Cleo Stiller is the writer of Modern Manhood: Conversations about the Complicated World of Bring a Good Man Today, and we had an awesome chat about the book Modern Manhood, (obviously our values align here) and where the conversation about some of these tough issues around gender begin, and where we can go.
As well, there is a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
You can find Cleo at cleostiller.net
(CW: Sexual Assault)
I know of Kobe Bryant. I know the titles, I know the 81 points, I know when he wanted to be called Black Mamba like in Kill Bill, I know the commercials, I have even said “Kobe!” when I shoot paper basketballs at garbage cans. I also know about the rape case, I know about Denver, I know about the trial, and I know about the arrest.
What is appropriate to say at these times? And why can’t we say the full story, the full complexity of humanity?
Think Progress Piece: https://thinkprogress.org/the-legacy-of-the-kobe-bryant-rape-case-6a42f159be7b/
Jessica Valenti: https://gen.medium.com/why-do-mens-legacies-matter-more-than-women-s-safety-b832c43735e9
Today, we speak to writer Barrett Swanson, who attended an EVRYMAN men’s retreat and wrote about it for Harper’s for a piece titled “Men at Work”. He will tell us through his eyes, what some of the red flags, emotionally, physical, and sociological groups like EVRYMAN can be.
You can find Barrett at: https://www.barrettswanson.com/
Men At Work you can read here: https://modernmanhoodpodcast.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/c9738-swanson11-01-19.pdf
In the last episode of Modern Manhood, we surveyed the landscape of masculinity in the last ten years starting from Tony Porter’s Man Box and the election of Rob For all the way to the end of 2017
In this episode, the first of 2020, we continue the conversation with Jake Stika, Executive Director at Next Gen Men, highlighting what caused ripples in the world of gender and masculinity.
Starting from Van Attack in Toronto all the way to the Don Cherry firing, finishing off with what we think the next ten years will look like for us and this world
It’s been ten years since Tony Porter introduced The Man Box to us.
A tool and a theory that has shaped the way we see gender with men, and the system that hurts us and hurts others.
But a theory is only as good as it’s proof of concept. And you can say that in the last ten years The Man Box theory has been proven over and over again.
On this episode and the one after this of Modern Manhood, we’ll look back at the 2010’s with my friend and the Executive Director of Next Gen Men, Jake Stika.
Lately, we have seen a lot of warnings. From moms, dads, from adults that are worried about their sons. Their sons, for the most part, are easily susceptible and can be easily manipulated into communities online that are toxic, unhelpful, and in some cases downright dangerous.
Most of this is happening online, and for a lot of caregivers, they are fighting an everyday battle to just understand what is going in the digital lives of their sons. And right now they are losing the war.
In this special episode, I will show you the live talk that I did in front of an audience at the Diverse Voices conference about anti-violence here in Edmonton, Alberta. This is a community issue and one that must be faced by everyone, and I thought it was appropriate to bring to this conference. I also was lucky to be joined by Michael Hoyt from the City of Edmonton to talk about sorts of healthy communities, like Men Sheds.
Learning about masculinities, gender power structures, and feminist ideals can be key when people are organizing to fight the climate crisis.
So in this episode of Modern Manhood, we’re going to take some of the beautiful speeches done at the Wolfpack about the environment, and weave it with ideas and thoughts about masculinity and the environment.
Links:
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/11/21/analysis/independent-alberta-would-be-worlds-worst-climate-polluter (Alberta, if they secede, would be the number 1 polluter per person)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/men-resist-green-behavior-as-unmanly/ (men resist green behavior as unmanly)
https://www.humansandnature.org/humans-nature-the-right-relationship (Humans and Nature)
