UK Premiere of
Roll Red Roll
On Saturday 16th March James spoke on a panel after the UK Premiere of Roll Red Rol at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, a documentary film which examines rape culture in a football town in the United States. The panel included director Nancy Schwartzman, producer Steven Lake, and Hillary Margolis, researcher, Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch.
The film is notable for the way that it handles the subject matter, a case which has been extensively and inconsiderately covered in the past, by focusing on the broader context of rape culture rather than cliched profiles of the victim and perpetrator. It illustrates how a lack of leadership allows these events to happen repeatedly and how poorly understood definitions of consent are.
“Is this football town putting their daughters at risk by protecting their sons?”
- Rachel Dissell, film subject, Roll Red Roll
Read more about the film here and find out where to see it on facebook.
Hilary, Nancy, Steven, and James speaking after the film.
Workshop on
Feminist Allyship at Home
We recently ran a workshop at The Collective in Camden on Feminist Allyship at home, exploring concepts like ‘Emotional Labour’ and ‘the Mental Load’ with twelve participants.
Participants reflected on their own experiences at home and discussed how gendered dynamics were operating in these intimate relationships. We presented a range of interactive activities to address the topic, including reading the comic ‘You Should Have Asked’ as a prompt for understanding the term ‘the Mental Load’ and how it related to their own home environments. In small groups the participants came up with a plan for how they would approach addressing an imbalance in labour at home and presented these to the wider group. Some examples of these are below.
Workshop at the
University of Bristol
It was our pleasure to be invited to the University of Bristol in July to run a series of reflective workshops on Masculinity. The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team in collaboration with Rosa Targett, hosted two workshops designed for men (academic and professional services staff) who
were interested in looking at feminism, masculinity and what men can do to be better allies to the women and non-binary people in their lives.
This 2.5 hour introductory workshop focused on the role of men in intersectional feminism and deconstructing terms like toxic masculinity and emotional labour. It's aimed at men who are already reflecting on their position in society but who would like more information and guidance around being a feminist ally.
Jonathan Sandy introduced the workshops on behalf of the University’s Gender Equality Group.
If you’re interested in hosting a workshop please find our information in Contact Us.
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In Common: Women at Work, with Dotdigital
Dotdigital have launched a news series of events titled In Common that focuses on diversity and inclusion in tech and marketing. We were invited to join the panel for their event “Women at work”. James joined a panel of inspiring women from across the industry in London Bridge to share how men can be involved in women’s equality at work.
The topics covered women in management, role models, imposter syndrome, and of course how best to bring men into the conversation. You can read a blog about the event here. We are available for talks and panel discussions at your workplace as well as diversity and inclusion training at your workplace. Contact us to find out more.
Reflective Groups
We have been running a series of reflective sessions for men for the last few months. These are based on a wonderful toolkit produced by MÄN, an organisation from Sweden which works with men to engage them on gender equality. The guide is free to use and so far we have found it to be extremely useful. You can find it here along with some other great resources. So far the group has been a great opportunity to share our experiences of masculinity in the company of other men.
In future we hope that those that have come to this group will be inspired to start their own reflective groups with friends and colleagues. We are keen to grow a network of mens groups so that we can start making changes with ourselves. so if you’d like to chat about it or want some support setting up your own group then feel free to send us an email.
