Michael Messner

Michael Alan Messner (born 1952) 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.

Biography

Messner was born in Salinas, California.^[1]

Education

Messner was educated from kindergarten 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.

Personal life

Messner lives in South Pasadena with his wife, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (a sociologist and author). They have two sons, named Miles and Sasha.^[1]

Views

Comments regarding "fight clubs"

In an article about a "fight club" 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."^[2]

Works (selection)

Books

• Men's Lives, co-authored by Michael Kimmel (1989, Macmillan first edition; ISBN 0-02364-061-8 / 1992, Macmillan / 1995, Prentice Hall College Div. third edition; ISBN 0-02363-880-X / 1997, Allyn & Bacon 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 Publications 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 Press 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 McKay and Don Sabo (2000, SAGE Publications 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 Press 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 Press 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 Press 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 Press 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 & Society vol. 7, 1: pp. 121-137 (Abstract).
• Messner (1994). "Boyhood, Organized Sports and the Construction of Masculinities" in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 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 & Society vol. 12, 3: pp. 255-276 (Abstract).
• Messner (1999). "Becoming 100 Percent Straight" in Inside Sports edited by Jay Coakley and Peter Donnelly. (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 Masculinities vol. 2, 4: pp. 457-469.
• Messner, Michele Dunbar, and Darnell Hunt (November 2000). "The Televised Sports Manhood Formula" in Journal of Sport & Social Issues vol. 24, 4: pp. 380-394 (Abstract).
• Messner (December 2000). "Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender" in Gender & Society 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 Issues 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 & Society 21: 461-481 (Abstract.
• Messner and Nancy M. Solomon (2007). "Social Justice and Men’s Interests: The Case of Title IX" 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 Segregation in Youth Sports" in Gender & Society 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.

See also

• Triad of Violence
• Jean-Marie Brohm

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.amazon.com/Michael-A.-Messner/e/B001H6Q942/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
2. ^ Jordon Robertson (29 May 2006). "The first rule of Silicon Valley fight club is...". AP. MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13037439/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/. Retrieved 16 February 2011. 

External links

• Michael Messner's faculty page at the University of Southern California 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 Suggs, 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

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Name	Messner, Michael
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Date of birth	1952
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