Hobart and William Smith Colleges are offering a spring course that will teach students why masculinity is problematic for men and women everywhere.
“Men And Masculinity” is part of Hobart and Smith’s “Men’s Studies” program, which “offers an intellectually rigorous and coherent explanation of men’s lives, focusing on theories of masculinity, the history and sociology of men’s experience, gender and sexuality.”
The course asks how “masculinity [is] problematic — for both men and women,” according to the course description. The class encourages participants to study masculinity by examining the facets of sexuality, race and ethnicity in order to gain a deeper understanding of men. The course even encourages participating students to “rethink the male experience completely.”
“Hobart and William Smith Colleges are committed to providing a non-discriminatory and harassment-free educational, living, and working environment,” the school writeson its course catalogue, an apt representation of the course’s inclusive nature. Hobart and William Smith Colleges were initially operated as separate single-sex colleges, but are now integrated and share the same campus in New York state.