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You have Power, money, Prestige

a Long time there was not even a term that men as a group with clearly defined properties and not as individuals who merely share the same gender. In the USA th

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You have Power, money, Prestige

a Long time there was not even a term that men as a group with clearly defined properties and not as individuals who merely share the same gender. In the USA the term "angry white men" appeared in 2013, and with the election of Donald Trump to the President's new push. In the German-speaking countries, the term "old white men" only recently. The "women's libbers" are, however, for almost fifty years.

Who should be the old white man? He is only this clichéd image of the enemy of young feminists that emphasizes the gender difference, to overcome it? The privileged man says, has become accustomed to his Power and not necessarily to hang on to her want to – no matter what may come?

The 25-year-old Sophie Passmann, German radio journalist, author and columnist at "time"magazine, wanted to know more – of the men themselves. 16 of them she has taken on positions of influence in politics, business and the media.

Mature, Diekmann, Langhans

All have Power, money, Prestige. Pass man visited the 54-year-old Kai Diekmann, by 2015, editor-in-chief of the tabloid "Bild", in his office in Berlin-Kreuzberg. She drank with the 69-year-old Swiss sports journalist Marcel Reif coffee at the lake of Zurich. The 29-year-old Kevin Kühnert, the Federal Chairman of Jusos, of an age not to the enemy, and she was eating Breakfast. The 78-year-old Rainer Langhans, a Alt- ' 68, lives in a woman's harem, she met at a vegan Restaurant. Of all the passport man wanted to know: Are you an old white man? If not, why not? And how do you prevent it to become one?

With most encounters in a sincere conversation about feminism, gender justice, and their own privileges. The not has a often only aware that they. This also has to learn pass man: you as a young person can make others smile, overwhelmed with the social progress. As the "old white men" also defends you when you feel attacked. Blind spots have all.

In some cases, no constructive conversation. But also from this refusal to pass man will draw the necessary conclusions – perhaps even sharper. In the Preface she writes: "This trip is the attempt of an approach to masculinity in the 21st century. Century, the sees for the first Time confronted with the fact, no longer the monopoly on the narrative of humanity."

pass man wants to make your feminism "more capable, and wiser", and she is looking for the exchange with the other side. To know the arguments of the other and to sharpen their own. You will find: Who discussed, want to understand.

Who should be the old white man, want to answer the interlocutor rather than the question of whether or not you are a. The men surveyed Express the most trouble with the attribute "old" that, unlike "white" and "man", the approaching disintegration – an expiration date. Something that is more powerful than you.

"There is an inner attribution of old, according to the I'm not old," says the 43-year-old Sascha Lobo, the average Blogger with the red Mohawk. "And there is an external attribution. The starts between 45 and 55 years of age, then it belongs to the old white men at the latest from the 55, I'd say." The Green Robert Habeck said: "So, weiss, and man is indisputable, and the old, because I have to get used to the idea. It doesn't feel like that, but I am not this year, forty-nine, is young."

the 65-year-old political scientist Werner Patzelt winds: "Generally it is not more likely to connect with alt: so powerful, not really on the amount of time, not really resilient. If I see someone hunched back, shuffling, gasping for breath, puzzled and adrift in the world looking exactly as I would have to say: This is really an old white man!"

We're harmless

What makes Patzelt, is the reinterpretation of the old white man in a figure of powerlessness. So the reversal into the opposite. Either it means: do not be afraid of the old man in white, he's harmless! Similar to the 44-year-old CDU politician Peter Tauber argues that, "Santa is shown to be in vain as an old white man, and we associate very positive." Or it means that The "old white man" does not exist. But only men who are very different, and young, middle-aged woman or old.

And that is exactly the strategy the essence of the old white man is revealed, in the form of some of passport's interview partners. For the first Time, you need to experience, not as an individual but rather as part of a group, without the imputation of influence. Suddenly you are confronted with suspicion. Gays and lesbians know this, people with a migration background, know, women, too.

radio journalist and author Sophie pass man. Photo: Asja Caspari

But the white, heterosexual man? He has internalized the self-image, to have all the strength of his ability as a individual reaches. Not favorable circumstances promoted him, he was there. This attitude makes him single-minded.

The 50-year-old Journalist Jörg Thadeusz says: "affiliations define me. You can say I am white, I am fifty, I am a Protestant. But what explains this? Nothing explains this. This is ridiculous. That's a lot of cut wood fast." He does not want to see. Pass man writes: "so Far, the white man had the authority over its Definition. And because he seems secretly to know how restrictive this is, he wants to renounce it for himself. The white man is not a white man, but a man."

"One is never finished"

There are just those conversation partners who belong to the category of "old white men" who reject this affiliation vehemently. Men on the other hand, are unsure whether you are, perhaps, are not old white men.

Why? Because you think about yourself, self-doubt voice, your privileged to be able to see and not all of their success on the own Can. Some of it is simply luck.

And how it can be prevent to will someday be an old white man, Kevin Kühnert? "If one sees oneself as a Feminist, you should lead a: It is never finished. There is no endpoint where you can say: now That would be managed."

Sophie's passport man: Old white men. A Mediation Attempt. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 2019. 304 p., 20 Fr. (editor-in-Tamedia)

Created: 19.03.2019, 17:31 PM

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