Activism & Politics

An in-depth examination of men's sexual and reproductive health brings together national research findings to document the sexual and reproductive needs of men in their own right—as individuals and not simply as women's partners.

See below for the report in PDF. Or see here for versions in Spanish.

From the executive summary - "The focus of this 2000 Technical Report and Policy Paper...is on a gender perspective in sexual and reproductive health, and on finding constructive ways to build partnership between men and women....Just as family planning and the pill were revolutionarey 50 years ago, building partnerships with men in areas such as sexuality, reproductive intentions, new gender roles, fatherhood and conflict resolution is the revolution occuring at the start of the 21st century...

This publication provides an overview of a three-day workshop on 'Strengthening partnership with men and boys to promote gender equality and end violence against girls and boys’, organised by Save the Children Sweden-Denmark, Regional Office for South Central Asia on 23-25 March in Kathmandu. Around thirty participants from the region met and shared their practical experiences of and theoretical insights into working with men and boys on issues (masculinities that promote gender equality and non-violence towards children and women). They also developed strategies and concrete action plans for increasing partnership with men/boys to address violence against girls and boys and for promoting gender equality from a child rights based approach.

This 72-page publication by the Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG), highlights three programmes that have engaged men and boys in efforts to improve reproductive health outcomes for both men and women. Though planned and implemented in different geographic regions within different cultural contexts, these programmes share a number of features. All three evolved and developed during the process of implementation and continue to evolve as they continue to work within their respective communities.

A number of organisations in South and Central Asia have recognised the urgent need to include boys and men in efforts to combat gender-based violence in the region. Yet there have been few opportunities for them to come together to work collectively on this important issue. To begin this process, UNIFEM and Save the Children Sweden, organised a three-day workshop in 2004 on 'Strategies and Tools for Working with Men and Boys to end Violence against Girls, Boys, Women and other Men'.

My thanks to Anxious Black Woman for reminding readers about two of many intersections of Black history, Nazi atrocity, and the matter of not forgetting genocide is not only in the past. Her post made me think about the on-going ways in which genocide (which always includes gynocide) is invisibilised cross-culturally, across eras, and by global media.

This post is a partial response to finishing the book, Love and Pornography, by Victoria and Garry Prater.

This is the first part of a multi-part post. Here are the links to the rest of the series: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Let's begin with one basic observations about how things work in dominant Western societies: Misogyny is not only corporately manufactured, but is also promulgated, promoted, heralded, and honored as "sacred" in a society that continually finds new ways to violate and degrade women as a gendered class.

A relatively young white man who appreciates many of the postings on this blog asked me to define what I mean by "a white man". I'll attempt to do so here.