Hi all,
I just published the following article on the Good Men Project blog that I wanted to share with the ACES community. Please share any thoughts and let friends and colleagues know about the piece if you like it! I explain the ways people unfairly dismiss victims of violence and trauma, and offer three tips for supporting survivors.
Are You Strong Enough to Really Listen?
More and more people seem unwilling to listen without an ideological filter, often political or religious. There is another filter that also gets in the way of kindness and sympathy: competing ideas about what constitutes masculinity. All three ideologies often combine to create a volatile cocktail that fuels social discord and political gridlock. Compassionate listening can be a powerful antidote to these problems. But there are many obstacles that complicate any effort to get men to listen more deeply.
Many males are raised in cultures where even talking about pain or abuse is considered unmanly. Males who respond publicly with compassion to the suffering of others are regularly taunted and belittled. Some men know too well that asking for help or protection can make them a target for bullying or even greater victimization.
At the other end of the ideological spectrum, few critics of modern masculinity actually make space for discussions of male victimization to occur. While critiques of patriarchal systems and male privilege are practically omnipresent, support and resources for male victims are virually impossible to find. For example, there is solid data suggesting that over 26 million males in the US are or will be sexually abused during their lifetime (see Table 2.2). Few, however, find safe audiences to listen to their experiences.
Keep reading... Are You Strong Enough to Really Listen
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