Program Experience
Meeting Structure
The Men’s Action Project is comprised of weekly group discussions, readings, videos, activities, and journal reflections. Each cohort of the program has space for up to 14 participants. The cohort will meet once a week for a two-hour gathering. The group will share a meal together (food and beverages provided), discuss readings, and have large group discussions related to the week’s content.
Weekly Topics
Each week of Men's Action Project focuses on a different topic related to masculinity, sexual violence, and/or oppression. Below is a sample schedule of weekly topics with the learning outcomes participants will work on each week.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to provide a personal definition of what masculinity means to them.
- Recognize unhealthy aspects of masculinity that are harmful to the self and others.
Learning Outcomes:
- Recognize how masculinity is a social construct that can be deconstructed and reconstructed.
- Participants will be able to differentiate between sex, gender, and desire.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to explain intersectionality and its connections to sexual violence.
- Participants will be able to make connections between rape culture and racism.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will explore forms of self-care and identify ways to care for themselves.
- Participants will be able to describe healthy masculinity.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to define feminism.
- Participants will be able to recognize connections between gender inequity and sexual violence.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to connect unhealthy masculinity to violence against women.
- Participants will be able to recognize rape culture and how it affects their lives.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to connect how thoughts and emotions can contribute to unhealthy behaviors.
- Participants will be able to recognize the importance of emotionally intelligent masculinity.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to identify three ways to engage in healthy sexual practices.
- Participants will be able to recognize unhealthy norms associated with gendered bodies.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to identify elements of unhealthy relationships
- Participants will be able to recognize to identify what they need in relationships and how they can be better partners and friends
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to recognize effective ways for men to engage in anti-violence work.
- Participants will be able to identify three ways they can hold men/masculine folk accountable to healthy masculine norms.
Participant Expectations
The Men’s Action Project will explore critical issues that may create discomfort and spur difficult dialogues. Below are guidelines we use to encourage constructive engagement in Men's Action Project. Each cohort of students will also create their own group agreement and expectations in the first week of the program.
Principles for Constructive Engagement:
Strive for intellectual humility. Be willing to grapple with challenging ideas.
Differentiate between opinion—which everyone has—and informed knowledge, which comes from sustained experience, study, and practice. Hold your opinions lightly and with humility.
- Let go of personal anecdotal evidence and look at broader group-level patterns.
Recognize the difference between the intent and impact of our words and actions.
Notice your own defensive reactions and attempt to use these reactions as entry points for gaining deeper self-knowledge, rather than as a rationale for closing off.
Recognize how your own social positionality (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, ability) informs your perspectives and reactions to your instructor and those whose work you study in the course.
Differentiate between safety and comfort. Accept discomfort as necessary for social justice growth.
Identify where your learning edge is and push it. For example, whenever you think, I already know this, ask yourself, How can I take this deeper? Or, How am I applying in practice what I already know?
Adapted from Sensoy, O. & DiAngelo, R. (2012). Is Everyone Really Equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice education. Teachers College Press: New York, NY, pp. 166-179.