Behind the scenes here at Citizenshift I’ve been working with others to create a new blog about masculinity.

It’s called MascMag (short for magazine) because we want to one day publish a magazine.  We’ve got a lot of work to do in order to build an audience, a dedicated group of contributors, and really — a community of people who want to talk and walk the line around gender justice and self-acceptance.

We’ve really started from scratch.  Choosing webpage templates, contacting those we already knew interested in the topic, making connections with like-minded groups, and editing and sharing a dialogue about masculinity.

Beyond visiting the site and seeing for yourself (strongly encouraged) the best other way is to see what our mission offers:

masc magazine is a space for young men to explore how masculinity affects their lives.

masc is curious about how ideas of manhood are shaped by one’s experiences and environment.

masc encourages expression and connection on a range of men’s issues such as gender, stereotypes, sexuality and health.

masc helps men imagine their own ideals and ways to make them real.

The character was created by author Ian Flemming 55 years ago and has been played by a series of historically-suited actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.  I’ve been curious about the last 2 Bond films played by Craig (Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) because I (and may others) felt that the re-branding was in another cycle.

The DVD extras in Casino Royal has a documentary called Bond Girls are Forever which tracked how Bond girls have changed over the years (sadly not up to date on the last 2 films).  It took a light approach to feminist critiques of the role, but it was clear that the women (girls?) were becoming tougher, smarter, and more active over the decades.  Bitch Magazine’s blog details some the ways Camille (played by Olga Kurylenko) in Quantum of Solace is part of this trend.  She has her own motives, enemies, strategies, wit, speed, and punch, and when needed – drives the car!  No longer just sex objects for the audience’s and Bond’s pleasure, these female characters also reveal something about the new Bond and the changing audience assumptions about gender.

It was hard to ignore the buzz about the new Bond because not only was he blond, but buff.  Brian D. Johnson interviews Craig and writes:

Craig is the most athletic Bond we’ve seen, but the bar has been raised since Connery idled through his later films with a marshmallow belly and a rug of chest hair. “You read Fleming,” says Craig, “and it’s like Bond gets up in the morning, has six scrambled eggs made with cream, eight rashers of bacon, four cups of espresso, does 20 press-ups and smokes 20 cigarettes, then has a shot of something. Attitudes have changed. We probably do live in a world of body-fascism now.”

In fact the only other person I could convince to watch Casino Royal with me was a gay friend excited about Bond’s new sexy looks.  I thought we were watching a stylish action film but maybe it was some kind of Straight Guy for the Queer Eye?  Johnson puts it this way:  “Now Bond-sploitation had come full circle: in Casino Royale, the hottest sex object was not another Bond girl, but Bond himself.”

Several times in these last 2 Bond films I noticed the camera and my eyes lingering on Craig’s body.  A gaze usually reserved for women’s body parts is now fixed on Bond’s bod.  Many action films (especially ones in the 80’s and 90’s) also display powerful male bodies, but these Bond films are different.  We gaze on Craig’s body not as a weapon, but as an object of desire or at least admiration and awe.

The scenes where he is the most stripped are intimate ones where Bond is just being himself with no fighting and no posturing.  If he is saying “look at me” he’s talking in a gentle soft voice instead of yelling and snarling.  We know Bond is a trained spy and assassin, running down and busting up ‘bad guys’, but the big difference here is that his body is more of a treat, and less of a threat.

What’s going on with men and their bodies in popular culture?  Is there a growing obsession with male body image?  It’s nice to see women not being the only sex symbols out there, but is this really the kind of equality we’re looking for?  What are some new ways men can be portrayed on the big or small screen?  Is there anything going on below the surface here?

Kevin Sessums interviews Craig and undresses Bond’s masculinity even more.  Explaining Craig’s history, Sessums writes:

His mother and sister are two of the most important people in his life. He is still close to his ex-wife. And his longtime girlfriend, Satsuki Mitchell, a movie producer, is another steady presence. All this female energy around him may explain why Craig’s masculinity onscreen is not off-putting but forged instead with a kind of fierce sensitivity.

