Background: Boys and the Boy Crisis, the Third National Men’s Equality Congress, will be held July 13-14 in Washington D.C. The speakers list is great--perhaps the best I've ever seen at a conference. Speakers include: Matt O'Connor, leader of the English fathers' group Fathers 4 Justice; Christina Hoff Sommers--author of Who Stole Feminism?; Warren Farrell; author of Father & Child Reunion; and Stephen Baskerville, president of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children. I will also be speaking.
There will also be three 2+ hour pre-conference workshops, one conducted by Matt O'Connor, one by Warren Farrell, and one by myself. The workshops will start Friday morning and conclude prior the conference opening that evening. To sign up for 'early bird' prices for these workshops and/or to register for the conference, click here.
One
of the presentations I'm looking forward to is from Paul
Nathanson and Katherine Young, co-authors of
Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular
Culture and
Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic
Discrimination Against Men. Their presentation is
called "Coming of Age as a Villain: What Young Men Need to Know
in a Misandric World." Here's a summary of what they will be
discussing:
"We will begin by discussing coming-of-age as a cultural process that in other times and places fostered the transformation of boys into men. What happens in a society that provides not only fails to acknowledge the entry into manhood but also—and this is even more important—refuses to provide an acceptable view of manhood in the first place? The social-scientific evidence looks very grim, most obviously (but not only) the statistics on suicide and dropping out of school.
"What’s going on? These are symptoms, we suggest, of a much deeper problem. By and large, people are either unaware of this problem or unwilling to do something about it. In that sense, it is analogous to what Betty Friedan called women’s 'disease with no name.' But it has a name now: misandry."
To sign up for 'early bird' prices for these workshops and/or to register for the conference, click here. See you there.