Masculinity
‘What Does He Need?’
Artist and Writer Fiona Whelan, in partnership with Rialto Youth Project and Broken Talkers production company created What Does He Need, a community based art project that seeks to explore how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world in which they live” while creating “significant public dialogue about the current state of masculinity”. As part of this project, Dr. Robert Grant was approached about running a series of philosophical dialogues with groups of male community leaders in order to use the methodology to explore the fundamental issues surrounding masculinity.
Fiona Whelan, Dannielle, McKenna, Jim Lawlor
Four different groups of male community leaders met weekly for four weeks to engage in philosophical discussion around issues pertaining to masculinity. While masculinity is not an exclusively philosophical topic (rooted as it is in sociology, biology, anthropology and so on), the practice of dialogue allowed participants to bring an open curiosity to the subject, while also feeling safe to explore hidden assumptions without fear of judgement or any hidden agenda to impose a ‘correct’ viewpoint.
The topics and statements were:
The performativity of masculinity: To be a man is to act like a man.
Weakness and vulnerability: It is too risky for men to show weakness.
Power, Dominance and Control: Power is at the root of what it is to be a man.
Care: Women are just better carers than men.
Feedback from participants (male, ages between 19-65):
‘I felt safe to be vulnerable, open and honest’
‘I welcomed the opportunity to self reflect, the opportunity to be challenged on views’
‘Engaging in such conversations was great. Having open conversations with other men and challenging my own thoughts around masculinity’
‘The sessions were well facilitated really opened up my thinking on topics and listening to other peoples views was very informative, there was very good participation everyone got to have their views heard’
‘I enjoyed how the sessions took parts of personal examples and moved them into a more global view of masculinity and then did the inverse using conceptions of masculinity to challenge the perceptions of participants’