5. Absolution and Participation in Privilege: The False Fronts of Men Student Affairs Professionals

Student affairs, a helping field focused on outside-the-classroom activities in higher education, has been traditionally associated with feminine gendered expectations. Using Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity and Foucauldian discourse analysis, we investigated how men student affairs professionals use and perpetuate gender privilege in the workplace. We identified a cycle of discourse whereby men student affairs professionals deployed discursive tactics to obscure their benefit from male privilege while simultaneously garnering cultural status and social capital. Deconstructing these discursive nodes provided insight to the impact of conflicting gender discourses. We suggest our analysis can expose rules that regulate, perpetuate, resist, and oppress, which opens up new understandings and meanings for men student affairs professionals and their gender performances.