To the Educators Building the Future of Masculinity
On May 6, 2022, we dialled into the future of masculinity.
The Next Gen Men team brought together students in Grades 7-9 for the second-annual Future of Masculinity Summit. Youth attended virtually across the country—from Niagara Falls to Whistler.
The goal of the summit was to explore challenging topics like cancel culture and #MeToo backlash within a space where we could remain anchored to positive values and oriented towards gender justice. We wanted to offer boys an opportunity to unpack the feelings of frustration and invalidation that are so hard to discuss these days.
The first session was led by Ry Avola from DUDES Club, who supported participants in sharing land acknowledgments from their home schools, and facilitated interactive discussions on terms like masculinity, sexism, and intersectionality.
From there, we were joined by Erica Scott from Creating Consent Culture and Adam Paulman from Cuddle Party, who led a series of breakouts about cancel culture, accountability and justice. After a deep dive on the differences between consequences and punishment, one of the schools wrote in the chat: “Our minds are exploding!”
The final workshop featured a group poetry session led by Zarrar Jahangir from Jack.org. One of the schools participating was in the midst of a community crisis related to unintentional but still serious harm that had been enacted by a group of teen boys. Having the opportunity to share and express their feelings in the form of poetry was an unmistakable gift, and a highlight both for those who had written it and those who got the chance to listen.
For positive change to take place in schools, boys need to be cared for themselves, while also building their capacity to recognize the current social system as unjust. Those things aren’t—and can’t be—separate.
Read more: Past Learnings & Unlearnings article, How Do Boys Fit Into Cancel Culture, Feminism and #MeToo?
It matters that 100% of youth participants said they felt safe and welcome in their sessions, that 98% of youth participants said they found their sessions meaningful; and that 88% said they would tell a friend about something they learned. “I have a more open mind about things we talked about,” wrote one of the respondents.
“I feel that I learned about how feminism supports masculinity through anti-sexism.”
Time and time again, the next generation is being led by passionate and committed educators.
Here’s the thing. These meaningful and impactful experiences were only made possible by educators within each school community—school counsellors, teachers, social workers—who stepped up, leaned in, and sat with their students as they explored masculinity on a deeper level.
Our youth participants noticed. “I like how the moderators encouraged conversation and authenticity,” one of them wrote in the post-summit evaluation.
Next Gen Men noticed too.
Educators have already had a hard year. Three hard years. For them to show up so fully demonstrates a commitment to both supporting boys’ wellbeing and to ending gender-based violence, and for that we are grateful.
More than that, we are inspired. When we work together, we can make a national summit a reality in the midst of a pandemic—two years in a row. When we work together, we can provide meaningful experiences—opportunities to be close, honest and thoughtful with peers.
Those experiences can lay the foundation for a sea change in the way boys and young men see, act, and think about masculinity. That is the next generation.
“The boys gave such positive feedback and wanted this to be year round. The staff advisor said it was an excellent, positive experience and highly recommended that next year, we offer this school board-wide.”