If men’s relationships with women are close and healthy, male actors can represent this experience on screen with confidence.  Or male writers and directors can support each other to make movies with an exciting range of male experiences.  Maybe actors can show other men how to be powerful, without being a Terminator.  Or these roles can be more accepted since more men understand or are open to changes in gender stereotypes.  In the context of Bond movies and a cultural environment full of one-dimensional love-em or kill-em characters, I think Craig’s “fierce sensitivity” is something worth talking about in a positive way.

In his own words Craig admits:

There are people on this planet where you go, ‘Oops, no, I don’t even want to look that person in the eye,’ and that real scariness is not something I’m capable of. That’s something maybe De Niro is capable of at his best. But that’s not me. As tough a role as I have to play, I’m always just me. It’s good to be in touch with as much of yourself as possible. Otherwise, you’re a rather one-note performer. Who wants to be the tough guy and nothing else?

What are other examples of this “fierce sensitivity” in popular culture?  What changes do you see in the ways men are being portrayed in film?

For the past 5 years I’ve been doing media education work around the theme of masculinity.  I work for a small alternative media non-profit doing workshops for youth in Toronto. 

Out of all the workshops I offer, one called Who’s the Man? looking at pop culture and masculinity is the most requested by teachers and youth workers and the most rewarding one for me to facilitate and reflect on.

The best part of my job is going to youth conferences promoting social justice and ecological sustainability.  My workshops are one small part of larger programs for education and action and it’s inspiring to participate in the diversity of projects and feel the positive energies for change.

As an educator concerned with youth voices and choices, I’ve noticed two trends.  Females do most of the attending, organizing, and workshop facilitation.  Secondly, the minority of guys who do attend these conferences don’t attend my workshop as much as their female peers do. 

I recently joked about renaming my workshop from “Who’s the Man?” to “Where’s the Man?” because of this lack of male engagement.

I care about this work because I think males (myself included) need to be more engaged with their personal and social lives.  Too often guys think gender issues are about women’s lives and talk of male privilege commonly speaks of entitlement and silences men’s pain within patriarchy.  According to gender studies professor Michael Kimmel, manhood and masculinity are in a “perilous” condition as guys wrestle with the traditional gender norms of being the provider, the protector, and the problem solver.

In Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men Kimmel investigates young men’s lives through interviews, research, and close cultural observation.  He leads workshops at colleges and high schools and asks guys what “Be a Man” means.  He summarizes a “Top Ten” list for us:

1. “Boys Don’t Cry”
2. “It’s Better to be Mad than Sad”
3. “Don’t Get Mad – Get Even”
4. “Take It Like a Man”
5. “He Who has the Most Toys When he Dies, Wins”
6. “Just Do It” or “Ride or Die”
7. “Size Matters”
8. “I Don’t Stop to Ask for Directions”
9. “Nice Guys Finish Last”
10. “It’s All Good” (p. 45)           

Kimmel’s ‘Guy Code’ (or psychologist William Pollack’s ‘Boy Code’) is wired into most North American media.  I try to encourage students, especially guys, to think about the Code and it’s impacts when gaming, watching movies, tv shows, and ads or listening to talk/sports/music radio shows.  Educators can consider a broad range of questions to shape a discussion or lesson plan.  For example, try some content analysis strategies and observe this Code in action by asking:

• What media texts are popular with your male students and how does that content (relationships, story, characters, language, assumptions, etc.) support, modify, question, or reject the Code?
• How much variety is there when representing masculinity and what it means to be a good guy or bad guy?
• Do certain media forms (music, television, movies, games, comics) or genres (sports, comedy, news, drama, action, animation, documentary) offer more variety?
• How do sexuality, race, and class (independently and interdependently) shape masculinity?
• How is the Code shaped by the commercial system of media production and consumption?

In my workshops I ask guys to cut up magazines and make collages to answer the question what does masculinity look like? and we find similar conclusions about the Guy Code.  Jackson Katz’s videos Wrestling with Manhood and Tough Guise also use mass media to decode and reflect on how masculinity and manhood are being constructed. 

