Michael Messner
Encyclopedia
Michael Alan Messner is an American sociologist. His main areas of research are gender
(especially Men's studies
) and the sociology of sports. He is the author of several books, he gives public speeches and teaches on issues of gender-based violence, the lives of men and boys, and gender and sports.
Since 1987, Messner has worked as a professor of sociology and gender studies
at the University of Southern California
. He was head of the department, and still retains his dual faculty appointment. He was the president of the Pacific Sociological Association in 2010-2011, and in 2011 the California Women's Law Center presented him with the Pursuit of Justice Award.
to his Ph.D.
in California's public schools. He has a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences
and a Master's degree
in sociology from California State University, Chico
. He obtained a Ph.D.
in Sociology in 1985 from the University of California, Berkeley
with a dissertation titled Masculinity
and Sports: An Exploration of the Changing Meaning of Male Identity in the Lifecourse of the Athlete.
In the late 1970s, he started to deal with feminist theory and the construction of gender. He took part in one of the first ever classes about men and masculinity in the USA, held by Bob Blauner
in Berkeley.
with his wife, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (a sociologist and author). They have two sons, named Miles and Sasha.
" in Menlo Park, California
, Messner remarked that men involved in them "often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games
, cartoons
and movies
. [...] Boys have these warrior
fantasies
picked up from popular culture
, and schools sort of force that out of them." In these fantasies: "The good guys always resort to violence, and they always get the glory
and the women."
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
(especially Men's studies
Men's studies
Men's studies, sometimes called masculinity studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning men, masculinity, gender, and politics...
) and the sociology of sports. He is the author of several books, he gives public speeches and teaches on issues of gender-based violence, the lives of men and boys, and gender and sports.
Since 1987, Messner has worked as a professor of sociology and gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. He was head of the department, and still retains his dual faculty appointment. He was the president of the Pacific Sociological Association in 2010-2011, and in 2011 the California Women's Law Center presented him with the Pursuit of Justice Award.
Education
Messner was educated from kindergartenKindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
to his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in California's public schools. He has a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
and a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in sociology from California State University, Chico
California State University, Chico
California State University, Chico is the second-oldest campus in the twenty-three-campus California State University system. It is located in Chico, California, about ninety miles north of Sacramento...
. He obtained a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Sociology in 1985 from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
with a dissertation titled Masculinity
Masculinity
Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...
and Sports: An Exploration of the Changing Meaning of Male Identity in the Lifecourse of the Athlete.
In the late 1970s, he started to deal with feminist theory and the construction of gender. He took part in one of the first ever classes about men and masculinity in the USA, held by Bob Blauner
Bob Blauner
Bob Blauner is an American sociologist, college professor and author.Blauner's sociological writings and teachings on class, race and men are based on his years as a factory worker. His studies began with his B.A. from University of Chicago 1948, M.A. 1950 and his Ph.D...
in Berkeley.
Personal life
Messner lives in South PasadenaSouth Pasadena, California
South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in in the West San Gabriel Valley...
with his wife, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (a sociologist and author). They have two sons, named Miles and Sasha.
Comments regarding "fight clubs"
In an article about a "fight clubFight Club
Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, he finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups...
" in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
, Messner remarked that men involved in them "often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games
Video game controversy
Violent video game debates often center on topics such as video game graphic violence, sex and sexism, violent and gory scenes, partial or full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior, racism, and other provocative and objectionable material. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and...
, cartoons
Violence in cartoons
Many cartoons contain situations in them that contain blood, hitting, guns, pushing, name calling, and more serious stuff such as chopping off of heads which is considered as violence. Violence has been seen in cartoons more and more as time as increased...
and movies
Combat in film
Staged fights in Cinema include performances of classical fencing, historical fencing, martial arts, close combat and duels in general, as well as choreography of full-scale battles.-Asian martial arts:...
. [...] Boys have these warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
fantasies
Fantasy (psychology)
Fantasy in a psychological sense is broadly used to cover two different senses, conscious and unconscious. In the unconscious sense, it is sometimes spelled "phantasy".-Conscious fantasy:...
picked up from popular culture
Aestheticization of violence
The aestheticization of violence in high culture art or mass media is the depiction of or references to violence in what Indiana University film studies professor Margaret Bruder calls a "stylistically excessive," "significant and sustained way." When violence is depicted in this fashion in films,...
