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• Voice Male Men @ Work Men @ Work continued from page 5 Zegree, says police respond to 51,000 domestic violence calls every year in Ads Ask Abusive Men to Get a “Checkup” Two Seattle newspapers—the Seattle Times and The Stranger—and Seattle Metro buses will soon feature ads asking men with abusive behaviors to call for a “Men’s Domestic Violence Checkup.” The program, funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is the first of its kind, in which men can call anonymously and confidentially and talk to clinical workers from the University of Washington School of Social Work. Although the workers will offer counseling confidentially, they are still bound by state laws requiring them to report child abuse. The ads appearing in local newspapers will target men by using powerful images of victims of abuse and carrying messages such as “Abusing your family? Abusing alcohol or drugs? Not sure?” They conclude with the message: “Let’s talk about your options. 1.800.MEN.1089.” The co-director of the program, Joan Washington State, and five times a month, someone dies as a result of domestic abuse. “We thought that it would be important to find a way to reach out to men who don’t know where to turn,” Zegree says, “who can do it confidentially, they can do it all by phone and it’s free. What could be easier?” The telephone number is 1-800-MEN- 1089 and will be in operation Monday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The program will last at least one year. For more information, visit www.menscheckup.org. No Holds Barred: Pro Wrestling and Dating Teens Watching professional wrestling on TV may encourage aggressive behavior in teens when they date—even among girls. Those are the conclusions of a new study by Wake Forest University researchers, who reported their findings in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics. Wildpeace Not the peace of a cease-fire not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb, but rather as in the heart when the excitement is over and you can talk only about a great weariness. I know that I know how to kill, that makes me an adult. And my son plays with a toy gun that knows how to open and close its eyes and say Mama. A peace without the big noise of beating swords into ploughshares, without words, without the thud of the heavy rubber stamp: let it be light, floating, like lazy white foam. A little rest for the wounds—who speaks of healing? (And the howl of the orphans is passed from one generation to the next, as in a relay race: the baton never falls.) Let it come like wildflowers, suddenly, because the field must have it: wildpeace. ~ Yehuda Amichai ~ (Translation by Chana Bloch, in This Same Sky, ed. by Naomi Shihab Nye) World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. “Both among male and female students, the frequency with which they watched wrestling was associated with a number of indicators of violence and weapon-carrying,” said lead author Robert H. DuRant, professor of pediatrics and social science and health policy at Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. “Of particular concern was that the frequency of watching wrestling was associated with being both the perpetrator and victim of date fighting,” DuRant said. “This association was stronger among female adolescents than among male adolescents.” Boys who watched wrestling were more likely to start fights with their dates, be a date-fight victim, and carry a gun or other weapon. They also said they drank alcohol or used drugs during their last fight, the researchers found. For girls, watching wrestling was associated with higher rates of starting a fight with a date, being a victim of a date fight, carrying a gun at school, fighting, and being injured in a fight. And like boys, these girls said they drank or used drugs during a fight, the study found. “The more children and adolescents are exposed to violence, the more likely they are to engage in violence—and media plays a part,” DuRant said. But Gary Davis, vice president of corporate communications at World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., claimed that “the researchers could not find a direct causal relationshipbetweenwatchingwrestlingand health-risk behaviors. The study ignored other factors that might lead to the types of behaviors discussed in the study. Its findings, therefore, are less than conclusive.” DuRant admits that watching wrestling by itself is not the sole cause of violent behavior among teens. “It is one causal factor in the overall socialization of these kids. It’s another media source that has a negative effect,” he said. 6
