“I Present a Role Model of Fluid Masculinity…”: Gender Politics of Pro-Feminist Men in an Israeli High School Gender Equality Intervention Programme

Abstract

In 2004, the Israeli Ministry of Education sought to enlist a group of men who view themselves as role models of gender equality, in order to moderate an intervention programme in high schools on topics such as masculinity, chauvinism, sexism, sexual behaviors, and homophobia. This was explicitly designed to encourage the development of egalitarian attitudes among male students. Acceptance into the programme was conditional upon the successful completion of a series of entrance requirements, followed by participation in theoretical and practical training in feminist thinking and new conceptions of masculinity. I attended this training along with thirty other men, who then formed a team that worked together for almost a decade, in more than one hundred high schools across Israel. Our objective was to encourage critical thinking about issues of gender equality, to stimulate the adoption of new attitudes towards masculinity and corresponding behavioral changes so that students became allies of women and active supporters of gender equality. Initially, I found this work to be very meaningful, but after the 7th year of the project, I began to experience frustration that stemmed from the recognition that we were not as impactful as anticipated. I came to this conclusion based on the observation that, while the students were sharing more and more about their inappropriate sexual behaviors, they didn't understand how problematic this behavior was. Moreover, it seemed that they were resistant to the messages that we were trying to deliver.