Over the course of the last two months, I’ve been exploring the many voices speaking to men and women about masculinity.
We’ve covered a lot of ground, looking at individuals who in some respects, denigrate men to gain favor, to shake men by their traditional masculine shoulders, to get the world to wake up to male suffering.
We’ve listened to voices who barely veil their observations and advice in traditional masculine terms.
Different types of men find each one of these voices familiar and inviting to them. That’s the purpose of this writer’s project, to explore what people are saying and how the words they use and the emotions they evoke progress the cause of male flourishing — and by that, the flourishing of society.
In early January, Damon Mitchell, a men’s group moderator, coach and the author of The Tolerance of Men joined me again for a discussion about these voices, what he thinks and feels about the words, phrases and emotions these voices use, and perhaps offer up some other ways to reach men.
In this episode, we talk about…
some of today’s most popular voices and how they invite men in or shut them out
what it feels like to be called out as a man, versus being called in
whether labeling male emotional issues is a positive or negative thing for men
the pursuit of wisdom in the pursuit of masculinity
And to close things out, we play a word game, looking at the deeper meaning and utility of words like patriarchy (funny how Richard Reeves did the same thing with Gloria Steinem a few weeks after Damon and I taped our conversation).
Come join Damon and I as we add our voices to this important framing of the conversation about men and masculinity. And please, add your voice to the conversation. Share this video with a friend.
Comment on it here or on the Mindful Masculinity YouTube page.
Helping men be better men has never been more critical in America and across the globe. You can make a difference.