With these examples, or ones generated in the classroom, guys can engage with media representations of the Guy Code and indirectly (yet strategically) connect with their gender performances and feelings of empowerment.  I like to use media awareness as a tool for self awareness.  We can ask:

• What is missing from this Code?
• How have stories of manhood changed over the past 50 years?
• What is a man’s success or happiness based on?
• Do the representations of manhood cut men off from their emotions?
• What emotions are acceptable for guys?
• Do men and women respond differently to the Code and if so, in what ways?
• How is conflict usually resolved?
• Is it possible to always be in control?
• What happens if guys are afraid, confused, uncertain, or not in control?
• What does questioning masculinity look, sound, and move like?

I look at the work of Kimmel, Pollack, Katz and others and conclude that the Guy Code jams men’s ability and interest to be active in social movements and their own development as caring and active adults. Not only is the Code a script for detachment and loneliness, but it even restricts the ability to admit what has been lost.  Like consumerism, the Guy Code bulks itself up bigger than life because in the end it doesn’t nourish or sustain men’s needs.  Norah Vincent, author of Self-Made Man writes, “Every man’s armour is borrowed and 10 sizes too big and beneath it, he’s naked and insecure and hoping you won’t see” (Kimmel, p. 43).

No one is suggesting that most guys are blindly accepting this Code.  Research and testimonials show that the Code is only getting stronger within a context of crisis and confusion.  The Guy Code is a rebellion and adaptation in a time when men’s roles, rights, and rituals are unclear. Guys are retreating further into “Guyland” because it offers a safe space that asks no questions and gives simple answers.  Yet, these answers are at odds with being a healthy human being with a range of relational and emotional needs. Plus, it’s easier to pretend “It’s All Good” rather than asking for help.  In Guyland, Kimmel writes “if men have a difficult time asking for directions when they are lost driving cars, imagine what it feels like to feel lost and adrift on the highway of life (42).

Reading and re-reading media texts open a dialogue with guys.  Each text is an opportunity to listen and name what is going on and uncover what’s missing.  But what are guys asking for?  What direction do they want to go in?

clip: “i love men” by the Men’s Story Project

MTV’s new reality show BroMance is a timely media text.  The set up is simple. Hollywood-heart-throb, Brody Jenner has an opening for a new male buddy to share his playboy lifestyle with. Nine guys from across the country compete to prove their ‘bro-commitment’ in various ‘bro-mantic’ ways.  MTV and Brody have taken a risky step constructing reality about straight men’s close relationships with other straight men.  Also, I Love You, Man will soon be in theatres and follows a straight man’s quest to find a Best Man before his wedding day.  The main character has sadly never been skilled at building close male relationships.  With the support of his fiancé and a “Just-Do-It” attitude his man-date experiences explore why men come together, or stay apart.

These are just two examples exploring male needs and relationships not typical in popular culture.  Men in BroMance and I Love You, Man are openly seeking close male friendships and prompting us toward an important area of Guyland and the Guy Code.  We can open up these texts just as we did above and design critical and creative responses.  We can approach male friendships, real and mediated, as road maps for what guys really care about.

How do we engage guys more?  We need to make it cool to care and we can start with “bro-friends”.  Male friendships based on honesty, vulnerability, respect, integrity, trust, and equality can connect men’s inner and outer worlds.  This type of belonging, (rather than relations of fear, dominance, and escapism) can nurture self-respect and the courage to accept strength as well as weakness.  Male “bro-mances” (or how about “bro-longing”) can also build a guy’s emotional literacy and the capacity to feel the beauty and tragedy in the world and how we are all connected.  Friendships bring out the best and worst in us, but what makes them special is a base of commitment and being accepted for who you are.

So much of ‘Guyland’s’ media environment is full of dangerous and deadbeat guys that any alternative should be celebrated and better yet, started (actually MASC magazine is launching a blog in a few weeks).  Educators can question media texts on manhood and stay curious about the types of needs being communicated.  Media examples and experiences of male friendship can give guys greater permission to care about others, connect with their own emotional lives, and relate to a world in need of some major repairs.

