Why is there a section entitled 'Womens Studies' but no 'Men's Studies'?

Question

Either sexism is wrong ALL THE TIME or it's never wrong. Why do we all assume without complaint that Women are a viable field of study but Men somehow aren't? Be as flip and sarcastic and use as many one-liners as you want, but think about this question.

Answer 1

Because men are simple.

Do you know the story of the biker in California who was so good at his prayers that God said He would grant him one special wish?

The biker said "build me a bridge to Hawaii so I can pop over when I feel like it". God said "come on, do you have to be so physical? Can't you think of anything more.... er.... spiritual?"

The biker thought for a few minutes, and then said "OK. You can do anything, right? Let me understand my wife, when she asks for help and wants help, when she asks for help but wants empathy, when she cries and is sad, when she cries and is happy, when she cries and wants me to put my arm around her, when she cries and wants nothing to do with me, and so on. Just let me know what is in her mind."

And God said, "Hm.... how many lanes do you want on that bridge, 2 or 4?"

Answer 2

In order for something to be an "-ism", by the sociological definition, requires power. Men have the power in our society. As such, the lack of a "men's studies" is NOT sexism. It's an attempt at equity, where there is an overt lack of equality. It's not that "Women" are an interesting field of study, it's more that the men who were in power weren't too keen on recording the contributions of women to history. And, the men currently in power make only a few feeble attempts to include said contributions in public school curriculum.

Answer 3

Because up until a couple of decades ago all studies were men's studies. Make that a half century ago. Anyway, the organization of academic institutions only changes glacially slow.

In the mean time why have folks been studying sociology and socio-economics in their thousands ((Since 1950 probably millions)) and we the everyday people are still living in all the same problems ??

Desmond Morris explained what we do as women and as men interacting; published several books and did several TV shows; now forgotten.

Maybe instead of organising our libraries by subject and title (nouns), we could organise by attitude (adjectives) or by practical results (verbs). I'm pretty sure some of our brains are this way.
Could have all the isms in one section; could have the -ologies in one spot and the not quite -ology nearby.

And the books could be "decoratored", brown on one shelf, greenbacks across the room; wide or long books on lower shelves please.

All men and women want to see the history of their family to continue, and to live long enough to see their children grow to be adults.

Answer 4

because all fields of study are presumed to be masculine until otherwise verified, women throughout history have never gotten the same amount of recognition for their accomplishments, and we live in a patriarchal society that promotes masculinity. Women Studies programs are designed to study the inequality, the dynamics and the reasons behind patriarchal societies. This coming from a Sociology/Women's Studies major.

Answer 5

I mentioned the same thing in a post a couple of days ago, sexism is a two way street, if we only had a 'Mens Studies' it would spark outrage.

And in respone to 'brooky_two', women are the MAJORITY as 51% of the worlds population is female.

Answer 6

Well, I guess for the same reason that there is a section entitled African American Studies but no section entitled Caucasian studies.

Unfortunately racism and sexism will continue to exist as long as one group is able to gain purchase by setting itself apart from another based on race or gender.

Answer 7

Because the accomplishments and contributions of women are either watered down or outright ignored in regular history classes.

For example, most people have never heard of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her work directly affected 50% of the population and indirectly affected the other 50%. But, most people have never heard of her.

When the accomplishments of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton are included in regular history classes, as they should be, then there will no longer be a need for women's studies classes.

Answer 8

Women's studies, Black Studies, Latino Studies is only a way of making up what was left out throughout history up until recent years. By ignoring part of history, we're all being cheated and we've received a very shallow and distorted sense of reality and distorted view of others that have also made contributions and played an important part of what we take for granted today. It really doesn't take a genius to know this. I hope my simple explanation suffices to elucidate matters for you.

Answer 9

'Ecstatic Stretching' needs to ecstatically stretch her brain. She doesn't appear to have the sense that God gave the tweezer.

'Kehkohjones' makes some good points, but if as he says we need to make up for the lapses in history teaching up to now, then why not simply alter the history curriculum to better reflect the historical roles and contributions of the groups he mentions? In other words, fix the problem, don't create a new field of study in order to make people feel better about themselves. I think it's demeaning for women for a 'womens study' program to exist. It just further victimizes and marginalizes them for there to be a 'special' field of study in order to 'make up' for their being ignored.
Instead, why don't we simply make sure that everyone has their place in history accurately reflected to begin with.

Answer 10

I thought this question had been asked, and if I remember correctly the response was "What do you think HIStory is?"
Women's Studies goes into more details of that two sentence paragraph of Historical Female XX that was lost in the two page lesson of Historical Male Xy.