The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has outlined Narrow Definitions of Masculinity as one of the 5 key norms that make Sexual and Domestic Violence more likely. It is also a major risk factor for individual perpetration of sexual assault (https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/riskprotectivefactors.html ). What we realized in Men in the Movement, however, is that we can’t really think of a definition for “masculinity,” nor what positive masculinity would look like. So, we would like a group of people to research and share their findings with us!
Participants who apply will participate in a two-week project. They will find male-identifying people (trans or cis) and interview them using these three questions as a guide:
- What is masculinity?
- How do you define a good man?
- How can masculinity be positive?
Participants will then create a piece to show what they learned. This could take the form of a print-out of their interview transcript, a graphic with key quotes, a comic strip, or however you can best show your findings! RVA will then host a kind of masculinity gallery walk here in our conference room and a discussion.
Dates:
Feb 7th, 6-8pm: Participants arrive, are introduced to the project through a brief discussion, and receive a workshop on interviewing
Feb 8-20th: Participants independently complete their interviews and make their gallery piece and have email check-ins with RVA staff half-way through
Feb 21st: Gallery walk of The UnMasc Project where pieces are documented and made into tumblr page, plus a discussion on the project
If you’re interested in participating, please complete this application by Feb 1st: http://bit.ly/2kkghlX
