Benign Masculinity and Critical Reason

Abstract

This article critically examines the feminist claim that masculinity is closely associated with an oppressive, objectifying rational order. It argues that certain psychoanalytic and postmodern feminist theories have shaped our current conceptualisations of masculine identity and reason; deconstructs their negative portrayal of masculinity and one‐dimensional representation of reason; and, finally, provides an affirmative depiction of masculinity and reason as an antidote to the excesses of these particular feminist assertions.