My supervisor and I briefly had a discussion about men in art therapy that I wanted to bring up on the blog to you all. During one of our group sessions, my supervisor invited her friend, another art therapist, to lead an art making session to teach our group a new sculpture technique. We noticed that her friend, who happened to be male, had a specific effect on our female members. Our group does have male members however, the two co-facilitators and myself are female. My supervisor and I had a discussion about it and compared it to one of the museum programs that I also help her with where the female participants seemed so smitten with one of the male art therapists.
It's no secret that men are a rarity in our field and I think it's important to talk about that. Other fields that are primarily female have similar discussions: At last year's National Art Education Conference, there was a presentation titled, "Where are all the men?". A part of me, honestly, wants to reply, who cares?
While I do identify as a feminist, I am definitely in no way anti-men and I definitely think it's important to have male art therapists, for the same reason it is important to have diversity in art therapy. HOWEVER, do fields that lack women (i.e. politics, business, engineering) ever question, where are all the women? Are we, and other female-dominated fields, asking for men in order to validate and justify our field?
The lack of men in our field I think needs to be readdressed as a diversity issue as opposed to a gender issue - what do you think?
Jessie, I completely agree. Before I even read your last paragraph I had the EXACT same thought. Do men dominated fields ask where all the women are? I highly doubt they do. I do think there should be more male art therapists or even more males in the social service field, because I think there are a lot of young males who could use a positive male figure in their lives.
ReplyDeleteGood questions Jessie.
ReplyDeleteOther fields are not necessarily begging for higher numbers of women. A lot of my friends are nurses and I have discovered through their experiences graduating and finding jobs that even fields like nursing that are female dominated hire male nurses faster (and probably in better positions with higher pay). At my internship there is a male music therapist. I think working on a team with him in the same department is a great asset and I enjoy the diversity. I can't think of situations where the clients treat him any differently, but there are the female clients that swoon... then again, there are male clients that follow around the dance and art therapist as well. This is just Anixter Center.
I was thinking the same thing. who cares? people don't ask that question about other jobs where the majority of the employees are men. so why does it matter? I do agree with Jordan though on the point that having more males in the social services field might be good for those who need a positive male figure in their life but then I don't want a bunch of men in the field who don't really have a passion for what they are doing. So I just wonder if that's possibly why there aren't as many men? Like Cathy Moon said at the symposium, some years there are no male applicants that fit what they are looking for and they don't pick them just because they are male. I don't think it's right to hire a man just because he is a man so a place can look 'diverse'. It's not about looks. Diversity is a huge asset to any place but only if the person is equally qualified.
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