Warren Farrell

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Warren Farrell (2011)

Warren Thomas Farrell (born June 26, 1943 in Queens , New York City ) is an American author and men's rights activist. Farrell was initially a feminist , but has increasingly advocated men's rights since the 1980s . Farrell is often seen as the most prominent proponent of anti-feminism . He sees himself as a representative of a movement that advocates a modernization of gender roles ( gender transformation movement ).

Life

Farrell was a representative of the women's movement until the 1970s and was elected three times to the board of the US feminist organization National Organization for Women (NOW).

In the course of time, however, Farrell came to the view that feminism interpreted and represented gender relations in a very one-sided way in favor of women, and described in Why Men Are What They Are (1986) and The Myth of Male Power (1993) which affect the male gender Role constraints and their consequences. He thus laid one of the most important pillars of the international men's rights movement ( Men's Rights Activists ).

His book Mythos Männermacht was criticized by the then president of the National Organization for Women, and Farrell claims to have had a strained relationship with Betty Friedan , one of the founders of the organization, since he told her about his plans to write a book about incest . that should also contain stories about people who have had positive experiences with it.

Farrell describes his change of heart as follows:

“The years passed. When most of my most loyal followers got divorced, I could only assume that their husbands were the problem. [...] Then one day (in one of those rare moments of inner security) I wondered if whatever it was, my influence was good. I wondered if it was because of the fact that so many more women listened to me than men because I had listened to women rather than men. I listened to some of the tapes from the hundreds of women and men groups I had initiated. I heard myself talking. When women criticized men, I called it 'awareness' or 'assertion', 'women's liberation', 'independence' or 'developed self-awareness'. When men criticized women, I spoke of 'sexism', 'male chauvinism', 'defense', 'rationalization' and 'backlash'. I did so politely - but the men understood very well. Soon the men failed to express their feelings and I criticized them again. "

- Warren Farrell: The Myth of Male Power. Why Men Are the Disposable Sex . (New edition 2001), page 20

Farrell ran as one of several dozen Democratic candidates for the successor to the office of California governor in the early extraordinary election in 2003, which was won by Arnold Schwarzenegger . Schwarzenegger received 4.2 million votes (48%), Farrell 626 votes (<0.1%, 97th place out of 135 candidates).

Farrell was married to an IBM manager for ten years . The couple divorced after his wife said she had more in common with a manager than someone like Farrell. Farrell has been married to Liz Dowling since August 2002 and has two stepdaughters. You live in Mill Valley, California.

subjects

In his books Farrell dealt with the gender roles especially of men and criticized feminist theories. Among other things, Warren Farrell referred to the feminist interpretation of the statistics: If it were women and not men who take their own lives more often, are criminalized more often, are more often homeless , and become drug addicts more often, this would be a clear symptom of the feminist discourse the social disadvantage of women can be seen. He also complained that the media ignored men's concerns. The New York Times would have printed every article he sent in when he was - as he self-deprecatedly - "the top man of feminism", but not a single one when he began to write articles about the situation of men. When the American feminist and former companion Gloria Steinem noticed that Farrell was critical of feminist theses, she stopped recording a planned talk show.

Warren Farell is a controversial figure in the gender debate. The feminist Susan Faludi has described Farrell in her popular book Backlash - The Men Strike Back as a representative of the so-called backlash movement and thus classified as an anti- feminist or masculist . The self-confessed professional US sociologist Michael Kimmel comes to the same classification . Marianne Grabucker, Bavarian state chairwoman of the German Association of Women Lawyers , contradicts this classification in the foreword to the 2nd edition of the German edition of Farrell's main work Mythos Männermacht . Farrell sees himself as someone who embraces the issue of equality and overcoming traditional gender roles from a male perspective:

“I'm often referred to as an advocate for men's problems because when it comes to gender, I focus on what I think has been forgotten. Nevertheless, I still vehemently support some aspects of the women's movement. I think we would have needed a movement much earlier that would rethink the old roles of men and women and agree on more flexible roles and goals together, a gender transition movement. "

- Meeting with Warren Farrell , interview in Annabelle on June 28, 2011

Book publications

English

  • The liberated man: Beyond masculinity; Freeing men and their relationships with women . Random House , New York 1974, ISBN 0-394-49024-X (English).
  • Why Men Are the Way They Are. The male-female dynamic . McGraw-Hill, New York 1986, ISBN 0-07-019974-4 (English).
  • The Myth of Male Power. Why Men Are the Disposable Sex . New edition 2001. Berkley Publishing Group, 1993, ISBN 0-425-18144-8 (English).
  • Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say. Destroying Myths, Creating Love . Jeremy P. Tarcher, New York 1999, ISBN 0-87477-988-X (English).
  • Father and Child Reunion. How to Bring the Dads We Need to the Children We Love . Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam, New York 2001, ISBN 1-58542-075-1 (English).
  • Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It . Amacom, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-8144-7210-1 (English).
  • Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? A debate . Oxford University Press , Oxford / New York 2008, ISBN 0-19-531283-X (English).

German

  • Why men are who they are . Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-8225-0097-6 (English: Why men are the way they are . Translated by Hans-Joachim Maass).
  • The myth of male power . With a foreword by Marianne Grabrucker. 1st edition. Zweiausendeins , Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-86150-108-2 (English: The myth of male power . Translated by Elisabeth Brock).

Web links

Wikiquote: Warren Farrell  - Quotes
Commons : Warren Farrell  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael Kimmel , Amy Aronson (ed.): Men & Masculinities: A Social, Cultural, and Historical Encyclopedia . Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Calif. 2004, ISBN 1-57607-774-8 , Antifeminism, pp. 37 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ Murry Frymer: Once On The Now Board, Warren Farrell Is No Longer The `Liberated Man '. The Seattle Times, September 26, 1993, accessed June 3, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b Pamela Warrick: A New Role for Men: Victim: Former feminist Warren Farrell says he's sick and tired of guys getting bashed. 'Male power,' he proclaims, is just a myth. In: Los Angeles Times , August 9, 1993.
  4. ↑ Ellen Joan Pollock: Doubling Back: Dual-Career Couples, Those '70s Pioneers, Two Decades Later . In: The Wall Street Journal , October 1998.
  5. ↑ Susan Faludi: The men strike back. How feminism's victories turn into defeat and what women can do about it . 1st edition. Rowohlt , Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-498-02071-4 , p. 403-409 .
  6. ↑ Michael Kaufman, Michael Kimmel: The Guy's Guide to Feminism . Seal Press, Berkeley, Calif. 2011, ISBN 978-1-58005-362-4 (English).
  7. ↑ Warren Farrell: The Myth of Male Power . With a foreword by Marianne Grabrucker. 1st edition. Zweiausendeins , Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-86150-108-2 , p. 9 (English: The myth of male power . Translated by Elisabeth Brock).
  8. ^ Warren Farrell: The Myth of Male Power. Why Men Are the Disposable Sex . New edition 2001. Berkley Publishing Group, 1993, ISBN 0-425-18144-8 , pp. 19 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Farrell, Warren
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Farrell, Warren Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Queens , New York City , United States