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I don’t see the value of campaigns / orgs ostensibly run by & for men with the aim of persuading men not to be violent which are not focused *entirely* on deep engagement, over time. That means in schools, youth provision, youth justice, prisons & sport clubs, men’s groups. It
also means engaging with & contributing to national provision of #PSHE & #RSE materials. I simply cannot see genuine value - beyond the performative - of campaigns based on getting men to #makethepromise or #takethepledge not to be abusive, wear a badge, pose for photos etc
If engagement in such activities happened to be a catalyst for wanting to be more meaningfully committed, then that’s a positive outcome, of course. I don’t think that using scant resources to invest in such happenstance is a good idea, though. The superficial and the public act
Is not what is needed here. We need depth, constancy, application & focus. Signing your name & wearing a badge or ribbon for a couple of weeks ain’t that - it’s part of a performative, ritualistic approach to signaling virtue, akin to going to praying in public. An easy win.
When we add the recent travesty of such orgs / campaigns actually refusing 2 say what they mean when they say ‘men’ & ‘women’ - despite that being essential to their mission - or saying that ‘either can mean the other if desired’, the last vestiges of their purpose evaporates.
Assuming one isn’t engaged in the the outrageously misogynistic & dangerously stupid denial of material reality, then orgs doing one-off events and awareness-raising public actions, absolutely - great! But it has to be rooted in steady, deep, meaningful work. Otherwise you create
an entity and mode of behaviour which is shallow, performative and ultimately self-serving. Better to have 50 men doing the real work off camera, over time, than 1000 tweeting their firm handshakes for a couple of days a year.
