P2P-Men & masculinities; Diana Ismailova: https://vimeo.com/146952599

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  Ideas wall

• Need to differentiate messages targeting men and messages targeting women.
• The gender justice movement should remain women-lead despite the necessity to work with men.
• It is challenging to find true or meaningful way of engaging with men and boys.
• The way boys are being socialized has to be questioned. 
• Male gender champions approach can deny agency to women and reward for just expected standards. 
• Women are also shaped by patriarchy and need to transform their own attitudes and behaviors related to masculinity norms.
• Engaging with men in a human-rights-based approach.
• Including/welcoming men and boys can create tensions related to acknowledging their privilege and responsibilities. 
• Work with men needs to transcend the work on privilege and responsibilities.
• We need to pay attention to the risk of increase in domestic violence when working on women’s economic empowerment.
• It is essential to challenge heteronormativity.
• Challenges to feminism and gender equality are coming from men’s rights activists.

Key-strategies to overcome potential resistance to the concept of positive masculinity

• Involve women’s rights organizations to work with men and boys.
• Anticipate potentially controversial points or obstacles for men to join: men presenting themselves as victims of the system as well triggering their violence, men joining the project deemed as “losers” by peers, project being considered as promoting homosexuality.
• Conduct a baseline to outline how men take care of women, identify topics of concerns for men and areas in which they can have a positive role.
• Understand the way men think and deconstruct negative behaviors.
• Remain careful on the vocabulary we use and especially words like “protection” or “defending women” as a risk of perpetuating traditional stereotypes and masculinity. 
• Create spaces within which men can share and identify positive behaviors.
• Identify and learn from experiences in other areas of a same country or region in which gender-based violence is rejected.
• Identify clearly what changes are expected in men’s and boys’ behaviors regarding gender-based violence.

Interrogations

• Should we question the role of biology in our work (boys being born “a certain way”) and how it influences the way men and boys receive messages?
• How do we work with men and boys as allies without reinforcing patriarchy and recreating inequalities?
• In what instances/contexts is it perhaps more effective to be confrontational (or not), when working with men?

Resources

Jewkes_et al-2014-LANCET-From Work with Men and Boys to Changes of Social Norms