Lars and the Real Girl is about a 27 year-old man who buys a silicone sex doll to work through the pains of his childhood and fears of becoming an unlovable man.

Better overviews of the film can be found on the web and I like this one by Grace McKeaney.

Into the Wild follows 22 year-old Chris for two years, while he escapes family and society in search of truth and freedom in the wild spaces between his mid-America home and Alaska.

I did a long search for a review mixing description with some insightful reflection. I didn’t find any. If you have any suggestions, please post. One post I did find interesting was this one by Stephanie Zacharek.

But this is not a film critique. I prefer to meditate on movies to discover something new about myself and the world I live in. My MediaMindful site expands on this approach.

What I found most interesting in these movies is a connection between manhood, suffering, and forgiveness.

Both Lars and Chris are searching for a male identity that makes sense not only to their self-definition, but to their ideal familial, social, and sexual bonds. Lars transgresses the dating norms by investing his energies into a plastic doll. Chris rebels against the lies he sees all around him by choosing to live in the wild. Both characters are suffering, yet pursue different coping strategies.

After losing his mother at birth, Lars grows up with a grieving father and absent brother. Like the layers of clothes he wears to ward off human touch, his fears of further abandonment insulate him from deep social relationships. No wonder he finds the safety he needs in a plastic mail-order doll pre-named Bianca. He opens up to her like no one else. He reveals his inner life, shows off his many skills (wood-chopping), and shares his wisdom. He comforts Bianca with the truth that her church flowers are plastic and will expectedly last forever. Lars’ suffering takes the form of a delusion. He believes (or needs to believe) that Bianca is his ‘real’ girlfriend and takes comfort in her forever-ness as well.

Chris’ suffering stems from global and personal truths that he cannot accept. In college he learns a radical critique of exploitive economic, political, and cultural structures. From family friends he learns about his dad’s lies and his mother’s willingness to trade truth for comfort. Chris decides to trade in his comfort for truth and abandons everyone including himself. He changes his name to Alex Supertramp. His rebellion takes refuge in philosophical and political ideas (Henry David Thoreau, Jack London, and Leo Tolstoy), simple living, close yet compact relationships, and of course the wild spaces he visits along the way.

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder performs the soundtrack. The music helps us connect to Chris’ inner compass. In the song Guaranteed Vedder sings:

Leave it to me as I find a way to be
consider me a satellite for ever orbiting
I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me
guaranteed…

My favorite song is Long Nights.

To hear the whole album try here.

Both men are suffering and searching for routes toward meaningful manhood, yet they adopt contrasting forms of courage.

Chris wants to live his life by the motto “if you really want something you have to reach out and grab it”. With only a backpack of white middle-class American privilege, Chris’s courage is rooted in a traditional narrative of individual will-power and self-discovery through solitary tests of man versus nature. He doesn’t want to be corrupted by money, materialism, and messy human relationships. His drive to escape and not be found is best achieved through independence from people or even a map. How can one truly be in the wild these days if everywhere you go is on a map? You simply don’t bring one.

In contrast to Chris’ journey of purification through nature, I interpret Lars’ actions as calls for validation. Rather than trying to escape his pain the way Chris does, Lars exposes it. Lars is suffering and sends his family and community a clear message with his ‘real girl’. Already on the outside of his community, Lars tests their ability to marginalize him further. This took courage.

In his book Taking Our Places: the Buddhist Path of Truly Growing Up Norman Fisher writes:

“Nothing connects us more to life, to ourselves, and to each other than our unavoidable human suffering”. He calls this exposure the “seed of maturity”. Rather than hiding or denying his pain, Lars accentuates it with an eye-catching sex doll who interestingly enough also needs a wheelchair to move around.

Chris doesn’t want to be found and Lars builds a bulls-eye.

