The 4th of July Men in Dialogue was present at CIMIE 2014 (International Multidisciplinary Congress of Research in Education), held in Segovia, in a communication entitled “New alternative masculinities and prevention of the gender violence”.
The communication presented by Elena Duque, from the University of Girona, together with two members of Men in Dialogue, Oriol Ríos (University of Girona) and Bernat Oró (EDA Verneda), picked the scientific contributions of years of research in this field, and furthermore starting from the transformative perspective that was initiated by Jesús Gómez with his theory of “Radical Love” which has helped to overcome the gender violence to so many people and has inspired the very concept of the New alternative masculinities.
First of all the communication presented the three kinds of current masculinities as defined in the 1st Conference of Men in Dialogue (which were deepen later on with the article of Flecha, Puigvert and Ríos (2013): The New Alternative Masculinities and the Overcoming of Gender Violence), that is: the traditional masculinity, both the dominant one and the oppressed one (both of them promoters of gender violence), and on the other hand the New alternative masculinities as a real alternative which permits us to eradicate it.
And secondly after analysing the characteristics and consequences of this kind of masculinity educational practices were arisen to educate in an alternative masculinity as a way to overcome the gender violence since such masculinities do not reproduce the double standard (language of ethics vs language of desire) and break up with the linking between attraction and violence.
It is remarkable that during the presentation and the posterior debate the workshops done by our association were named as one of the effective ways to put the scientific knowledge on preventive socialization of gender violence into practice. Specifically the workshops carried on with teenagers were presented as a way to transform the language of desire, a key element according to scientific evidences to overcome the gender violence. In other words, it was shown how the workshops of Men in Dialogue are a practice that permit to open reflection and egalitarian dialogue on the model of men that mainly attract and why is so. Which are the boys who look and talk down to women (the TDM) and which kind of boys permit to establish egalitarian and plenty of loving passion relations (the NAM). To talk among girls and boys with the necessary trends which the research offers is the way to unveil the strategies and attitudes of the TDM to “hook up”, their intentions and the kind or relation they can offer. In the same way, in these talks NAM are presented and promoted as a clear alternative to the previous ones and therefore they are presented as the kind of boys with whom it is possible to accomplish ones dreams and live passionately.
In this way, starting from the desire language as a key aspect which bonds the good stuff with the exciting stuff represented by the New Alternative Masculinities (Men who do not subdue to TDM) which permit us to empty the attraction of violence the Conference was closed were many elements were shared to keep on working and researching in this way and to reinforce the Men in Dialogue net at the state and international level.