In a flash of passive-aggressive cogency, Jezebel spanks the “male feminist.”

Even as satire, its existence seemed to feed into the stereotype that men who position themselves as male feminists are overcompensating for their misogyny.

Buried in there is the acknowledgement that the neo-feminist obsession with misogyny permeates their allies. After all, they are male, and therefore must confess and repent their toxic masculinity, even though they can never cleanse themselves of their maleness.

Where does someone learn such things?

It’s a good job no one starts a postgraduate degree in gender studies to meet men: my MPhil class at Cambridge contains precisely zero of them. Apparently, this is anomalous, according to course director Dr Andy Tucker. In the three previous years there have been a quarter to a third men: a better turnout than on many gender programmes.

Why is there such a dearth of male students? Especially when there are so many male lecturers teaching gender studies. After all, it’s not “women’s studies” any more (apart from at Oxford, among others), a change that has taken place over the past decade as “gender” courses in the UK have sprung up, aiming at a wider audience both of women and men.

I like football, bacon, classic cars and watches. I don’t understand why so many women are obsessed with their feet, both clad and unclad. Sure, I can tell Louboutins by their red soles, but I just don’t care and you can’t make me.

Changing the name to gender studies from women’s studies was a wise but insufficient move. When I (somewhat) facetiously pointed out that gender studies will be in demand when they open the Gender Studies Store, I was informed by more woke people that we should be interested in others besides ourselves, and that learning to understand different perspectives was a worthy intellectual endeavor. I accept this proposition, but raise two questions:

1. Is this worthy of being a college major?
2. Is understanding gender really what gender studies teaches?

While getting a Ph.D. in gender studies might be a prerequisite for teaching, would anyone who doesn’t seek to become a prof have a reason to pursue it, whether as an undergrad major or a post-graduate degree? It’s not that any humanities course of study can’t be helpful for critical thinking, but there are plenty of other options besides gender studies that would seem to offer a broader liberal arts knowledge. History? Psychology? Communications?

And then there’s the sanitizing of gender studies, to color it benign as an intellectual pursuit.

In reality, men (when present) are greatly valued in gender studies courses, not loathed as the living, breathing patriarchy. “It seems to me that the women students are extraordinarily protective of the minority of men in the seminar group,” says Anne Phillips, head of the LSE’s gender institute. In his feminist political theory class (about a third male), most of Dean’s men “seem to be on board or sympathetic” to feminism. But feminism isn’t the only topic in gender studies – just as important are masculinities and, of course, queer theory.

Assuming this to be correct, the best it offers is an explanation of why men would add value to women pursuing a gender studies degree. So they don’t hate guys? Well, there’s a reason for guys to go for it. Consider the marketing slogan, “Get your Masters in Gender Studies, where nobody will loathe you!” Are you interested now?

In a few weeks we’re having a whole session on masculinities. It’s important that those on the course engage with a range of theories, which includes masculinities, and this can be taught successfully whether or not there are men in the group.”

The word “masculinities” is cringeworthy. First, it’s a word only women would use about men. Second, maybe women want to spend their time discussing their femininities, but men want to watch the Giants beat the Eagles while eating bacon. We’re just not that into us.

Perhaps. But I’m more inclined to agree with the geography student who said to me at dinner recently: “At some point men have got to get involved or the whole thing will collapse.”

Will we ever get enough scholarly papers about Patriarchal Icebergs or Black Anality? The problem is that this is where the discipline necessarily goes, as it seeks ever-newer notions about the mundane differences between women and men. The research is inherently hampered by the refusal to consider misogynistic concepts like there is such a thing as gender, and it has a passing connection to what’s between our thighs, or that women prefer pink and men prefer cars. Nature or nuture? Since it can’t be nature, it has to be nurture.

So why aren’t guys flocking to gender studies? Maybe we just want to fix things rather than talk about our feelings about things that need to be fixed? I wonder if there’s a study about that?