Modern Manhood

“What does it means to be a man?”

“What are the words you think of when we hear the words ‘masculinity’?”

These are some of the fundamental basic starting questions on your journey to this thing I like to call “exploring your own identity and gender.” Which kinda leads to critiquing societies idea of gender, which I hope leads to critiquing your ideas around gender. I am noticing more and more a lot of guys asking themselves that very basic but enlightening question. Tim Wenger is one of those guys, and he decided to start a project (The Man Effect) when he was questioning his own version of masculinity, asking people If you were to describe what it means to be a man in one word, what would it be and why?

Well I wanted to find out more about his project, and what he has learned from it.

Tim and I also held a facebook live event where he interview me, and you can find it here.

This is part two of our conversation with Michael Rowley who is a filmmaker from Dallas Texas, who also made a film about Palestinian youths, specifically who do parkour. The movie is called Hurdle (Hurdlefilm.com). Now the reason why I wanted to split this into two is to highlight the very vulnerable and very honest way in which Michael approaches identity, either his own or of the people around him, including his subjects. Michael also hands out some amazing advice that mirrors David Ogle’s and that actually began from a conversation that he and another past guest, Remoy, had.

The trailer of Hurdle is here: https://vimeo.com/231203737/ec9eb0a431

Michael Rowley is a filmmaker from Dallas Texas, who made a film about Palestinian youths, specifically who do parkour. The movie is called Hurdle (Hurdlefilm.com).

Now what is interesting to me, is not so much that last sentence (even though that last sentence can be unpacked in so many ways), what’s interesting is the man, Michael Rowley. Michael, born in Texas, a place as idealistic as I can find living outside of it, a place that screams guns, catholicism and trucks (not so different than Alberta to be honest), Michael went on to film a movie about one of the most divisive areas in the world, Palestine.

The trailer is here: https://vimeo.com/231203737/ec9eb0a431

Remember in Episode 55 where we spoke to Boys Group and Men’s Group facilitator Jermal Alleyne? Remember when I said that we’re going to come back to him to talk about masculinity, well here we are. The reason why I wanted to split this into two and make sure we get Jermal’s takes on masculinity right now is because he mentions a lot of key advice and ideas that have not been mentioned a whole lot lately, mainly about community and how men in general need to not only critique what goes around them (in a respectful way), but have the openness to be wrong. Critiquing is not a bad thing when done in an open manner, arguing for argument’s sake…well that’s a different story. We might get stuck. You know what, let’s hear Jermal speak to this.

You can also find anything to do with NextGenMen at nextgenmen.ca  including Modern Manhood. Also if you’re in Calgary or Toronto, check out Wolf Pack

I was honored to talk about this and the research that Chataleine’s Editor at Large’s Rachel Giese has done to write the book “Boys: What It Means to Become A Man.” She has taken the time to look at what is going on in Canada in regards to the toxic forms of traditional western masculinity, interested in groups like WiseGuyz down in Calgary, and speakers like once and future guest Jeff Perera. We speak about her motivations for the books, what surprised her the most, complicity and the danger of “otherisms” in regards to #MeToo, and her call not only to the isolation of some men, but also to step back and think of the victims of violence.

You can find the men’s survey that Chataleine did here.

If you want to see what Wolf Pack is about, they are making it happen in Calgary and in Toronto. Click the links to get your tickets.

YESSPAINTING can be found here

For today’s guest, from the great city of Toronto, we have Jermal Alleyne. A leader of youth groups and men’s groups in two different capacities, one through Next Gen Men and one through the John Howard Society.

This interview was fascinating to me because it’s very close to what I do here in Edmonton, and our approaches are similar but at the same time it’s great to hear it said out loud. We go through the differences of teaching the two, we also touch a bit about Jermal’s father, and his journey to working anti-violence work.

You’ll hear part two of my conversation with Jermal on episode 57. But on the next Modern Manhood, we’re going to talk to Rachel Giese, the editor at large for Chatelaine about her new book all about Canadian masculinity.