Here are some words past participants have used described healthy masculinity leaving this work:
Emotionally-Attuned
•
Empathy
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Safe and Sexy
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Strength in Vulnerability
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Compassion
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Peasant // Knight
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Self-Actualized: knows who he is
•
Does Hard Things
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Willingness to Change
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Mentorship
•
Strength
•
Love
•
Emotionally-Attuned • Empathy • Safe and Sexy • Strength in Vulnerability • Compassion • Peasant // Knight • Self-Actualized: knows who he is • Does Hard Things • Willingness to Change • Mentorship • Strength • Love •
testimonials
and impact
At the end of every event we ask our participants:
"WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BRING BACK INTO YOUR LIFE FROM THIS EXPERIENCE”
here’s some of what they have shared (all responses are anonymous to preserve confidentiality of what is shared):
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“I leave knowing I'm not gonna solve everything, but boy, I can be soft, and I can be vulnerable… I can keep seeking out connection.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“What I'm taking away is to do hard things… which, well, usually the hard things are the things you need to do.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“I would like to take back to my life… an even a greater authenticity in my emotional experience. Just showing up more authentically and in my true emotional experience of the world.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“This was an opportunity for me to cast aside some of my shame…. and I want walk away and to offer to the world… [that I will] be true to my feelings and be comfortable with expressing my emotions; that is the heart of what it means to be a man.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“I'm gonna leave feeling strengthened, I think, which is a good feeling, and what I wanna take with me is not just focusing on my own work, but work that I can do around me. that makes me feel like I have more power than my life… I wanna take with me more patience to meet people where they are, and make a positive impact… instead of my instinctive lashing. [where I might] just want to lash out in anger; that’s not productive, I want to take this patience to meet people where they are.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“what I'll take with me from this is that… I've been very much focused on, like I mentioned before, thinking about sort of political failure… But I think that this time and these ideas are reminded me like, there is something incredibly valuable in the power of feminism to evaluating the patriarchy. And so I think [I’m leaving] trying to really tune into what is the middle that acknowledges our political failures, but also the fundamental truths of finding a more positive [and more inclusive ] masculinity.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“I feel like really inspired by this experience; in, like, the amount of vulnerability and, like, real shit that people were sharing; that's very moving to me. And it is a kind of a reminder of the the beauty of spending time with men.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant:
“I will leave trusting that others are not out to get you… not, you know, feeling victimized by other people's emotional experience directed towards you… I can kind of internalize this kind of dog-eat-dog mentality and that closes me off to others. [I’m leaving] being able to breathe and trust, and having better resources for responding to others and for just showing up in life.”
Imagining Anti-Patriarchal Masculinity Participant: