From #metoo to the American Psychological Association’s guidelines pathologizing “masculinity” as harmful, to Gillette’s razor adverts blaming all men for the actions of a damaged few, ideologically motivated groups have used unchallenged narratives of female victimhood to promote damaging stereotypes about men and boys, masculinity and men’s relationships to each other.
More than ever before, recognition of men’s issues is needed. Men and boys deserve compassion, they deserve consideration for their unique needs, and they deserve our support.
Men and boys also deserve respect for their unique contributions to society and an end to the promotion of unkind stereotyping of being harmful, abusive, toxic, selfish and hateful. We would not tolerate this stereotyping directed towards any other group.
We are in an era of unprecedented ideological conflict. By reducing men’s ability to take a positive identity from their masculinity we are encouraging young men to pursue ever more radical ideologies to find a place to belong. In turn we are also encouraging young women to embrace an identity as society’s victims rather than it’s equal co-creators.
International Conferences on Men’s Issues (ICMIs) have been held annually since 2014, with the exception of 2015:
- Detroit (2014)
- London (2016)
- Gold Coast, Australia (2017)
- London (2018)
- Chicago (2019)
Playlists of all 100+ presentations at the conferences are here, as well as playlists of the presentations at the Messages 4 Men conferences in London (2017-19).
The conferences deal with the social and legal issues that disproportionately (or uniquely) affect men and boys.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s conference is being held online, with the publication of 120 videos (one per hour, every hour) from midday, Saturday, 14 November, to midday, Thursday, 19 November, 2020 (International Men’s Day), Sydney time (the event was originally going to be held in Sydney).
This conference is the first ICMI in which we’re extending an open invitation to those with an interest in gender matters (other than feminists, obviously) to submit material. Details here.
Our thanks to Tom Caulfield, Technical Director at Justice for Men & Boys, for the impressive launch video (20:11).