Why a Men's Project?

Why a men's group? This is a question we hear a lot. Sure, women meet in groups, and there are many women's groups focusing on still-serious inequities in western societies. Men play sports, attend football games, work on projects together. They don't do groups. Or at least this is the prevailing misconception among many misconceptions regarding gender identity. In any case, what we are offering is not just a group, but an on-going project wherein men may develop their own solutions and share them with other men, and hopefully the communities where they live.

Many observers have noted that masculinity, or the most basic notion of being a man, has waned over the past 20 years or so. And that the rise of women in the workforce, fourth wave feminism and the loss of blue collar professions have each contributed to a significant decline of male identity and dominance in western societies.

Other contributing factors we should note include the mainstreaming of queer identities including greater awareness of gay, trans and nonbinary communities, all of whom may be, or may appear to be, men. Finally there was the #MeToo movement which focused and outed many of the most intolerable male behaviors under the "toxic masculinity" banner.

Taken together, these changes have contributed to a crisis of identity among men who have experienced a certain sense of loss. To these men, it feels like the ground has shifted and they have lost their sense of place in the world. Of course this is a subjective reaction to change, and change is always challenging.