When we show the people who love us our messiness (delusions, secrets, fears, weaknesses, illnesses), we create a space for intimacy through shared vulnerability. Lars shows everyone his messiness and is met with a surprising amount of support. His brother Gus drops the “how do we fix him” attitude, admits his regret of leaving Lars as a boy, and offers an apology. The community pulls together in accepting Lars’ relationship with Bianca and in the process builds a safe network for Lars to explore human relationships. I too suspended my disbelief and found myself touched by Lars’ love for Bianca and the community’s love for Lars. This love strengthens his sense of self, his gifts, and his need to belong. He not only learns about courage and love, but becomes a teacher.

The tragedy of Into the Wild is that Chris only exposes his pain at the end. He realizes that “happiness is real only when shared” and acknowledges his fear and loneliness in his journal. I think Chris was ready to forgive his parents and express his desire for belonging, but it was too late. He became trapped in the wild and by his unexamined emotional fragility. Like the books he buries under a bridge, Chris buries his pain under borrowed quotations and a nature quest. Many people I know who saw this movie agreed that they wished Chris would have shown more of his vulnerability.

I’m curious about Manhood because in many ways I still live like a teenager, although I’m 35. I ride a bike, surround myself with music and friends, and have no established career. I’m also single, just like in high school, and wonder if I’ll find the love I’m looking for. I have neither the goods nor the responsibilities most men my age have and actually don’t want them. I’ve traveled alone by bike in Nova Scotia and Ireland and by foot and thumb through New Mexico, Arizona, and the Navajo Nation. I wanted these trips to be a retreat from daily living and would purposefully not contact anyone for many days so that I could keep track of where and who I was.

I strongly identify with Chris’ political beliefs and protest Society’s dangerous course. Like Chris, I choose to live simply and (mostly) by my own rules. Chris believes “it’s important not just to be strong but to feel strong” and my choices strengthen my identities and abilities. My story is a mix of purification and validation. Like Lars, I’ve started to acknowledge my suffering and put my trust in messy relationships, including the one with myself. I even made a documentary about masculinity and vulnerability.

Watching Lars, you never the get the feeling he is angry or bitter about his losses even when his brother apologizes for abandoning him with their broken-hearted dad. I don’t know why, but Lars avoids the blame-game and I think this helps his ability to mourn, forgive, and seek help.

Calvin Sandborn writes about blame in Becoming the Kind Father. He writes:

One of the most tragic things about my unforgiving lifestyle was that it kept me from having an authentic relationship with myself. Focusing blame on other people diverted me from my own feelings. My grievance stories about them distracted me from what I was actually feeling. As long as I focused on Dad’s flaws, I couldn’t feel my own pain.

Just before his big leap to the North, Chris meets an old man named Ron. It’s a beautiful relationship to watch unfold. Chris’ risk-taking stirs with Ron’s caution-making and the two create the basis for a possible grandson-grandfather relationship. While Chris has lots of advice to give, Ron saves his breath (after climbing a small mountain) for some life-saving counsel. He says “when we forgive, we love, and when we love, God’s love shines down on us”. From a more secular perspective, I re-interpret the second God-part of this quote to simply mean – when we love, life is beautiful.

Without knowing for sure, I think Chris was ready to forgive his parents or at least risk trying.

These movies have helped me think about Manhood in new ways. I’m left thinking about risk and measuring oneself by the types of risks we take. Lars and Chris take huge risks to test the strength of both believing and belonging.

Yes, believing and belonging – I like sitting with that pair of words. I’ll leave it with you.

p.s. I like leaving these posts with a song. In high school I listened to a lot of R.E.M. and one of my favorite songs was Belong.

It was organized by Youth Action Network and I had 2 co-facilitators to thank for sharing the load and keeping it real.  Big thanks to Jerome Morgan and Courtenay Lazorka.

Looking through 5 different men’s magazines we talked about:

What do men look like?
What are men doing?
What are men thinking?
What are men desiring?

After discussions on stereotypes, racism, materialism, objectification, and uniformity, we tried to offer ideas and examples that could be used for a new magazine looking at the lives of young men… such as MASC (see blog archive)

We formed an Arts and Media department who wanted to see a healthy, practical, intelligent, worldly and open-minded approach to magazine content. They wanted music with genuine lyrics with substance and named Kanye West, Damien Rice, K’naan, and Michael Franti as examples. Trance and heavy metal music should also be represented.

