to reconcile issues of masculinity, of sex and sexuality, of finding a place both in Western society and Bowdoin College. What irks me is that it does not appear that you have used the same considerations for women when writing your piece.
The issues we are discussing are delicate ones concerning gender identity and equality. That you are addressing this issue based on an argument that inherently places the two binary genders in opposition is ironic and, basically, antithetical to everything that the Women’s Resource Center and the proposed Men’s Resource Center should stand for.
Stating that the “Bowdoin of today is a very different place than the Bowdoin of the 1970s” implies that women’s issues have somehow become obsolete or less deserving of attention. And while surely “today’s generations face pressures our parents did not,” things like Snapchat, Tinder and Facebook aren’t gender-specific, and so it is not entirely clear how this is relevant to your argument.
A women’s center does not alienate half the population—it allows for a disadvantaged sector of the population to have a safe space on campus. Your phrasing is careless in that it suggests that women are somehow taking resources away from men.
Some things are just true. For one: when social inequality is a historical reality in a particular group, that group’s interests are more likely to be represented through campus resources such as the Women’s Resource Center. Is that fair? Maybe not. Is it fair that women still get paid 77 cents to every man’s dollar? Is it fair that more than 100 countries have laws on the books that restrict women’s participation in the economy? Is it fair that women make up half the world’s population and yet represent 70 percent of the world’s poor?
I don’t mean to be overly pedantic, but I do feel that these obvious discrepancies need to be acknowledged when we are thinking about any issue regarding men or women. Your point that “men deserve the chance to define their masculinity outside of the constraints of patriarchy” is a very good one, and it is true. What I am unconvinced of, however, is that a Men’s Resource Center is an appropriate or realistic way to address this issue effectively.
As previously mentioned, the Women’s Resource Center is hardly allotted its own space on campus. So your request for a “comfy house with a kitchen” is completely impolitic. It is easy enough to say that the name of the current center would “alienate half the population” because of its mention of “women” (although the Women’s Resource Center and its counterparts are open to all genders and all sexualities). Perhaps men would feel discouraged from entering a building associated with women? But what about the other buildings on this campus? You can bet the majority of them are associated with men—in fact, the majority of them are named after men. The presidents of Bowdoin College? All men. Should I feel discouraged from going here? I’m starting to.
As I see it, you are describing the need for a conversation that can take place in any space you choose. The Women’s Resource Center is more than just a house with a kitchen, and it takes more than comfy couches to create meaningful social change. There is undoubtedly a need to raise awareness about men’s issues and your article, obviously, has succeeded in bringing these issues to the fore. But I do not think a center is necessary to do so, and I do not think you have made a convincing case that it is. I agree that we need to have more conversations about masculinity, and all I can say is let’s make it happen. We don’t need backlash against women’s rights to make it possible. Start talking.
Vee Fyer-Morrel is a member of the Class of 2015.