At this point, men, women and queer people talk about their relationship to their gender: What feels male and what feels female? What does someone feel who doesn’t identify with a gender? In this episode, feminist Vincent-Immanuel Herr talks about masculinity.
Recorded by Lisa Frieda Cossham
Vincent-Immanuel Herr is an activist, historian and feminist. The 35-year-old is committed to European integration and gender equality. This year he published a book together with other authors: “The book that every man should have read” was published by Beltz-Verlag. Vincent Immanuel Herr is also an ambassador for the UN campaign #HeforShe. In 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz appointed him to the “Gender Equality Advisory Council” of the G7 countries, an independent body for equality issues. Mr. is married and lives with his wife and daughter in the US state of Missouri.
For me, my role model of masculinity was and is my father. He was a man of integrity, warmth and clarity. For him it was always about the question: What is right? And not so much about the question: What is useful? Above all, I learned from him that men can and should be feminists too. My father talked about Simone de Beauvoir and pointed out when only men were on stage on a talk show. As a matter of course, he shared the care work for my sister and me equally with my mother. He supported and encouraged my mother on her career path as a professor and looked after us children when my mother was often traveling for work reasons or later commuted between two cities for her professorship.
At school parties he preferred to play with me and the other children while most of the fathers were at the grill. I saw my father as a role model from an early age, especially when it came to the role of dad. When my daughter was away three years ago, it was clear to me that I wanted to take a lot of parental leave. And it was worth it!