One group wanted to see more attention paid to movies like Superbad enacting respectful and honest relationships between guys and girls and between guys.

While it was difficult listing alternative and positive examples of video games and websites, young people listed some inspiring books:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

We created News Department that wanted:
An advice column by men and women
Information on personal health and hygiene, nutrition, relationships and sexual health
Tips on employment and financial management
News about local schools and grassroots events
Interviews with role models such as Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Yao Ming, and Jamie Oliver
Lists of good causes on Facebook
Examples of activists around the world
Different views on different cultures
Stories of real men doing real and human things
Non-airbrushed pictures of people
Photos of guys hanging out together (neither alone or being dominant)
Positive images of women
Not focused on the ‘perfect’ ideal, but on the range of individual goals available

The final group was given the job of designing a magazine cover that reflected the discussion. We used the simple tools of collage to play with and challenge the standards of coolness and heroes. Here’s what they came up with in about 15 minutes:

So I got right on it. Plus I had a few web bookmarks I’ve been meaning to read and integrate.

First there was a study called Men’s Mental Illness: A Silent Crisis by the Canadian Mental Health Association. Part of it reads:

The ‘code’ governing men’s behaviour is one of the prime barriers preventing men from seeking help. According to UK-based MaleHealth.com, men may feel it’s “weak and unmanly to admit to feelings of despair.” Because it’s easier for men to acknowledge physical symptoms, rather than emotional ones, their mental health problems can go undiagnosed.

Beliefs about masculinity also encourage men’s general lack of interest in health issues; many men simply don’t believe they are susceptible to depression, so why bother learning about it? Similarly, risky behaviour, seen especially in younger men - including abuse of alcohol and/or drugs and violence - can mask their emotional problems, both from themselves and their physicians.

Another example of how traditional notions of masculinity are a barrier to men’s health is Cynthia Daniels’ book Exposing Men: The Science and Politics of Male Reproduction.

Two Reviews
“Exposing Men presents a gripping account of how men’s reproductive systems are just as harmed by environmental and industrial factors as are women’s, ranging from low sperm counts to birth defects to sexual health. Arguing that men’s position of social privilege often obscures the dangers to which they are subjected, Daniels makes a powerful case for rethinking how we see men’s role in reproduction, sexuality, and masculinity. Everybody, male and female alike, who thinks that feminism is just about women-or just for women-should read this book.” — Nancy Hirschmann, Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania

“Exposing Men considers how prevailing ideals of masculinity have produced a skewed societal and scientific understanding of men’s reproductive health.” — Contemporary Sociology

Meghan’s Blaaaah has a blog entry linking the discussion to popular culture. She posts a fantastic video called “Bill Murray is Sad”. Fans of Wes Anderson movies should definitely watch this and it also helps explain her point. Part of which is:

It’s not that I don’t love Bill Murray. I do. And I like these characters. And with a few caveats, I like these movies. But it’s been fascinating to watch some men I know propel Bill Murray into hero status in ways that women do not. And the more I think and write about it, I think this hero status is available to men in ways that women cannot access. Picture each of these characters as a woman. Might she still attain some kind of cult following? Sure. But I don’t think that she could tap into something in the way that Bill Murray does. And that something, I am coming to believe, has a lot to do with contemporary masculinity, and it increasingly seems, some good old-fashioned resentment.

Of course men’s emotional pain is not just something to watch on the big screen or theorize about. It has real consequences – such as men’s violence. Pat McGann wrote for the Men Can Stop Rape blog on the tragic school shootings by young men. In part, he writes:

I knew that after tragic incidents like those named earlier, the media wants to present the public with answers, and it seemed probable that none of the answers would clearly identify traditional masculinity as a culprit. But I didn’t want to just stay on the surface of manhood; I wanted to burrow underneath to get at its muscle and bone. I wanted to write about how men’s pain gets transformed into men’s anger, because it seemed to me that some deep-seated anguish was underlying all the bullets, the ropes, the knives. We men typically aren’t socialized to handle pain in healthy, constructive ways. Instead we’re taught to “suck it up” and “get over it,” which might be useful strategies some of the time but not as everyday practices – especially when it comes to violence.

