BY JESSICA WINEGAR

Do you know that photo of the older woman protestor holding a sign that says “I Can’t Believe I Still Have to Protest this S**t?”

Now that I just turned fifty and have spent three decades in the academy, I think of that image frequently when attending academic talks.

Back in grad school in the 1990s, the future looked bright to us female academics or those socialized as women. Feminist scholarship was vibrant and becoming increasingly mainstream in the liberal arts. Many of our male colleagues or those socialized as men readily called themselves feminists—overcoming fears of emasculation or being called too radical.

Yet some of those same colleagues today eschew questions of gender, even as they claim to be feminists or even simply prowoman. In recent years, I have been disheartened, though not surprised, by how even younger male scholars trip up when faced with a gender question.

The academic talk, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, is a prime example. Too often when male academics present their research and then get asked a question related to gender, they flub the answer in ways that can make the rest of us feel like we are a female character in Mad Men. We roll our eyes, sigh, internally groan, and then occasionally commiserate together after the talk.  

If you are a male academic, you need to do better. To that end, I offer some suggestions for reframing problematic answers to the gender question. I do this not to police your speech but rather to urge you into a feminist praxis—both in your research and in your academic social worlds.

I invite you to read these with an open mind and with a commitment to bettering our scholarship and our workplaces. Be wary of male fragility. And remember that saying any of these things to a female scholar of color would likely have an even greater negative impact.

1. “Well, women . . . ”  

This is the number one misstep in response to a question framed with the language of gender. Gender does not equal women. Gender is the concept for the socially constructed associations and experiences of living in and presenting as particular bodies. It is relational and ladened with power. By assuming that a gender question is solely about women, you sidestep this power relationship by removing things like patriarchy and masculinity and men from the equation. You assume a system of binary gender that excludes nonbinary persons. A focus on women, particularly if the question is about women, is fine, but this focus needs to take into account the system that produces women as gendered beings.

Reframe: “Gender . . . ”

2. “It wasn’t relevant to the research.”  

Gender is always relevant. It shapes human thought and action in ways large and small but ever present. It is a gendered privilege that you have as a man to think that gender is not relevant.

Reframe: “Here are the ways that gender might shape the phenomenon I am researching, which I would like to consider more . . . ”

3. “I didn’t consider it because I focused on other things.”  

You didn’t consider it because you didn’t think it was important, which says more about you than about the subject of your research. It says that your subject position as a man enabled you to disregard your positionality in relationship to the material. Of course, not all research has to take gender as its central analytic, but gender is relevant to all research. See above point.

Reframe: “I really should have considered this question more centrally when doing the research. Here is a preliminary answer, but I will think more about it, and thank you for raising the question . . . ”

4. “You can read Woman X as she has done research on this.”  

   Thank you for highlighting Woman X’s voice, but the burden of understanding gender should not fall on women—either the female author or the female questioner you are asking to go read the female author’s book.

   Reframe: “Woman X did really good research on this. This is what she said, and here is how it shapes my understanding of gender in relationship to my own work . . . ”

5. “Some women I talked to about the research said x.”  

   Talking to some women is not a stand-in for taking gender seriously. This puts all the labor on women to consider gender or provide you with the gendered perspective. It is somewhat akin to saying, “Some of my best friends are women.” You don’t get off the hook by proxy. And furthermore, this response rests on a problematic gender binary.

   Reframe: Just don’t say this, and use one of the other reframes suggested here.

6. “That’s a great question—perhaps you could research that.”  

This doozy is usually thrown back at a female questioner. It tries to absolve the researcher of all responsibility. Again, it puts all the labor for understanding gender on women. And it presumes that only women are interested in or are qualified to research gender.

Reframe: “That’s a great question. I need to think about that more, and I appreciate your raising it.”

7. “My wife helps me with these things.”  

Uttered in 2021. Is this much better than thanking your wife for typing your manuscript?

Reframe: Just don’t say this, and use one of the other reframes suggested here.

And, finally, do not go up to the questioner afterwards and, out of male fragility, try to defend yourself or show that you’re really a “good guy.” Just do better research.

And work harder to ensure that we still don’t have to deal with this sh**t in the years to come.

Jessica Winegar is professor of anthropology at Northwestern University.