"how people in general are enslaved by the dominant masculine discourse"

And that assumption is central to the problem. It's not a masculine discourse, it's a human discourse which both males and females have participated in over all of history. Calling it a masculine discourse, a problem with masculinity, a masculine conspiracy etc blames one half of humanity for something that we are all part of.

It's a human discourse that works in some way's and in some situations but fails dismally in others. If we could move away from making it about masculinity and focus on the whole picture we might get somewhere.

R0bert

For those who ever had any suspicions that some of the humanities studies areas in universities are an absolute waste of money and should be cast out to find a living elsewhere, this article should remove any remaining doubts.

Got to be joking, a conspiracy theory as a gel coating to get the public to swallow other whacko conspiracy theories that have been put about for yonks and found wanting? This is the inevitable outcome of too many academics with too little worthwhile to do bouncing off one another's literature reviews.

Forget the social engineering by stealth, I'll take democracy every time. Could some of that grant money that seems to be floating around for academics to invent social conspiracies be directed into engineering or medicine to produce something of value?

Cornflower: dictating what is and what is not worthy of investigation is another strategy used to assert control. Instead of genuinely engaging with the issues in the article you instead try and shut down the legitimacy of the topic (again, plug me back into the matrix!). You say you’ll “take democracy every time”, but that involves people making their own choices about what they research, not just those subjects deemed worthy by you.

I'm not smoking anything, but I suspect Ho Hum's pinched a bit of Coleridge's opium. Or does your pleasure dome have more substantial foundations, Ho Hum?

Pelican;
for me equality is the last thing we want; the only hope of change is allowing the cultural flaws to spread.

Stev;
I've made no absolute claims. Im just trying to think outside the matrix as Gelfer suggests, and it seems to me that masculinity does indeed structure our institutional lives.

Bushbred.
My sympathies. My first wife died in a palliative care ward, but it had always a fraught relationship.

Pynchme.
Agreed. It seems to me women can either try to reform the system by becoming more masculine themselves, which hasn't happened yet and probably never will, or they can explore the full implications of their indoctrination in masculinism--knowledge is power! Having seen through it all, women could turn the whole system on its head over night, simply by confronting machismo with passive determinism, a la Gandhi, at the ballot box. Such a movement wouldn't have to capture all women's imaginations because, as you imply, it would also capture men's!

RObert.
As you say, finally we're talking ideology, or pynchme's 'false consciousness', that maintains the system.

Cornflower.
We've had 'social engineering by stealth [or rather, 'inchmeal']' for decades via Raymond Williams's 'long revolution', morphed into identity politics, and all it's done is make the system stronger.
You may get your wish with the funding too; kill off the humanities, and humanity remains enthral to its delusions. No doubt you like things just the way they are.
I also hate some of the crap that comes out of culturalism--but it's not all crap.

elfer, "dictating what is and what is not worthy of investigation is another strategy used to assert control."

Nonsense, research funding involves the weighing of possible returns from the various alternatives and that is the 'control' you are objecting to.

However, since you have raised the subject, what specifically would you see as being the outcomes from re-labelling and gel coating the tired old theories you seem to be promoting? Change the wrapper and re-market?

The public isn't as gullible as you might wish, or is it simply that you refuse to accept democratic decisions? You think that masculinity is 'broke' and is unacceptable to you, but the public do not, therefore the public is stupid and wrong?

Squeers
"for me equality is the last thing we want; the only hope of change is allowing the cultural flaws to spread."

Not sure what you mean by this. Is that what you believe or what you think I believe? If the latter re-read my last post again.

Many women do make the mistake of becoming aggressive in management style thinking they have to behave like the 'stereotypical' perception of men. For either gender, choosing an aggressive style is usually borne out of some form of insecurity or lack of confidence. Self confident and competent managers of either gender usually don't resort to aggressive techniques