Excerpts from the RC journal MEN

Fighting Back From Where We Are

Men's distresses are different; the tones we tend to have are different. Everything in society forces it that way. The main hurt that makes us different is the physical isolation. We do not stay physically in contact with anybody once we can move under our own power. We're out in the neighborhood. We don't get picked up; we don't get cuddled. Things get harder and harder. This is true for everybody, but especially for men. That starts us off; it sets us up to be manipulated by all the other forces in society. It's something very difficult for us to think about. To prevent this, you need to fight off boys' not wanting you to cuddle them. ...

Tim Jackins
Men, No. 4


Aging, Health, and Healing

Q: What do we know about aging?

Tim: We don't know very much. But, what we take as aging probably isn't a result primarily of physical processes, but of accumulated distress interfering with healing. None of us work on it. Working on all of the ways you've gotten hurt so far, would take the next five years in counseling. All of this hurt is accumulated without attention, and all of it makes a difference in the healing process. It actually operates physically on you. The hurt slows down your healing processes. This is taken as inevitable by medicine at this point, because of the way they look at things. Given our perspective, other things look possible. We know when you actually pay attention to physical hurts and discharge on them, they do heal faster. Things shift very quickly. You can actually pay attention to being hurt. ...

(Transcript of a workshop with Tim Jackins and Chuck Esser)
Men, No. 4


Fathers

I want very much to share some of the best thinking I have come across about a very special group of people--fathers. I am deeply appreciative of all the fathers and mothers at the Parents' Liberation Conference for their contributions to the developing theory about fathers, and especially to Patty Wipfler and Chuck Esser for their dedication to and good thinking about fathers. I also am deeply appreciative of the many others in RC (both official men and women leaders all over the world and the particular parents in my Region) who have contributed thinking about men's oppression and fathers.

Many Kinds Of Fathers

To begin with, there are many ways to be a father and, in talking about fathers, I include all fathers. You can be a biological father; you can be a step-father, an adoptive father. ...

Alison Ehara-Brown
Men, No. 4


Last modified: 2022-12-25 10:17:04+00