Gaskin's

Satisfied that he had terrified Gaskin, he brought the car to a stop, declaring that his superior knowledge gave him the power to make Gaskin's drug experience either miserable or euphoric.

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

Note 51: For Gaskin's views on hell, see Monday Night Class, [84 – 86]. back

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

Furthermore, Gaskin's preference for metaphysical explanation was not his alone.

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

We may also note Gaskin's tendency to reject the simplest explanations available in favor of Buddhist metaphysics.

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

Gaskin's public speaking was accessible relative to Leary's, but the latter's writing proves far more readable.

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

No one in the group had trained as a midwife, but someone had brought along The Mexican Rural Midwives 'Handbook, and Gaskin's co-wives, Margaret and Ina May, stepped forward to preside at births.

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

Gaskin's model of relations between the sexes posited that "ladies are supposed to take it upon themselves to create a field around them ... that's nice and smells good and feels good and is clean and a good place for a baby to be."

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

I have just led readers through an unsentimental analysis of the limits of the gender equality that could be realized through Stephen Gaskin's strong emphasis on women's essential difference.

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

While he provides colorful examples, we may ask whether this generalization holds true in the case of the Monday Night Class, given the sincerity of Gaskin's teaching and the serious intent of his group to transform American society, including capitalism. back

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007

The anecdotes that comprise Gaskin's text suggest a winding path from unformed youth to mature self-possession, from willful denial of a higher power to the spiritual grace and rebirth achieved through what historian Susan Juster, writing of early nineteenth-century American evangelicalism, has called "a breaking down of the unregenerate will and sense of self, and its reconstitution under the divine power of the Spirit."

Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 1965–83 2007