Reflections
- The book is an interesting argument about the complications of identity politics based on gender
- The author makes the case that many men are ‘left behind’ by feminism and that women are doing better than men in education and other areas of life
- There is a lot of research evidence to back it the points, and the author is advocating for more joined-up thinking about the issues
- I think that there is a lot validity in what he is saying, but I wonder if the book could also have talked in more depth about solutions or conversations with women and others about the problems
- My takeaway for the game and for life is to try and resist binary, flattened takes on how different identity characteristics affect people. It’s almost always more contextual and nuanced.
- It also leaves me wondering about the barriers to this kind of thinking being more widely discussed. How can we have conversations about men’s needs when feminism came out of resistance against men. If men also have problems communicating their feelings, then how will they take the mantle and bring the issue to the forefront?
- I want my game to be mindful of this too but need to find a way to do this.
- As discussed in previous research – I want to try and make a game that does not treat men as objects and also resists labelling all men as problems. We are part of the same system that oppresses us and taking an intersectional approach is probably what we need to do!
Reference
Reeves, R.V. (2022) Of Boys and Men. Brookings Institution Press.
