Welcome to Season 3 of CSS Breakdown: Book by Book. In this first episode, we begin our journey through Michael Kimmel’s influential work, "The Gendered Society." Kimmel challenges the deeply rooted belief that men and women are fundamentally different by nature—and instead reveals how these differences are constructed and maintained by unequal social structures.

In this kickoff to Season 3, we explore the foundational arguments of The Gendered Society (4th edition, Oxford University Press, 2011). Michael Kimmel critiques the "interplanetary theory" of gender, dismantling biological determinism and highlighting how social inequality—not innate difference—creates and reinforces what we perceive as "masculine" and "feminine." We discuss how Kimmel makes masculinity visible as a gendered category and how institutions—from family to media—serve to uphold male dominance. This episode sets the stage for a season-long deep dive into gender, power, and identity.