On Men, Love, and the Patriarchy
Maurits de Bruijn, Melanie Bühler, Amanda van Hesteren, Reba Maybury, Sara Sadik, Asa Seresin

In 2004, bell hooks wrote:

“Everyone needs to love and be loved—including men. But for men to understand love, we must be able to look at the ways in which patriarchal culture keeps them from understanding themselves.”

Crises of masculinity have been proclaimed periodically, and we are now arguably facing another. Among those reaffirmed by the current crisis are domineering, predatory men of a type that many had hoped to see relegated to history. However, reactionary and more aggressive forms of masculinity are instead being resurrected.

Those advocating for their return have managed to attract large followings thanks to social media and the validating aura of Trumpism. In the wake of #MeToo, it’s as if a perverse reversal has occurred: perpetrators have been recast as victims, and through this “victimhood” are now able to reassert their presence.

Of course, at its core, little of this is new: patriarchy is perhaps one of the oldest systems of all. Yet still the question is: how to respond?

This one-day conference invites us to consider the possibilities, and to explore masculinity, patriarchy, sex, and love from multiple perspectives.

“What we need is an angel,” Simone de Beauvoir said, “neither man nor woman—but where shall we find one?“

11:00 – Welcome, Jorinde Seijdel (Studium Generale)

11:15 – Melanie Bühler, "Why Masculinity Now?” (Introduction) Drawing from her research for the upcoming group exhibition “Beyond the Manosphere. Masculinities Today” Melanie Bühler will introduce today’s conference day “On Men, Love, and the Patriarchy”.

11:40 – Sara Sadik, “Khtobtogone” (Film) Sara Sadik’s films are investigations into the conditioning of identity, “Khtobtogone" (2021) depicts the process of coming of age within Marseille’s Maghrebi community through the prism of masculinity.

12:00 – Reba Maybury, “I Come in Peace” (Artist Talk) Artist, writer and dominatrix Reba Maybury reverses the power relations typical of patriarchal societies—taking on the role of a dominatrix and instrumentalizing sexual energy from consenting male submissives to produce her art.

13:00 – Lunch

14:00 – Asa Seresin, “The Object of the Object of Desire” (Talk) “The Object of the Object of Desire” investigates the reversed gaze of women’s sexual objectification of men. Departing from a feminist tradition that views objectification solely as a form of harm, the talk outlines the affordances of the free expression of women’s desire and the objectified male body in contemporary art.

14:45 – Amanda van Hesteren, “I Want to go Higher” (Film and Discussion) Amanda van Hesteren’s film “I Want to Go Higher” (2023) follows four young men on vacation in Thailand. Desire seems to roam freely as they move in and out of heartbreak, attraction, friendship, care for each other and male postering.

15:15 – Break

15:30 – Maurits de Bruijn, “The Opposite of a Man” (Talk) Maurits de Bruijn will discuss his text “The Opposite of a Man” that reflects on the tenacity and violence of gender norms.