Features
Indian Men Redefining Masculinity
In a break from tradition in the discourse about violence against women, a group of Indian men is offering an alternative view of Indian masculinity.The Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against Women (MASVAW) includes social workers, students, academics and journalists who organize meetings, hold rallies, and use street media to spread the word about new ideas about men and masculinity…
Born, Bought, and Brutalized: A Kenyan Tale
The emaciated, malnourished, and openly scared women gently whisper to each other as if they are frightened of being heard. Before them is a little hip of firewood and some charcoal which my hosts confirm are the only sources of income for their families, sometimes as large as 10. The women, still in their early twenties, are seemingly overwhelmed by the burdens they started carrying when they were only 10 years old…
Perpetuating Patriarchy in India’s Classrooms
Modern nation-states have long used education to control discussions of citizenship and nationality, dissent and conformity. India is no exception. Schools are among the most favored state institutions to carry forward a nationalist agenda and have become an important place where students…
Young Men in India Challenging Sexism and Rape Culture
When he was in college nine years ago, Sunil Chachar did masonry work and sold flowers for a living. After attending a residential camp on gender sensitization, Chachar, 28, who grew up in Mavdi village, a district in Pune, India, realized that his mother was doing all the household chores. He’d also believed housework was beneath him. Questioning the male dominance in all spheres of life—including the decision to do housework— Sunil started doing domestic chores…
Gay Fathering in Latin America
For 20 years Marcos Nascimento has been working with groups of young and adult men, practitioners, educators, and policy makers on how to promote gender equality in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. In recent years, fatherhood has become a major area of interest and in 2012, Nascimento was invited to be part of a new initiative developed by a Rio de Janeiro– based NGO. A group of professionals, mostly family therapists, were starting a new project that offered a safe space for gays and lesbians who had children—and those interested in having children— a place designed to share experiences and learn from one another…
The Delhi Declaration and Call to Action
At the second MenEngage Global Symposium (November 10–13, 2014), some 1200 activists, researchers, practitioners, and other professionals converged in New Delhi, India. The “Men and Boys for Gender Justice” delegates, represented by individuals from a mix of NGOs from 94 countries, met for four days at the Indian Habitat Centre, where plenaries, presentations, and breakout sessions allowed for a rich exchange of ideas…
Why We Should Celebrate Men Working for Change
After reading the article “From MenEngaged to Men—and Women—Being Enraged” (Fall 2014), by Gary Barker, White Ribbon Campaign cofounder and longtime profeminist activist Michael Kaufman was moved to write a response. Barker, cochair of MenEngage, the global alliance of men’s organizations advancing women’s equality and the transformation of manhood, had cautioned his colleagues not to indulge in premature self-congratulation (as Michael Kimmel puts it) by uncritically applauding the movement’s successes…
Men, Feminism, and Accountability
What does it mean for men to ally with women to stop gender-based violence? This is the central question Mike Messner, Max Greenberg, and Tal Peretz tackle in their new book Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women…
Beyond the Mantras: Working with Men to End Violence Against Women
It is high time to take stock of efforts to involve men in preventing violence against women. In particular, it is time to critically examine a series of assumptions about men’s work in this area that are influential but either are unsupported by evidence or are dangerous.
Why Involve Men in Feminism?
I have been a feminist since my early twenties. I have marched against violence against women and in favor of abortion. I have joined campaigns against sexism and discrimination. As a writer, I have also had the privilege of talking to women and girls and sometimes men and boys in many countries about the role that gender plays in their lives.
Mothering Sons, Mentoring Men
As I drove my 10-year-old son home from his Little League baseball game, I listened to his excited chatter about his team winning. Aidan has a reputation in our family for being a chatterbox. What I didn’t realize right away was what he was proud of himself for. After the game, when all the boys were scattered about laughing and talking, one of the coaches yelled, “Come on, ladies, huddle up!”
Columns & Opinion
From the Editor
Entre Hombres (y Mujeres): On the Road to Equality
The inaugural conference of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities is one sign. The global MenEngage symposium in India was another. The movement of men promoting women’s rights and men’s transformation is not just growing, it’s linking up in greater numbers than ever before. That two major international gatherings—one in New Delhi, the other in New York—took place within four months of one another is a welcome development.
Film
Manhood’s Road from “Selma” to “American Sniper”
Selma and American Sniper present two different heroes of two dramatically different historical narratives and between two conflicting conceptions of heroism. There is the heroism of Martin Luther King Jr., who challenged the most powerful forces and institutions of his culture…
Voices of Youth
Partying with Consent
In 2012, I had an idea to end sexual assault on college campuses. What if students would “party with consent?” I was 20, thought I knew everything, thought I could control how others behaved, and thought sexual assault would be gone in the blink of an eye…
Books
The Stethoscope Cure
Can therapists who have never been to war help veterans who have? That’s the central question psychologistwriter Sam Osherson ponders in The Stethoscope Cure, a novel set in the tumultuous 1960s…
Poetry
Rinse and Repeat
I’m getting married in three weeks and it scares the shit out of me. There’s the planning and the details, the food, music, photos, parents, flowers, rings, license, liquor. There’s also this haunting memory of how I fucked things up once before, walked down the aisle of Christ Episcopal with my college sweetheart, a cute blonde named Jane, and lit the fuse on a domestic bomb that detonated several years later—kids crying, in-laws accusing, lawyers, arguments, agreements…
