COLUMN: Why is there no men’s history?

This semester I am taking an art history class focused on female artists and examining the various ways in which the concept of a woman has been reduced to an object from the Renaissance onward.

This class is one of the most awesome classes I’ve taken during my college career, so I feel the need to tell everyone I run into about it. Last week I was telling a friend about it, and someone eavesdropping nearby decided he had an opinion.

“What’s with all these classes about women’s history? Why is there no such thing as men’s history?”

I wasn’t surprised when the speaker turned out to be a white male.

Well, I happen to have an answer for him, and anyone else who may be wondering the same thing: Allow me to explain why there is no such thing as “men’s history.”

I know how you must feel with all of these classes focused on women, gender studies, and the histories of people of color popping up everywhere; white males are not getting the recognition they deserve.

You think your identity is being marginalized so others can have all the glory. You probably feel like you’re being excluded on purpose or that you’re being judged based solely on factors out of your control.

It’s not your fault you were born a white male. You didn’t ask to be this way. The things you have to contribute to society are just as valuable as anyone else’s. Why are you being treated differently? After all, you’re a human being too.

Well, here’s the thing. Up until the mid-twentieth century, the history of the Western world was largely shaped by white males such as yourself. They were given so much of the power, education and wealth that there just wasn’t enough leftover for anyone else. They even created a really clever set of rules to keep things this way.

Women had to produce children, oversee the domestic sphere and look really pretty. People of color were largely responsible for the labor efforts that provided white males with all of their wealth. These groups of people were almost never given the chance to do anything beside what the white males in charge told them to do.

During the 1960s and 70s, those people grew tired of being left out of history. They wanted equal representation in the world. They wanted the opportunity to write a timeless story, create a beautiful work of art, make a scientific advancement, run for political office or attend a prestigious university.

This is why the feminist and civil rights movements are so important, and while they created significant change in the Western world, there is still a lot of work to be done. Classes focused on the histories of “everyone else” are one of the ways these changes are realized.

So you see; it’s not that people don’t recognize how important white males have been in history. It’s just that everyone else deserves a turn too.