Males Advocating Change (MAC) Program

Many young men, and adults, define masculinity with domination, stoicism, and violence. Our society encourages young males to use their status and power to be disrespectful and violent towards women and other males to assert manhood. MAC instead aims to use that status and power to dismantle, examine, and reject these toxic myths and assumptions of what it means to “be a man”, and in doing so, give young men an understanding of how to exhibit and encourage healthy non-violent masculinity in their everyday lives.

We want to build a new generation of men who will model strength without violence, leadership without domination, and vulnerability without fear. Men who will serve as a positive force for awareness and action in their communities. By teaching young men how to work towards a shared goal of safety and compassion, we can have an enormous impact on the root causes of sexual and domestic violence. MAC will give these men the tools they need to play a proactive role in the prevention of sexual assault and be able to illuminate their peers to the toxic aspects of masculinity.

Topics include:

• Recognizing unhealthy aspects of masculinity
• Empathizing with others
• Supporting gender equity and other forms of equity
• Replacing risky and violent masculine attitudes and behaviors with behaviors and attitudes that respect the self and others
• Learning skills to constructively challenge unhealthy masculine attitudes and behaviors