Navigating the Gender Box: Locating Masculinity in the Introduction to Women and Gender Studies Course

Abstract

This essay reflects our collaboration on integrating the topic of masculinities into the Introduction to Women and Gender Studies course that we helped design as part of our Option in Women and Gender Studies at Raritan Valley Community College in central New Jersey. This essay argues that the integration of masculinity is essential to learning the social construction of gender and applying that lens. We designed the course to position what we call the ‘‘gender box’’ front and center (borrowing from the concepts Jackson Katz describes in his film Tough Guise). We also created a Social Action Assignment to allow students to plan and carry out a specific change in relation to gender. This essay charts our successes and observations in these areas, but it also explores challenges we continue to face, specifically the persistent lack of male students in the Intro course.

Keywords

masculinity gender studies pedagogy

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