There has been much talk at this conference about the need for men to love each other and be willing to speak openly about that love. That is important; we need to be able to get beyond the all-too-common male tendency to mute or deform our emotions. But it’s also crucial to remember that loving one another means challenging ourselves as well. That’s what I would like to do today, to challenge us -- in harsh language -- on men’s use of pornography. In an unjust world, those of us with privilege must be harsh on ourselves, out of love.
Activism & Politics
How do class, masculinity, sexuality and race intersect in and with the prison system? Is prison any sort of solution to crime? David Denborough has the story.
Racism is not an attitude but a system. Victor Lewis spells it out, commenting too on anti-sexist men's failure so far to address important aspects of men's experience. He is interviewed by Michael Flood.
If we pay attention to race and ethnicity, what does this mean for the men's movement, for the development of communities of men, and for our understandings of masculinity?
A gender lens helps us to make sense of acts of terrorism by men, both domestic and international.
Ben Wadham explores white masculinities and Aboriginal reconciliation.
Men can be a ‘problem’ for women’s studies in at least three ways: as objects of feminist scholarship, as students of feminist scholarship, and as agents of this scholarship. First, studying men is an established and desirable aspect of feminist research. But to what extent does the emergent literature on men and masculinities extend or undermine the insights of feminist theory? Second, what issues does male students’ participation in Women’s Studies classes raise for feminist pedagogy? Third, can men themselves produce and teach feminist theory? While “Men’s Studies” has failed to engage with the complexities of feminism, I argue that men can develop pro-feminist or anti-patriarchal knowledges. I explore these issues with reference to my qualitative research on young heterosexual men’s understandings and practices of safe and unsafe sex, and my experience as a student and teacher in Women’s Studies.
Stephen Fisher assesses three approaches to boyswork. Please see below for the attachment, in PDF.
For increased inclusion of men into violence prevention efforts to work, we need to educate them about consent. Real consent.
We're still missing the mark when it comes to teaching consent. We have heard "No means No", and I think we're finally clueing in on "Yes means Yes" - in other words that the absence of a "No" is not in itself consent. But the problem is that we are still stuck in the old paradigm. It's still based on the idea of permission: there is this line that once crossed can't be un-crossed, and the woman is just going to have to live with the consequences of her actions (emphasis HER actions). As a culture, we still blame male arousal on women.
A collection of lists and guides. Please see below for the attachment, in Word.