South African Men’s Circles
I work for a not for profit called InsideOut and am responsible for initiating a masculinities program as part of the organization’s services. The program seeks to run healing circles for men as well as lobby for a public health campaign on the impact of violence on our society. The team I am part of has been working with men on and off for 20 years. At the present moment we are seeking partners who are able to assist with this initiative as well as provide other support. https://insideoutnpo.com/
Mike Abrams
Cape Town,
South Africa
Biden No Role Model
I’ve read several of your articles, and generally feel you write eloquently and persuasively about the need for more compassionate, nonviolent, and loving masculine role models. However, I have no idea what you’re thinking in promoting Joe Biden as a role model for compassion, kindness, peace, or justice. Have you completely ignored his personal and political history? Or are you that seriously delusional that you’d promote a supporter of war crimes, of illegal economic sanctions that have resulted in hundreds of thousands to millions of unnecessary deaths, and of continuing militarism and nuclear weapons escalation, of supporting Israel in its persecution of Palestinians and in its defiance of international law, among Biden’s myriad crimes against humanity and justice. And Kamala Harris isn’t much better.
If you think Biden is a good character for masculine emulation, you’re really not looking very hard to find thousands of better choices. Lazy, delusional, sycophantic, or ignorant? Whatever, your neglect of the real costs of Biden’s neoliberal, imperialist, corporatist pathology completely undermines your cause. Real men don’t pursue wars and conflict!
Peter Warner
via email
Profeminist UK Online Conference
We’re a group of men from England who are organizing engage, an international profeminist online conference. Members from our group have contributed to workshops and presentations at feminist conferences organized by women over the last decade, but as far as we are aware, there has not been a profeminist men’s conference in the UK for at least 30 years.
The event deliberately starts on International Men’s Day, a day that has often been hijacked by men’s rights activists. Because of this, we felt it important to organize an event on International Men’s Day that does something positive for women and men. Also, engage takes place just before the “16 Days of Activism” to challenge men’s violence against women and girls, as we want the event to galvanize more men.
We’re not for profit and will donate all proceeds from ticket sales to Women for Afghan and Women’s Aid. There’ll be talks on pornography, sexism in music, bystander training and a protest: http://engageconferenceuk.wordpress.com. Everybody welcome.
Björn, for engage conference
West Yorkshire, England