Respected violence prevention educator Paul Kivel proposes positive ways of looking anger and de-linking it with violence in an article Anger is not the Problem.

More responses to the issue of emotional awareness and masculinity include educators such as David Hatfield and even public education campaigns targeting men’s panic around self-esteem and penis size. This clip is called Speeding, No One Thinks Big of You.

Photographer Charlie White looks at male vulnerability through a fictional puppet named Joshua. He took a series of photos exploring self-image and self-loathing and 4 photos and an audio interview are featured on NPR’s program Understanding Joshua: Vulnerability on Film.

Mostly because I just love the song, I’d like to end with one my favorite dance songs, Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure:

How are you feeling about this post? Write a comment, ask a question, add a link……..let’s keep the conversation going.

Just for your events calendar and linking back to my first post in this Blog, my video Shoulder to Shoulder: men and vulnerability is showing at the Global Community Film Festival in Toronto September 28th.

We browsed dozens of general magazines on fitness, news, music, hobbies, style, video games, and sports but we didn’t find what we wanted. There’s now also a popular ‘lad’ style of magazine with a long list of titles such as Maxim, FHM, and Loaded featuring almost naked woman and guides to style, sex, and success.

I’m browsing with Tuval because he’s thinking of starting a new magazine for young men that sells and shares a different story of being a guy.

Rather than solidifying stereotypes, is there a magazine to crack open manhood’s complexities and contradictions?

…being sexual without being a pervert or player

…having the strength to express weakness

…being playful without put-downs or power-trips

Tuval would like to see a new magazine for young men wrestling with manhood – serious play indeed.

A cluster of women’s magazines have escaped the ego industry and speak to the spectrum of women’s lives. Titles such as Bitch, Ms., and Shameless rattle and jump over gender fences that limit women’s choices and voices. The current issue of Shameless reframes negative and passive body-image and self-defense experiences and reports on inspiring women artists, artisans, and athletes.

Starting in 1990, Sassy magazine (also a non-conformist) had a spin-off title for teen boys called Dirt. It published seven issues before ending in 1994 and helps raise the question is there an audience for a young men’s magazine that challenges the central monument of masculinity?

Perhaps what Dirt crumbled from (and what a new magazine could learn from) is how to get past the guarded discourse of masculinity itself. Feminism has unlocked a new world for looking at gender, power, and identity and successfully mapped gender’s social location. Unfortunately (keeping my geography metaphor going) men don’t like to use maps or ask for directions (so I’m told).

So how does one organize a male readership still forming it’s literacy around masculinity?

Perhaps it’s not what you don’t know, but what you know you don’t like.

For me, high school male identity was not only shaped by my music, sports, and style, but by an opposition to what my friends and I considered mainstream, macho, meat-headedness. Sometimes difference and exclusion can bring people together.

Affirming that not all young men are the same, a critical response to ‘men’s magazines’ could be met with some cheer.

Listen:

Tuval speaking about our magazine ‘research’.

http://www.mediamindful.ca/media/tuval_interviews.html

To get involved in the development of this magazine email: mascmagazine@gmail.com

Write:

I’d love to know what guys think of men’s magazines (especially if you’re between 15 and 25).

Any ideas on a cool name for a new magazine? Vote for one of these or submit your own:

MASC

BOND

PLAYER

?

Read:

http://www.mencanstoprape.blogspot.com/

http://blownglass.wordpress.com/2007/05/15/crisis-of-masculinity/

http://blogs.smh.com.au/lifestyle/allmenareliars//

http://www.colossiansthreesixteen.com/archives/1300

http://self-arrest.blogspot.com/2007/05/man-books.html

http://feministallies.blogspot.com/search/label/men%20and%20masculinity

http://otherbeyondrealmen.blogspot.com/2006/11/buy-this-book-for-every-man-you-care.html