, and schools sort of force that out of them." In these fantasies: "The good guys always resort to violence, and they always get the glory
Recognition (sociology)
Recognition in sociology is public acknowledgement of person's status or merits .When some person is recognized, he or she is accorded some special status, such as a name, title, or classification...
and the women."
Books
- Men's Lives, co-authored by Michael Kimmel (1989, MacmillanMacmillan Publishers (United States)Macmillan Publishers USA, also known as Macmillan Publishing, is a privately held American publishing company owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than 30 others....
first edition; ISBN 0-02364-061-8 / 1992, Macmillan / 1995, Prentice Hall College Div. third edition; ISBN 0-02363-880-X / 1997, Allyn & BaconAllyn & BaconAllyn & Bacon, founded in 1868, is a higher education textbook publisher in the areas of education, humanities and social sciences. It is an imprint of Pearson Education and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts....
fourth edition; ISBN 0-20526-649-5 / 2001 / 2004 / 2007 / 2009, Allyn & Bacon eighth edition; ISBN 0-20569-294-X) - Sport, Men, and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives, co-edited by Donald F. Sabo (1990, Human Kinetics Publishers paperback; ISBN 0-87322-421-3 / hardcover; ISBN 0-87322-281-4)
- Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity (1992, Beacon Press; ISBN 0-80704-104-1 / 1995 reissue edition; ISBN 0-80704-105-X)
- Sex, Violence and Power in Sports, co-authored with Donald F. Sabo (1994, Crossing Press paperback; ISBN 0-89594-688-2 / library binding; ISBN 0-89594-689-0
- Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements (1997, Sage PublicationsSAGE PublicationsSAGE is an independent academic publisher of books, journals, and electronic products in the humanities and social sciences and the scientific, technical, and medical fields. SAGE was founded in 1965 by George McCune and Sara Miller McCune. The company is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California,...
paperback, volume 3 of the Gender lens series in sociology; ISBN 0-80395-577-4 / hardcover illustrated edition; ISBN 0-80395-576-6) - Gender Through the Prism of Difference, co-edited with Maxine Baca Zinn and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (1997 / 1999, Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
paperback 2nd edition; ISBN 0-20530-225-4 / 2005, Oxford University Press paperback 3rd edition; ISBN 0-19516-764-3 / 2010, Oxford University Press paperback 4th edition; ISBN 0-19974-302-9) - Masculinities, Gender Relations, and Sport, co-edited with Jim McKayJim McKayJames Kenneth McManus , better known by his professional name of Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist....
and Don Sabo (2000, SAGE PublicationsSAGE PublicationsSAGE is an independent academic publisher of books, journals, and electronic products in the humanities and social sciences and the scientific, technical, and medical fields. SAGE was founded in 1965 by George McCune and Sara Miller McCune. The company is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California,...
paperback, No. 13 in the Research on Men and Masculinities Series; ISBN 0-76191-272-X / hardcover; ISBN 0-76191-271-1) - Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports (2002, University of Minnesota PressUniversity of Minnesota PressThe University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota.Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its books in social and cultural thought, critical theory, race and ethnic studies, urbanism, feminist criticism, and media...
paperback, vol. 4 of the Sport and culture series; ISBN 0-81663-449-1 / hardcover illustrated edition; ISBN 0-81663-448-3) - Paradoxes of Youth and Sport, co-edited with Margaret Gatz and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach (2002, State University of New York PressState University of New York PressThe State University of New York Press , is a university press and a Center for Scholarly Communication. The Press is part of the State University of New York system and is located in Albany, New York.- History :...
paperback; ISBN 0-7914-5324-3 / hardcover; ISBN 0-79145-323-5) - Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport (2007, State University of New York PressState University of New York PressThe State University of New York Press , is a university press and a Center for Scholarly Communication. The Press is part of the State University of New York system and is located in Albany, New York.- History :...
paperback, Suny Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations; ISBN 0-79147-172-1 / hardcover; ISBN 0-79147-171-3) - It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports (2009, University of California PressUniversity of California PressUniversity of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
paperback; ISBN 0-52025-710-3 / hardcover; ISBN 0-52025-708-1) - King of the Wild Suburb: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Guns (2011, Plain View Press paperback; ISBN 978-1935514909)
Articles
- Messner (1988). "Sports and Male Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain" in Sociology of Sport Journal 5 (3) September, pp. 197-211.
