Pro-feminist man to speak on gender issues

Michael S. Kimmel, internationally acclaimed sociologist and author, will speak at 7 tonight in Irvine auditorium on "Gladiators and Glamour Queens: Gender in America Today."

Kimmel will focus the speech on tensions around gender differences today and whether these differences are exaggerated at the expense of similarities. He will address the lessons men are taught and the ways in which these lessons often hinder and restrict men in everyday life.

According to Suzanne Hatty, an Ohio University professor of social medicine, Kimmel is a "pro-feminist man."

"He's an activist, working toward the social transformation of gender relations," Hatty said in an OU news release. "He's also a very lively commentator who engages his audience in a two-way conversation. He is both provocative and humorous."

Hatty, along with OU's sociology and anthropology departments and My Sister's Place, a local battered women's shelter, invited Kimmel to speak at OU.

Kimmel is a professor of sociology at the State University of New York - Stoney Brook, where he teaches a course examining men's lives from a pro-feminist position.

He recently addressed the European Parliament and is a consultant to the Swedish government on fatherhood and masculinity issues. He has authored many books, his most recent a history of masculinity in America.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is at 7 tonight in the Irvine Hall auditorium.

- An OU news release