THE time is ripe for a recognition of diversity among men, by activists in the men's movement and by theorists of masculinity. Second-wave feminism began in Western countries in the late 1960s. Although different strands of feminism asserted differing explanations for women's situation, all agreed that women shared a common oppression. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the claims of feminism to represent equally all women, to speak for a common 'sisterhood', were being challenged. Black, non-Anglo and Third World feminists argued against the idea that gender was necessarily the most fundamental oppression.
Race is gendered, and gender is raced.
Sexism and racism overlap and intersect, and this intersection is now the subject of a rich and fertile feminist literature. The insights gained from this shift in feminist theory have profound implications for our vision of men and masculinity. Being a man' means different things in different cultures and among different ethnic groups. This simple fact means that that we can not talk or write about 'the male role', as if there were only one model in Australian society of how to be a man. Instead, there are multiple masculinities, with some dominant and some subordinate or marginalised.