9 AMS of UBC SASC Healthier Masculinities Program

Basics

• Target audience: students
• Run by the UBC AMS student union as a division of the Sexual Assault Support Centre.
• Two mandates
  • Engage men as active allies.
  • Foster communities and conversations of healthier masculinities.
• 20 volunteers per year divided into smaller groups run monthly “Let’s Talk” discussion groups, special events (this year was a full day of workshops called “Let’s Come Together”), and outreach (this year created a bystander intervention video with real student stories).
• One 30hr/week staff coordinator also runs “men’s circle” discussions on masculinity and mandatory workshops for every UBC fraternity member.
• Funded by student fees–the SASC receives $9/student and Healthier Masculinities receives a portion of that funding (original initial funding was a civil forfeiture grant).
• Best outreach among men is word of mouth.

Messaging and Branding

• Healthier masculinities are a diverse process not a singular final product.
• For “men and masculine-identifying people” to include masculine-leaning or male-aligned nonbinary people.
• Do not hide the intersectional feminism! But consider when creating branding that words like feminism and patriarchy are “allergy” words for men and can lead to disengagement.
• Program volunteers have been harassed by men’s rights activists:
  • Need to consider the current political climate when designing program materials

Goals/Strategy

• Target change at norms of masculinity to change men’s behaviour.
• Masculinity norms = what it is to be a man and how a man must act:
  • Need to address norms of masculinity that facilitate sexual violence, not just add consent as an add-on to the patriarchy.
  • Asks men–what ideas was I raised with and how do I critically engage with and reframe them?
• Strategies for engaging men
  • Acknowledge men’s anxieties and desire to do the right thing.
  • Directly acknowledge preconceived notions of what consent training is to defuse resistance.
  • Bystander intervention as a positive “hero” role for men.
  • Men respond to numbers and scholarly citations—need it to be “proven”
  • Good tactic to address challenging statements is “where did you learn that?”.
• Research shows that men-only spaces are more effective in changing attitudes and intentions than mixed-gender spaces.
• How men act is highly influenced by what they think their peers’ perception of them will be
• But men underestimate other men’s discomfort with sexist language – this is called pluralistic ignorance
  • Teach men that you can always not laugh or ask questions even if not able to directly address a comment.