In this segment, Jennifer Brown highlights the often‑overlooked diversity that exists within the group commonly labeled “straight white men.” She argues that heterosexual cisgender men express their gender along a broad continuum and that intersecting identities—such as race, sexuality, and cultural background—create a rich tapestry of experiences that defy monolithic stereotypes. Brown notes that while intersectionality has been widely discussed in relation to women, the conversation about men’s intersecting identities is still in its infancy. She urges listeners to abandon monolithic thinking, to recognize their own biases when entering male‑dominated spaces, and to practice compassion toward men navigating narrow gender expectations. By consciously giving individuals the chance to reveal their full selves, she advocates for a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of gender.
Chapters
There's tremendous diversity within the straight, you know, what we might have called straight white men. There's diversity within those groups of people. And it's very radical for me to point that out and say that I believe that, and that I've seen evidence of it over and over again in my work. Because traditionally, nobody in that cohort has thought they had any knowledge about diversity. Like, it just hasn't been spoken about. And you're right, the way men express their gender, the way that heterosexual cisgender men express their gender is on a giant continuum. You're absolutely right. That's always been true. Then you have intersectionality within men's communities, right? We have men of color. We have queer men of color. There's huge diversity to explore within this sort of, you know, incorrect monolith that we talk about. And we haven't really been talking about that. We've talked a lot about more relatively about intersectional women. We've talked more about the impact of multiple overlapping stigmatized identities, which is the definition of intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw. But I think that the men's conversation about the same thing is in its infancy, in my experience. And I think that we've got to start to not view any group as a monolith, because that's not true. It's not accurate. It's not inclusive. And so, you know, I, as much as, as a woman, when I walk into an all-male room and I have certain reactions to that from, I think it's very conditioned in me, I have to literally not have a bias against that group and say, hold on, I'm having a bias. Let me think about all the diversity dimensions that exist in this group of people that I might have this sort of, you know, initial reaction or initial bias. I might see those individuals through a certain lens, and I try to challenge that every day in my work. That's really revolutionary, honestly. And for a woman, it's very revolutionary because we have major safety issues. Clearly, you know, we walk through this world and we're used to being doubted and having our credibility questioned and having to manage our gender and all the stereotypes that it triggers. And yet to push through that and say, you know what, I'm going to give people a new chance every single time to show me who they really are and to be inclusive of all of the parts of who they are and acknowledge that they are also covering, they're also hiding, they're also passing, they are also having to assimilate and go through that very painful dance of conforming to a very narrow definition of what is okay to be as a man. We have to have compassion for that as well as do our own work.
