Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Humanities: Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture

Reader 1

Professor Marina Perez de Mendiola

Reader 2

Professor Andrew Aisenberg

Rights Information

© 2025 Nina F. Cauntay

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the global conversation surrounding the alienation, suffering, and violence exhibited by contemporary Western men and boys. I argue that men’s reported misery and their willingness to inflict harm on women, rather than separate issues, are two expressions of the same condition: the psychological and existential trauma incurred under the destructive structure of patriarchy. Drawing from feminist philosophy, existentialism, psychology, and neuroscience, I argue that patriarchy severs those socialized into a performance of masculinity from the most fundamental aspects of their humanity at a young age, compelling a dissociation from their existential ambiguity. This process contorts them into fearful, lonely, and violent young adults and men—a phenomenon starkly illustrated by the disturbing online subcultures of the "manosphere." Ultimately, I suggest that resolving this crisis will require rejecting the delusion of patriarchal flourishing and dissolving the reductive moral binaries used to understand men's suffering. True collective liberation, I contend, will require a critical re-evaluation of masculine socialization and self-constitution, a cultural embrace of the ambiguity and contingency of human life, and a collective effort to realize a more ethical and interdependent world.

Download

This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

Share

COinS