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As part of our ongoing mission to support boys’ well-being, my colleagues and I decided to take on a research project designed to better understand their feelings, stresses and needs. What we uncovered was a surprising distance between their beliefs and attitudes about toxic and positive masculinity, and their lived experiences—particularly online.
Read MoreIt’s not for no reason that we dedicate ourselves to the next generation of men—and we don’t take the educators in their lives for granted. You are their champions, their stewards and their witness.
For every time I’m invited to be part of a professional development opportunity, for every time that Next Gen Men’s resources are downloaded and used in schools, and for each and every thing that you, who are reading this, do to engage boys in the movement for gender justice, thank you.
Read MoreWe do young people a disservice by operating under the assumption that a list of warning signs or an affirmative acronym will be enough to help them effectively communicate within healthy relationships. Instead, we need to engage boys in open and honest conversation about what is difficult, challenging or confusing for them with regard to consent—beyond just stop signs.
Read MoreHip-hop in its Essence is Real.
If you’re a hip hop fan, you might know that that’s what “H.E.R.” stands for in Common’s 1994 ode to hip hop “I Used to Love Her.” It’s a classic that perfectly charts hip-hop history through a love song—but not necessarily a happy one. Let’s explore this love story, and what it can reveal about MASKulinity.
Read MoreMass shootings take place within a web of conspiracy-rich sexist and racist ideologies that are propelled by the anonymous radicalization and copycat reverence found within internet subcultures. The thing is, this is only happening with boys and men.
Read MoreB.O.O.K. Club’s reads since Spring of 2020
Read MoreSmith apologized to Rock saying: “I was out of line and I was wrong. My actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.”
Read MoreFrom Taylor Swift to the Rocky Mountains, amidst wind-whispered stories and cold-night sleeping bags, we’re shaping the lives of boys becoming men. As they’re held in meaningful relationships and supported to overcome real challenges, a generation of compassionate, resilient and courageous young men is taking shape.
Read MoreWith a healthy masculinity summit in October 2012 in Washington, D.C., a key component of an ambitious two-year project to ‘spread the message of nonviolent, emotionally healthy masculinity,’ it seemed timely for Voice Male to ask several members of its national advisory board, and other colleagues and allies, to address in short essays their thoughts about the challenges inherent in trying define ‘healthy masculinity.’ What follows are the voices of those who responded just before the magazine went to press.
Read MoreThanks to #MeToo, the heightened awareness and expressions of support for these changes increases their relevance and impact. These actions also offer men ways to respond to #MeToo and to be more respectful and nonviolent toward women. Even if there is never another #MeToo tweet, now is the time for individual men and profeminist men’s organizations to step forward and work to achieve real, lasting change.
Read MoreWhat came to the fore in Columbine in 1999 has become a pattern of violence that stems from the disconnection, aggrieved entitlement and rage rebellion of vulnerable boys and young men. To change that, we need to look with our eyes wide open at the ways young people navigate the violent tenets of masculinity, and we need to empower boys themselves to become leaders of the change we so desperately need.
Read MoreIt comes back to parents, the primary protection for growing boys and their closest model for what it means to be authentically connected to others. It lives within schools, where boys learn the script for manhood and navigate their resistance to it. And more than anywhere else, it unfolds in the inner lives of boys: in the unseen depth of their friendships and shared secrets, in the quiet breathing as they fall asleep, in their ability to say the words that are too often left unsaid.
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