Research shows that men care less about climate change than women. A recent article in the Journal of Environmental Psychology asked, “Are You Man Enough to Save the Planet?” scholars have proposed the concept of “petro-masculininty,” referring to how fossil-fuel consumption is wrapped up in being manly. Similarly, eating meat is often associated with masculinity, whereas being a “soyboy” is emasculating. Is it unmanly to care about climate change?
In this episode, I talk with Joseph Henderson, an anthropologist who studies how masculinity, race, class, and nationality intersect with environmental concern, climate policy, and education.
We ask, what’s pulling so many men away from climate action? How can we redefine masculinity so it includes care for the climate? What do we need to do about masculinity in order to make progress on climate justice? We consider models of masculinity that care about the earth, think compassionately about the political-economic conditions that make masculinity precarious in this moment, and call for a climate movement that calls men in, rejects the label “toxic masculinity,” and enlists men in a movement to dismantle the systems that would dominate nature.
Shownotes
- Radio show WXXI on “The Boys Are Not OK”
- Are the Boys OK? Event website
- Carbon Bros podcast
- “Eating Less Beef is a Climate Action. Here’s Why That’s Hard for Some American Men,” an NPR segment
- Cara Daggett’s article on “Petro-Masculinity and Authoritarian Desire”
- Journal of Environmental Psychology article, “Are You Man Enough to Save the Planet?”
- “Manly Male Sports Fans for a Safer Climate” piece by Sammy Roth
- “What is Queer Ecology?” essay for reference
- Dorceta Taylor’s work on the history of mainstream environmentalism
- Climate Magic episode with Isaias Hernandez touching on queer ecology
- My Substack essay on making caring cool (and manly) again, here
- “How Teaching Became Women’s Work,” history of gendered care labor by Dana Goldstein
- Charles Taylor’s work
- Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell, on how disasters are “liberalizing events”
- Bruce Braun’s essay “On the Raggedy Edge of Risk” about performing masculinity in outdoor adventure culture
- My essay on “Risking Bodies in the Wild” about the gendered history of environmentalism, outdoor culture, national identity, whiteness, and ableism
- Great ecofeminist historian of American environmental history, Carolyn Merchant’s work
- Robert Paxton’s Anatomy of Fascism
- PERIL lab at American University with resources for men who have been caught up in far-right conspiracy culture
- Gabriel Winan’s book The Next Shift
- A webinar I did with Joseph Henderson and others for the Climate Psychology Alliance on authoritarianism
