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The initial Man Box report found that young Australian men who believe in outdated masculine stereotypes were themselves at higher risk of using violence, online bullying and sexual harassment, engaging in risky drinking and reporting poorer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.
This report was commissioned by Oxfam to examine the ways in which varying narratives and tropes of masculinity and femininity have both shaped and been used by the far-right in its mobilization of support and polarization of debate. It follows the academic literature in identifying ethnonationalism as the unifying ideology of a heterogeneous political tendency that can be collectively referred to as the “far-right”.
It goes without saying that we are in a pickle – both socially and environmentally. Global systems that support life are under threat from multiple angles. The ways that we relate to each other are polarising. COVID has changed life as we knew it. In fact, it’s reasonable to think that things are falling apart. For more than two decades, I have been wondering about what is at the root of our troubles. I’ve come to see that beneath the selfishness of global economic systems, lays a deeper problem.
Low support for gender equality (GE) predicts attitudes supporting violence against women (VAW). However, little is known about the influence of attitudes towards different manifestations of GE. This study extends knowledge by assessing the relative strength of attitudes to GE across seven theoretically derived dimensions, and their association with attitudes towards VAW. 17,542 Australians participated in the 2017 National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women Survey.
#1. Start by putting your own house in order. Take responsibility for violent behaviour and attitudes and build respectful relations with the women and girls in your life. See pp. 11-13 of this report
Over the past decade, health programs have increasingly engaged men and boys in order to achieve gender equality and improve health outcomes. Gender inequality is a pervasive structural issue that negatively affects women, girls, men, and boys. Narratives of masculinity that justify men’s capacity for violence, control over women, and dominance in the economic and political spheres is influential in many local contexts around the world.
Over the last 12 years my view of the world and myself in it has radically changed, due to the many conversations with and between radical feminists I have been privileged to be part of. From my first exposure to the reality of women’s lives and the male violence they encounter and fear on a daily basis, to attending feminist conferences, it has been an eye opening, embarrassing and life-changing journey.
The complex reality for men beginning a Men's Behaviour Change Program (MBCP) can be, among other things, a mix of ignorance, inexperience and resentment. I’ve been working in programs for male perpetrators of domestic violence for more than ten years and one thing I notice among these men is a level of ignorance with regard to understanding the work required to change. In my experience, one of the biggest obstacles to men ending their abuse of women and children is their inability to understand the damage they are causing and have caused.
[Note: This book chapter also is available in PDF, here.]
We are a group of men from England who are organising engage, an international pro-feminist online conference, for the first time in 2021. The conference seeks to engage men in activism and discussions surrounding masculinity, feminism and the patriarchy. It takes place over November 19-21.
