The International Conference on Masculinities, March 5-8

If you care about men’s issue and gender equality, and you’re the conference-going type, this is one you should check out. A collaborative effort between the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities (headed by Michael Kimmel), the American Men’s Studies Association, the MenEngage Alliance, and the Man Up Campaign, the conference’s theme is “Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality.” The Conference will be held March 5-8, 2015 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.

I’ll be performing some of my poems on Saturday night, along with a lineup of other performers. If anyone from Alas is there, I hope you’ll come over and say hi.

You can register for the conference here; and you can get a look at the tentative program here. Here’s the speaker’s lineup for the opening gala:

  • Welcome: Samuel Stanley, President, Stony Brook University
  • Introduction: Michael Kimmel, Director, Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities
    • Ambassador Henry Mac Donald
    • Phumzile Mlabo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN women
    • Sally Field, actor
    • Sheryl Sandberg, executive, activist, author
    • Gloria Steinem, founder, Ms. Magazine
    • Jennifer Seibold Newsome, filmmaker
    • Amy Zwerdling, filmmaker
    • Carlos Andres-Gomez, author and spoken word artist
This entry posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Men and masculinity. Bookmark the permalink. 

7 Responses to The International Conference on Masculinities, March 5-8

  1. 1
    SomeOne says:

    I (don’t) really wonder what feminists would say if a conference called “international conference on femininities” would feature an opening panel that was 2/3 male.

  2. 2
    Susan says:

    Scarily acute SomeOne. Of course the natural conclusion would be there is an ideology at work here. Also, not everything (and maybe not anything) is what it is being represented as being.

  3. 3
    gin-and-whiskey says:

    It perhaps would have been more accurately tagged as a “gender equality” conference than a “masculinity” one. But [shrug] that’s probably a random outcome of having a yearly “masculinities” conference, which–this year–happens to be focused on gender equality. And the conference seems pretty clear about what you can expect, so it’s not as if the speakers are a surprise.**

    Besides, this is unquestionably a good thing. Someone has to take the first step, right? Might as well be us.

    After all, if you think (as I do) that people should generally participate as equals in conversations, then it makes no sense to object to women participating as equals just because these are putatively male-focused issues. If the goal is to avoid claims of special knowledge, then we should all walk the walk. The more that men concede that women can (should!) opine about issues that affect men, even if their perspectives are different, the more that we develop a moral comfort with opining about issues that affect women, even if our perspectives are different. And the more inclusive the conversations get, the better.

  4. G&W:

    It perhaps would have been more accurately tagged as a “gender equality” conference than a “masculinity” one.

    Not based on the program, though. If you look at the panels, they I think entirely (I’m not sure) about men and masculinities, albeit from a decidedly feminist perspective.

  5. 5
    gin-and-whiskey says:

    To be honest, I don’t think I can distinguish discussions between “gender equality” and “masculinity from a decidedly feminist perspective,” at least not by looking at titles.

    Not that there isn’t necessarily a difference; just that there isn’t one which I can recognize at a broad level.

  6. 6
    closetpuritan says:

    Ah yes, the ever-popular, “If X happened with THE OTHER GROUP, Y would happen.”

    Partial credit this time. Off the top of my head, I don’t know of an example reaction of 2/3 male, 1/3 female conference on lady stuff. However, I do have an example of an ALL male panel. Reaction from feminists was mixed; one of the feminist writers I particularly like, Amanda Hess, said it was a good thing.

  7. Thanks for that link, closetpuritan.