Men’s Activism to End Violence Against Women: Voices from Spain, Sweden and the UK
... However, men's direct and structural violence remains a severe and systemic problem around the world (WHO, 2021), and the empirical evidence on efforts to engage men is mixed overall (Flood, 2019). As a result, scholars and practitioners continue to advocate for more creative, impactful, and accountable approaches to working with men (Casey et al., 2013;Macomber, 2015;Pease, 2017;Westmarland et al., 2021). This article explores how podcasting, and in particular, pro-feminist approaches, might support such efforts. ...
... At the same time, it is important to avoid simply placing more labour on women's shoulders, so such feedback should not be an expectation, and be properly recompensed wherever possible (Pease, 2017). Ongoing critical self-reflection, and seeking out feedback from other pro-feminist men, are therefore also valuable in this regard (Westmarland et al., 2021). ...
... This is especially important given the growing deluge of masculinist, anti-feminist, misogynistic material across the internet, including in the podcast sphere, and the relative lack of content critically questioning this, especially aimed at men and boys. It is arguably the case that anti-feminist groups have more effectively used online media to garner public support among men than profeminists have to date (Westmarland et al., 2021), so this is an ever more important domain in which to engage with men about the roles they can play in equality, peace, and mutual care. ...
This article explores pro-feminist podcasting as an emergent approach to engaging men and boys in gender justice. In recent years, an increasing number of podcasts have surfaced which implicitly or explicitly espouse pro-feminist praxis. However, scholarship in this area remains underexamined. This article seeks to move the literature forward by 1) situating pro-feminist podcasting within the wider multi-disciplinary literatures on critical podcasting pedagogies; 2) sharing examples from the current landscape of English-language pro-feminist podcasts; and 3) discussing the potential benefits, challenges, and risks of this approach. In doing so, this article considers how pro-feminist podcasts have the potential to expand men’s engagement efforts to wider audiences, provide new accessible entry points, and help facilitate ways to bring together and mobilise groups of pro-feminist men. However, there are several challenges and tensions involved in pro-feminist podcasting - as is the case with other forms of engaging men and pro-feminist allyship - which demonstrate that this work should be undertaken with care, ongoing reflexivity, and accountability. Overall, this article seeks to start a conversation about the potential of podcasting in the field of engaging men and boys and to draw attention to the need for further work and research in this area.
... Notwithstanding this point, men's participation in global efforts to prevent or reduce men's violence has continued to expand incrementally over the last four decades (Barker et al., 2007;Messner et al., 2015) as men and boys are increasingly (re)framed as essential constituents in comprehensive efforts to eradicate GBV and to promote more equitable gender relations (Casey et al., 2018;Jewkes, Flood, et al., 2015;Peacock & Barker, 2014;Tolman et al., 2016;Westmarland et al., 2021). This reflects a key contention of this paper. ...
... Albeit the numbers of men were small, members of this early men's movement began to carve out a role for men in antisexist and anti-violence activism as 'profeminist' actors (Burrell & Flood, 2019;Carlson et al., 2020;Flood, 2019;Messner et al., 2015;Pease, 2000). Later, the mid-1990s saw the growth of dedicated men-led anti-violence organisations (Messner et al., 2015;Peretz, 2020), which paved the way for the more recent growth in the professionalisation of the gender-based violence sector involving both women and men in paid roles (Messner et al., 2015;Westmarland et al., 2021). In practice, this has meant more men occupying non-voluntary Wild, J. (2023). ...
The involvement of men in efforts to challenge men’s violence is a crucial component for eradicating gender-based violence (GBV) and for disrupting the continued responsibilisation of women and survivors for addressing the problem at various scales. But as men’s participation in the field has evolved and become increasingly professionalised, so tensions have emerged regarding what happens when men enter women-majority professional and movement anti-violence spaces. Via a feminist discourse analysis, this article explores how men active in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector and movement conceptualise and negotiate the challenges associated with the reproduction of patriarchal privilege in the context of their work or activism. Analysis points to how gender inequalities and masculine norms are both instrumentalised as well as entrenched, even when men ‘allies’ seek to challenge them. Moreover, findings indicate how men’s often elevated status in anti-violence practice and movement spaces can be used to resource a type of ‘entrepreneurial masculinity’ which obstructs structural change as regards gendered norms and expectations. This article offers an empirical and theoretical contribution to the expanding literature on men’s role(s) in the prevention of men’s violence against women and minoritised genders, and the ways in which gendered privilege operates therein.
... In the past decade efforts to prevent men's violence against women (gender-based violence) (GBV) 1 have undergone a shift in focus from viewing men as perpetrators to viewing them as an active part in the prevention of GBV (Minerson, 2011;Carlson et al, 2015;Tolman et al, 2016;Westmarland et al, 2021). Interventions such as the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme (MVP), therefore aim to educate and empower both men and women in the struggle to end GBV (Minerson, 2011;Tolman et al, 2016;Eriksson et al, 2018;Jonsson, 2019). ...
Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) is a systematic education programme aimed at addressing gender inequality and preventing violence among boys and men. The programme originates from Canada and the USA, and since 2015 has been introduced in a number of Swedish schools. Whereas most evaluations of MVP and other programmes addressing gender-based violence focus on broad changes, we argue that these evaluations fail to provide insight into where and for whom the programmes are or are not effective. By identifying the participants with knowledge and attitudes furthest away from the target assumptions of the programme and following them throughout the programme, we can see what effects the programme has on those with the most problematic knowledge and attitudes. The study shows that MVP does not seem to contribute to a more positive development for the group of students whose knowledge and attitudes are furthest from the programme’s target assumptions. Moreover, the study shows that the comparison group shows a more positive development over time than the MVP group. This leads to the conclusion that MVP seems to have limited potential to change the specific group with low levels of knowledge about violence and most problematic attitudes towards violent behaviour.
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