As a longtime fan of the organization Men Can Stop Rape, I was cheered to read this story about its youth development program last week. The Men of Strength Club (MOST, for short) provides young men with a structured and supportive space to connect with peers and build individualized definitions of masculinity that promote healthy relationships.
In ten years, Men Can Stop Rape’s Executive Director Neil Irvin grew the MOST Club from one school in Washington, DC to over 100 locations in ten states throughout the country: California, DC, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina. Kedrick Griffin facilitates the MOST Club with young men in Washington, DC and conducts trainings nationwide.
Griffin facilitates two MOST club meetings a day at nine different DCPS schools. Every week, he spends less than an hour with each group. But that’s enough time, he hopes, to challenge traditional masculinity and push his young charges to respect their female peers.
Griffin attracts middle- and high-school boys with the promise of free pizza and movie tickets. Conversations center around their personal lives, homework and sports accomplishments at first, but eventually Griffin leads the young men in discussions of street harassment, dating violence and what it means to be a “real man.”
In 2003 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified MOST Club as one of the top four gender violence prevention programs in the country. Every school should host a program like this. Society has targeted girls and women with rape and violence “prevention tips” for too long to no avail. Educating boys and men is the only way to reduce male violence against women and girls. The MOST Club is definitely doing it right.
Timely post for me as I’ve just started work with an organisation that runs anti-sexual exploitation programmes in London high schools.
It’s reinforced to me that the Jesuits were right- it is only intervention at the most primary level that will enable coherent, structural feminist re-education.
I am putting together a specifically anti-sexist/ anti-gender stereotyping programme and would be so grateful for any ideas that the wise and wonderful women of Harpyville are willing to share. Also do you know of any feminist youth groups/ organisations? If you are able to contact me through my blog, I would be eternally grateful.
Apologies for the hijack, Sarah. I’m just in total myopic gathering mode here (all for a good cause!), and the community here is too wonderful and valuable a resource not to hit up, chutzpah-style.
I saw this story! I don’t have a ton of substance to say about it other than that’s it’s incredibly awesome and I hope that this sort of effort can be brought to more schools in the future.
Thank you so much for this post, SarahMC! I didn’t know a thing about MOST before now but I’m thrilled to know such a program exists. The idea that society can empower women without addressing the root causes of gender inequity is preposterous and, as you say, has already proved to be a failure. I applaud Neil Irvin. His program gives me hope especially on a day when there have been so many stories about how the patriarchy continues to thrive.
That’s a wonderful project, thanks for posting about it!
SarahMC, thanks for your post! I had no idea this group existed. I am glad that someone is interested in working on the guys’ side of the equation. Good stuff!
More of the stuff in this post will lead to a lot less of the stuff in the last post. This program and its founder are Doing It Right.
What mischiefmanager said.
Thank you! I was just, the other day, espousing the rather radical idea that we should spend as much time teaching boys not to rape/molest/abuse women as we spend teaching girls to run/tell/fight to prevent/respond to it (actually I think we should spend much MORE time with boys). Everyone I was speaking to acted like I was living in a crazy fairy land since they are resigned to the idea that “that’s just how life is.” Yes there will always be crazy/sick people who will not be reached by education – but maybe we can at least chip away at the casual acceptance that exists in our society.
[...] “Dominant Story of Masculinity,” in which I am in the index under “feminazi.” [via [...]
[...] have for what “the public” is thinking. This week’s theme is Self Esteem. Few people are comfortable blaming patriarchy for violence against women. Most believe it is a symptom of [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ashley Maier, Pursuit of Harpyness. Pursuit of Harpyness said: Challenging "The Dominant Story of Masculinity" @ http://bit.ly/dkyjdZ [...]
That is wonderful!
Turn gender stereotypes around and use them to our advantage, excellent.
Please check out my blog and support a new blogger in the area.