Why are women always tasked with ending men’s violence? Why are women both burdened with suffering under it and with solving it? Why do we never ask men to change their behaviour or to step up to counter misogyny and harm? How Men Can Help: A Guide To Undoing Harm and Being A Better Ally, by award-winning journalist and campaigner Sophie Gallagher provides the much-needed answers to these urgent questions.
Violence
I want to start with the rationale for this work. Why are we trying to promote healthy masculinities? What is the problem?
To answer that, I have to start with gender.
Gender means…
I’m using the term ‘gender’ here for the patterns of men’s and women’s lives, boys’ and girls’ lives.
Gender means: the meanings we give to being male and female, and the social organisation of men’s and women’s lives.
"the horrific enactments of violence discussed here are the work of men. Whether masculinity is something we should consider salvageable or bankrupt ought to inform our scholarship and our politics. And on these issues... Masculinity is the malignant tissue connecting these seemingly disparate events. It’s time to man down."
Men have a vital role to play in contributing to the prevention and reduction of sexual harassment, in workplaces and elsewhere. Although men’s involvement is often constrained by poor understanding of sexual harassment and barriers preventing their advocacy, there are effective ways to invite them in to the work of sexual harassment prevention, and practical actions men can take to make change.
This is a collection of media commentaries on the Johnny Depp – Amber Heard case. It pulls together media pieces that are informed by knowledge of domestic and sexual violence, their typical dynamics and impacts, or that offer commentary on the wider significance and implications of the case. Suggestions for further commentaries are welcome.
Hobbes' piece below is a particularly thorough account of the history and context for the Depp-Heard trial.
Jess Hill and Michael Salter recently have released a commentary paper, “Rethinking Primary Prevention”, available on Jess Hill’s substack here. The following are some comments on this paper. While I see some valuable discussion in the paper, I also think that it:
Most allegations of domestic and sexual violence are made in good faith. False allegations are rare. Robust studies of reports made to police find that the prevalence of false allegations of sexual assault is between 2% and 10%.
The new book Engaging Boys and Men in Sexual Assault Prevention: Theory, Research and Practice explores sexual assault prevention programs for boys and men. The book presents leading-edge research on efforts to engage men and boys in the prevention of sexual violence. Written and edited by key scholars in the field, it is an essential volume for researchers, advocates, and educators.
I find it hard to process the videos of captured young male Russian soldiers calling their mums, crying, explaining they are alive, that they thought they were going to a training camp or would be welcomed as liberators and instead being sent to their death in Ukraine. These men have conducted atrocities and I do not seek to justify their actions.
Unpacking the Man Box is based on a survey of 1,000 young Australian men aged 18 to 30. The report builds on the findings of The Men’s Project’s 2018 report The Man Box.
The initial Man Box report found that young Australian men who believe in outdated masculine stereotypes were themselves at higher risk of using violence, online bullying and sexual harassment, engaging in risky drinking and reporting poorer levels of mental health.