What is it about?
This research explores how men make sense of their identities, relationships, and experiences in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Using a method called the Listening Guide—a feminist, voice-centered approach that helps uncover unspoken thoughts and emotional complexities—the study listened closely to the stories of 18 diverse men. We highlight how this method's unique focus on listening for multiplicity and tension within narratives can deepen our understanding and compassion for men's experiences. Applying the Listening Guide to men's experiences related to the #MeToo movement revealed how men both take in and push back against cultural messages about gender, sexuality, and power, often wrestling with conflicting feelings and social expectations. The findings show that major cultural events like #MeToo can influence how men think about themselves and their interactions with women, offering new insight into how masculinity is shaped and how it might evolve.
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Why is it important?
There has been a burst of public discourse recently about the well-being of men in our culture, with the common refrain that "men and boys are not doing well." We need only look at statistics related to suicide, sexual misconduct, shootings, and college matriculation to affirm this concerning trend. This work takes male subjectivity and the role of culture and relationships seriously as potent avenues for strengths-based intervention, beginning with the simple attempt to truly listen and understand men's experiences.
Perspectives
As feminist psychologists, we value the opportunity to honor men's experiences and examine the social forces that men and boys have to contend with. Gender socialization within patriarchy impacts selfhood across gender expressions and identities, and we believe our work as clinicians and researchers, and indeed as citizens of our increasingly complex world, is enhanced by listening to men's experiences with empathy and compassion.
Ali Shames-Dawson
The New School for Social Research
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “What can we learn from listening to men?”: The utility of the listening guide for the psychology of men and masculinities studies., Psychology of Men & Masculinity, September 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/men0000536.
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