On 18 October 2019, DeCode/M welcomed Gary Barker, CEO and Founder of Promundo-US and a member of the DeCode/M research team for the event “Boys, Media and Masculinities in the US in the MeToo Moment”. During the event, which was held at CES-Alta and moderated by Sofia José Santos, Gary Barker introduced some of the latest results of Promundo’s investigation surrounding media’s impact on the development of young boys’ masculinities, and some findings on Promundo’s research about how men and boys’ masculine identities are being shaped in the context of the #MeToo movement.

Overview:

MeToo and the global attention to women’s rights and girls’ empowerment have made the airwaves from the US, Europe, to Latin America, to South Asia, to Afghanistan. Promundo has carried out multi-country research on young men’s attitudes about masculinities, including  its “Man Box studies” carried out in the US, UK, Mexico and elsewhere. Findings confirm that: most young men are firmly on board with equality but don’t know how to practice it or worry about speaking out; others are moving back into the “man box” as they perceive feminism as a threat, particularly for those young men worried about their economic prospects; and others are simply confused, finding themselves surrounded by sexist messages along with more progressive ones.

In this presentation, Barker presented key findings from this research – showing the dynamic, situational and context-specific ways young men are reacting to these changes.  He also shared findings from recent focus groups with young boys ages 8-13 in the US and preliminary findings from a masculinities analysis of the 25 most watched and streamed TV shows among boys 8-13 in the U.S.  Those findings affirm that while boys are seeing many images of empowered and equal women, and show more fluid ideas about manhood, there is a lack of ethnic diversity and a continuing (re)presentation of manhood as inherently violent.