One expert thinks the new study reflects the impact of media on promoting violence among teens. “This study is consistent with hundreds of other studies on violent media and aggression,” said Brad Bushman, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. Bushman said teens look to the mass media for images to emulate. “They look to the mass media to decide what a real man is like or what a real woman is like,” Bushman said. “What they see if they look at wrestling is that real men and women solve their problems with aggression and force.” For more information, visit the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry’s website, aacap.org. See also Media Education Foundation’svideoWrestlingwithManhood; mediaed.org. Arizona Men Launch Domestic Violence Prevention Effort Over 50 prominent male leaders in Arizona, including University of Arizona head basketball and football coaches Lute Olson and Mike Stoops, are throwing their weight behind a new program in Tucson aimed at ending men’s violence against women. The Men’s Anti-Violence Partnership of Southern Arizona has 55 founding members, including city and county officials, police officers, Native American leaders, and local educators. Introducing the partnership, Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault board member Ime Archibong called the effort a “giant step forward in the prevention of sexual and domestic violence. Building on past community achievements, it engages men as part of the solution instead of blaming them for being the problem.” Coach Stoops echoed the importance of more men standing up against violence. “Guys from every walk of life commit violence against women and girls,” he said. “I’m encouraging my players to stand with me to end violence against women and girls.” Tucson mayor Bob Walkup touted his founding of the group Tucson Men Against Massachusetts Men Promote Men’s Leadership in Zambia Springfield, Mass.-based Men’s Resources International (MRI) conducted a three-day Men’s Leadership Training in Zambia in June. Former Men’s Resource Center for Change staffer James Arana and former MRC executive director Steven Botkin, who founded MRI, traveled to the southern African nation on behalf of MRI to offer the training. It was designed to increase awareness of gender-based violence, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS among members of the newly formed Zambia Men’s Network. Twenty young men from Zambia, four female YWCA staff members, and one delegate from the Ebonyi Men’s Group in Nigeria attended. MRI hopes to do similar trainings in Nigeria, Rwanda, and Kenya in the future. To learn more go to www.mensresourcesinternational. org or e-mail info@mensre-sourcesinternational.org. Domestic Violence, which has been folded into the Partnership. “The City Council and I do not tolerate violence against women,” he said. “We now have more police officers arresting perpetrators, investigating cases and preventing violence against women in Tucson.” Tucson police chief Richard Miranda said: “We cannot just arrest away the problem… we need to work actively to prevent these crimes.” From Kenya, Good and Bad News Anew law in Kenya may mean stricter punishments for rapists and sexual predators, but it fails to criminalize marital rape and female genital mutilation, according to a report posted on the Feminist Daily News Wire, the electronic media arm of the Feminist Majority Foundation. The bill, which President Mwai Kibaki approved in mid-July, was the first legal recognition of many sex crimes, including gang rape, sexual harassment, and child trafficking. The legislation also outlaws the deliberate transmission of the HIV virus. The bill comes as a reaction to the rising number of rapes and sexual assaults committed in Kenya. While it is estimated that women are raped every half hour in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, Kenya’s legal code on sexual crimes has not been significantly changed since 1930. One of the most contentious issues is a provision in the law that imposes the same sentence on rapists and those who falsely accuse someone of rape. This clause may “deter women from coming forward [and has] shifted the burden of proof in rape cases from the accuser to the accused,” according to a statement from the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General. Kenyan women’s rights activists are especially angered by this provision of the legislation. Many people are skeptical about how effective the new legislation will be in combating the rising incidences of rape. “For many rural women, it will take much more than a new law to change deeply entrenched traditions, where culturally, women have little power,” said Jack Nyagaya, a counselor who deals with cases of rape, according to allAfrica.com. VM Steven Botkin F a l l 2 0 0 6 • 7
Page 1 and 2: New Visions of Manhood Voice Male T
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Features A Call t
Page 5: Men @ Work Voice Male, MRC Assemble
Page 9 and 10: stops them from challenging sexist
Page 11 and 12: F a l l 2 0 0 6 • 11
Page 13 and 14: “she provoked me” because she 1
Page 15 and 16: Reflections on Men’s Loss, Grief,
Page 17 and 18: The Locker Room and the Closet By G
Page 19 and 20: Love Makes a Marriage By Mitch Sore
Page 21 and 22: F a l l 2 0 0 6 • 21
Page 23 and 24: Finding the Way Through continued f
Page 25 and 26: Looking to Connect? Try the MRC’s
Page 27 and 28: Men’s Resource Center for Change

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