- Messner, Margaret Carlisle Duncan, and Kerry Jensen (March 1993). "Separating the Men from the Girls: The Gendered Language of Televised Sports" in Gender & SocietyGender & SocietyGender & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is Joya Misra...
vol. 7, 1: pp. 121-137 (Abstract). - Messner (1994). "Boyhood, Organized Sports and the Construction of Masculinities" in Journal of Contemporary EthnographyJournal Of Contemporary EthnographyJournal of Contemporary Ethnography is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editors are Kent Sandstorm and Marybeth Stalp...
18:416-444 (Abstract) - Messner (June 1998). "The Limits of “The Male Sex Role”: An Analysis of the Men's Liberation and Men's Rights Movements' Discourse" in Gender & SocietyGender & SocietyGender & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is Joya Misra...
vol. 12, 3: pp. 255-276 (Abstract). - Messner (1999). "Becoming 100 Percent Straight" in Inside Sports edited by Jay Coakley and Peter DonnellyPeter DonnellyPeter Donnelly, FRS is an Australian mathematician and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford. He is a specialist in applied probability and has made contributions to coalescent theory...
. (Routledge, 1999, pp. 104-110; ISBN 0-41517-089-3). - Messner (April 2000). "White Guy Habitus in the Classroom: Challenging the Reproduction of Privilege" in Men and MasculinitiesMen and MasculinitiesMen and Masculinities is a peer-reviewed academic journal of men's studies, feminism, protofeminism, queer theory and multiculturalism. It is published by SAGE Publications. The editor is Michael Kimmel, a Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University....
vol. 2, 4: pp. 457-469. - Messner, Michele Dunbar, and Darnell Hunt (November 2000). "The Televised Sports Manhood Formula" in Journal of Sport & Social IssuesJournal of Sport & Social IssuesThe Journal of Sport & Social Issues is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is C.L Cole...
vol. 24, 4: pp. 380-394 (Abstract). - Messner (December 2000). "Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender" in Gender & SocietyGender & SocietyGender & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is Joya Misra...
vol. 14, 6: pp. 765-784 (Abstract). - Messner, Margaret Carlisle Duncan, and Cheryl Cooky (February 2003). "Silence, Sports Bras, And Wrestling Porn: Women in Televised Sports News and Highlights Shows" in Journal of Sport & Social IssuesJournal of Sport & Social IssuesThe Journal of Sport & Social Issues is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is C.L Cole...
vol. 27, 1: pp. 38-51 (Abstract). - Messner and Jeffrey Montez de Oca (2005). "The Male Consumer as Loser: Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Events" in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30: 1879-1909.
- Messner, Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Nicole Willms (2006). "This Revolution is not Being Televised" in Contexts: Understanding People in Their Social Worlds 5: 34-38 (Abstract).
- Messner (2007). "The Masculinity of the Governator: Muscle and Compassion in American Politics" in Gender & SocietyGender & SocietyGender & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is Joya Misra...
21: 461-481 (Abstract. - Messner and Nancy M. Solomon (2007). "Social Justice and Men’s Interests: The Case of Title IXTitle IXTitle IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a United States law, enacted on June 23, 1972, that amended Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2002 it was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, in honor of its principal author Congresswoman Mink, but is most...
" in Journal of Sport and Social Issues: 31: 162-178 (Abstract). - Messner and Suzel Bozada-Deas (2009). "Separating the Men From the Moms: The Making of Adult Sex SegregationSex segregationSex segregation is the separation of people according to their sex.The term gender apartheid also has been applied to segregation of people by gender, implying that it is sexual discrimination...
in Youth Sports" in Gender & SocietyGender & SocietyGender & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Sociology. The journal's editor is Joya Misra...
23: 49-71 (Abstract). - Messner (2011) “Gender ideologies, youth sports, and the production of soft essentialism,” Sociology of Sport Journal 28: 151-170.
- Messner (2011) “The privilege of teaching about privilege,” Sociological Perspectives 54: 3-13.
External links
- Michael Messner's faculty page at the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
site - Sports and Male Violence: Sociologist's Research Links the Two, by Barbara Alderson (about Messner's approach)
- Messner's book review of A Place on the Team: The Triumph and Tragedy of Title IX by Welch SuggsWelch SuggsWelch Suggs is a sportswriter chiefly covering American collegiate sports. He is Associate Director for the and a graduate student at the at the University of Georgia. A longtime writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, he is the author of A Place on the Team: The Triumph and Tragedy of...
, Academe, (Jan/Feb 2006) - Dropping the Ball on Covering Women's Sports, by Messner at Huffington Post
- SL Interview: Michael Messner talks about his new book on youth sports, interview by SportsLetter about It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports