There has recently been a ‘turn to men’ in gender politics, an increasing emphasis on the roles that men can play in building gender equality. This is a feminist achievement, which locates the responsibility for gender injustice squarely with the group who benefit from it, and it prompts programs and policies which ideally involve men in processes of personal and collective transformation. Yet there are problems with this turn to men.
Articles
What role can men play in building gender equality? How can men be engaged in the work of building a gender-just world? This page offers a guide to the wide range of resources and materials on XY on these issues.
In this short paper, I will outline a perspective on anti-pornography activism, provide a brief overview of tactics, and offer a few comments about tactics and actions. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus on pornography. But as has been discussed throughout this conference, the distinctions between pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking are shallow and tenuous. There is more alike between these issues than there is different.
This short article details the initial findings from a 3-month conversation between 21 male activists who work to prevent violence against women. Using Participatory Action Research methodology, this research project investigates what men who do this work would like to learn from other men who do this work. To date, no research has been done that examines what it is that motivates and sustains men who work, as their primary effort, to prevent men’s violence against women.
Enough is enough! Not another obfuscating word from You Know Who that “it’s not time to talk about gun control.” No more deflections that “he was a twisted individual; it’s a mental health issue.” No more hemming and hawing from the Speaker of the House and his coterie of National Rifle Association lackeys. While 26 bodies—including an 18-month-old, a pregnant mother, and three of her five children—are prepared for burial in Sutherland Springs, Texas, there’s one common denominator in all of the shooters that we in the profeminist men’s movement are blue in the face from shouting from the rooftops for decades: They’re all men. And, many are domestic abusers.
The EMERGE (Engendering Men: Evidence on Routes to Gender Equality) project includes a Practice Brief on "Lessons in good practice from work with men and boys for gender equality". Download the Practice Brief here.
Since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, there have been tremendous advances in the rights and well-being of women and girls. We are still far from achieving equality between women and men, but by many measures—including health, education, political participation, and income— we are closer to it than we were 20 years ago. As envisioned in the Beijing Platform for Action, one critical piece for advancing the gender equality agenda is engaging men and boys.
I hate pornography. I hate what pornography does to women, what it does to men, what it says to men to do to women and other men.
Pornography has a profound influence among men and boys.
Most everyday users of pornography are heterosexual males. Looking at, and masturbating to, pornography is the routine practice of large numbers of men. And most of the commercial pornographic industry caters to heterosexual men.
What is sexual harassment? What are its character, causes, and consequences? Here are some key readings, particularly recent academic overviews.
The pieces are listed below, and downloadable in full text.