Michael Alan Messner (*1952) is an American sociologist. His main areas of research are gender, (especially Men's studies) and sociology of sports.

He is head of the department of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Messner has a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences and a Master's degree in sociology from California State University, Chico. He wrote his dissertation in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, California about Masculinity and Sports: An Exploration of the Changing Meaning of Male Identity in the Lifecourse of the Athlete.

In the late 1970s, he started to deal with feminist theory and the construction of gender. He took part in one of the first ever classes about men and masculinity in the USA, held by Bob Blauner in Berkeley.