Activism & Politics

There has been in Australia, for a long time, a kind of network of anti-feminist men’s groups. Some men’s rights groups focus on general issues of gender and violence and so on, and some have a particular focus on fathering and family law. And those men’s and fathers’ rights group overlap. I’ve described them as an anti-feminist backlash because of their views on women and gender and because of the political strategies they adopt. […] I think they have an understanding which is, in fact, fairly widespread—that feminism is definned by a hostility towards men, and a kind of unreasonable and irrational desire to put women on top. I think fathers’ rights and men’s rights groups, to some degree, simply repeat the negative stereotypes about feminism that are part of popular culture and part of the media. They extend them and intensify them, in terms of seeing women as malicious and hostile and devious and so on, and in attributing great power to feminism—feminism now dominates our political agendas or dominates our culture. I think they exaggerate the extent to which men are now victims in our culture.
White Ribbon Australia is holding an international conference featuring key researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and activists from both national and international settings. The three-day international conference is titled: Global To Local: Preventing Men's Violence Against Women. Research, policy and practice in one space. The conference is designed to engage a variety of stakeholders, including governments, international organisations, and community agencies in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and further afield.
In a few days from now, two men in suits -- Mitt Romney and Barack Obama -- will stand side-by-side to debate each other three times in three weeks. Imagine those moments. The two men defending their records and outlining their case to the American people: “This is why you should choose me to lead you for the next four years.”

The Centre for Research on Men and Masculinities (CROMM) is hosting a two-day conference titled Engaging Men in Building Gender Equality. The conference focuses on and seeks to advance efforts to address men’s roles in building gender equality.

This report is a comprehensive examination of the roles bystanders can play in preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. The report draws on and synthesises insights from diverse bodies of scholarship and practice regarding violence prevention, whistle blowing, employee voice, workplace justice and workplace bullying. While there are significant organizational, legal and socio-political challenges in developing bystander approaches to sexual harassment, the paper argues that they also offer substantial promise.

Recently my attention was drawn to a website entitled ‘It’s Guy Code: The Official Etiquette of Men’. The website can be visited at this address: http://itsguycode.com/ however you should be warned that a lot of the content on this site is rather confronting to say the least.

Do you want a guy you admire featured in the "Men in the Movement" social media series by International Planned Parenthood Federation/ Western Hemisphere Region? With Father's Day coming up, we want to amplify your stories about men whose support, guidance, and commitment to social change is helping to build a better world. Send a 500-800 word story to mvandeven@ippfwhr.org by June 1st that explains who he is and what he's done that's so special. (Include a photo if you can!) The stories we receive will be posted throughout June to our blog, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Voice your support for Men for Women's Choice.

Like many men around the world, we think women should control their own bodies. We are part of a decentralized effort to encourage men to speak out in support of women’s right to safe birth control and abortion.

In celebration of International Women's Day, Engagingmen is pleased to share with you the second issue of the Engagingmen.net community e-magazine 'Stories of Resistance and Stories of Change' (http://www.engagingmen.net/resource/stories-resistance-and-stories-chan…). This series is designed as a forum for us to reflect on the innovations, successes and challenges we face in practice and to explore the various themes and theories that inform our work.

Calls for greater male participation are now a commonplace in work on sexual and reproductive health and rights. The need to engage men in efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and promote sexual health and gender equality is well accepted. But we know less about the optimal forms of such engagement, particularly when it comes to moving beyond a focus on changing individual men’s attitudes and behaviours.