Online Master’s Degree Available in Men’s Studies

Would you believe that there is now a graduate-level program for men’s studies?  Through Akamai University one may receive a Master of Science degree in Men’s Studies and Fatherhood.   The degree is online, and the university isn’t accredited – the latter a major down side.  Nevertheless, my interest was piqued by the class titles, which demonstrate overt Jungian themes and sound substantial in content.  The core curriculum is listed below.

Required: The following nine credits:

MSP 531: Rites of Passage: Ancient and Modern (3 credits)
MSP 532: Developmental Male Psychology (3 credits)
MSP 533: Issues in Male Sexuality (3 credits)

Plus nine additional credits selected from the following courses:

MSP 534: Men in Literature (3 credits)
MSP 535: Issues Facing Men (3 credits)
MSP 536: Models of Masculinity (3 credits)
MSP 537: Marriage and Fatherhood (3 credits)
MSP 538: Male Victimization (3 credits)
MPS 539: Male Archetypes (3 credits)
MSP 540: Men’s/Fathers’ Rights (3 credits)
MSP 541: Patriarchy (3 credits)
MSP 542: Male Spirituality (3 credits)

Barbershops Offer Space for Men

The day of the fraternal club has gone the way of the dinosaur.  Seen as elitist, sexist and generally suspicious, most men’s groups have either dissipated or become co-ed.  Athletics sometimes seem to be the only center for male interaction.  I admit, this makes me sad.   Men’s isolation is greatest around other men.

So it is with some hope that I’ve noticed the re-emergence of the barbershop.  For instance, according to the Saddleback Valley News [CA] (19 June 2009), V’s, an Arizona-based franchise, has recently opened shops in Foothill Ranch and San Clemente.  Featuring vintage Koken barber chairs, flatscreen TVs and straight razor shaves, it has brought men into a space more comfortable and interactive for them.  “You walk into a hair salon and there’s women getting perms and it smells,” said Blake Feaser, the 24 year-old manager of the Foothill Ranch shop.  “This is centered more around the guy.”

In my own hometown of Sioux Falls I’ve seen a related thing emerge in the form of the Chop Shoppe.  For around $25 a guy can plop down on a leather couch, order a beer (!) and watch ESPN until he feels like having his hair cut.   From there he is moved to the cutting area, which looks like some crazy hybrid of a motorcycle detailing shop and Paul Bunyan-gone-Japanese-minimalism.  While the staff is mostly women, and while they offer massages and manicures and the like, the place is very cool, set up from head to toe with men in mind.  

Barbershops don’t guarantee male comaraderie.  But they do at least offer a space in which men can relax and perhaps develop some relationships in a non-athletic environment.

The Impossibility of the Nice Christian Guy

Are you wild – or whipped – at heart?  Are you a Christian guy who is thinking about repenting of his niceness?  You’ll want to see my article published this month in Catapult Magazine. 

http://www.catapultmagazine.com/men-manly-men/feature/the-impossibility-of-the-nice-christian