This will be my last post as a guest-blogger, it’s been a lot of fun to be able to interact with so many of you versus at my place where I only get the occasional troll who likes to make sure I know what he thinks of me. Thanks Jill, I look forward all of the different voices this summer.
I wanted to share an email that I received from a blog friend who is collaborating with author/activist Kevin Powell to create a different dialogue about masculinity, please contact Charles or myself if you are interested in contributing:
Dear Stacy:
Imagine if thousands, then millions of men joined the struggle against the structures of domination and violence inherent to the social system called patriarchy.
Imagine what could be gained if a strong minority of males fully embraced a common interest with females in liberation. Together they would have the potential to be majority in their communities and to contend for power in the political structure. That which we can hardly hope for today could rapidly become real.
It is now plausible to anticipate a deep alliance between men and women developing within a generation’s time. More males are becoming conscious of the fact that the performance of conventional masculinity does not serve them well; that only a few males take the “lion’s share” of the rewards of patriarchy and leave but scraps for all the rest. They are conscious of and dismayed by the harm conventional masculine behaviors do to women, boys, and girls.
Many women and men, especially the young, are now aware of and increasingly comfortable with varieties of gender that were suppressed and closeted a generation ago. There are several identifiable variants of gender in the gay and lesbian communities. Transgendered persons and transsexuals are discovering new gender territory daily.
We are on the cusp of the time when straight men and women will identify new gender performances they wish to celebrate and struggle for; there is significant potential for different masculinities to emerge in the coming decades. These differing masculinities are latent in the male population — suppressed by the dominant conventional masculinity, itself reproduced by strong socialization employing shame, humiliation, and violence to enforce conformity. Eventually, males self-confident in new masculine identities will organize in alliance with women to challenge conventionality. In liberating new masculinities comes the potential for conscious action across racial, class, and gender differences against oppression.
Three years ago at a Ms. Foundation for Women symposium on “Supporting Boy’s Resilience” I learned that there are dozens of men who have been doing extraordinary work for decades against sexism. It was at this symposium that I first met a young activist and writer, Kevin Powell. Later we met again over dinner near his Brooklyn home to discuss our mutual work on aspects of gender liberation related to males. It was there that he said, “We have to do more writing about this. And we have to get other men to do the same.” I told Kevin that I felt blessed that Gloria Steinem had once urged me to do much the same.
This fall Kevin and I will initiate the Liberating Masculinities Writers Syndicate, distributing commentaries, reviews and short essays exploring the rewards for men of breaking out of the confines of conventional masculinity, building new and better relationships with women and other men, and joining in struggle against the structures of domination and violence. Distribution will be to both the blogosphere and print media.
How men and women can effectively organize resistance to the violence of patriarchy will be a central theme of our writing. We will also take time to convey stories of the love and joy available to men who break with patriarchy and commit to relationships of principled mutuality. The writers in this syndicate are themselves inspired by the feminist and GLBT movements and empowered by the realization of new gender expression and identity discovered by many brave women and men, girls and boys.
We recognize that men of differing racial, class, ethnic, and sexual preference experiences will bring unique and important perspectives to the conversation that needs to happen. We will make special effort to reach out to a diversity of writers and insist on respect for differences while learning and making our way into new territory together.
We invite your referral to writers who might want to join us. If you are such a writer, male or female, please contact us at otherbeyond(at)gmail.com .
Thank you Stacy for your fabulous support for this initiative. Your commitment to feminism and principled alliance inspires us.
Yours sincerely,
Charles Knight
editor, OBRM – other & beyond real men Other Beyond Real Men