Masculinity Class Aims to Reduce Violence

Brut America

Can toxic masculinity be cured?  This nonprofit thinks so — and aims to rehabilitate male aggressors, and reduce jail time, through a masculinity class.

Transcript

00:00In El Salvador we have this serious problem, while men are not working on the deconstruction of the sexist mental schemes,

00:18the situation of violence against women and the situation of violence in general in El Salvador is not going to stop, it is not going to change.

00:30The government of El Salvador is not going to stop the deconstruction of the sexist mental schemes.

00:36They told me what I had to do to be a man.

00:38To be a man you had to demonstrate and have five women.

00:42To put your will on the women, to be a traitor, to be a traitor.

00:46Each element of these is a contractual clause.

00:50I came to MASPAS for the reason that I had a legal problem in which I was involved with my partner.

01:13It was a problem of jealousy, bad control of emotions, and that led me to spend around six months in prison.

01:23Now I think in a much more emphatic way, one could say, respecting them completely.

01:30Respecting them, they have the same rights, they have the right to do whatever they want.

01:35We have always been taught that men do not cry, for example.

01:39That men fall down and have to get up, and that a man does not cry.

01:43So they prevent us from being able to have feelings.

01:46And now with the program we have been able to learn.

01:49In my case, I have learned a lot from that.

01:51I have been able to learn that we are all the same,

01:54and expressing our feelings does not make us less or more men.

01:58We live 100% in a patriarchal system.

02:02But we, from the point of view of masculinity,

02:05why do I have to try to win over any woman who passes in front of me?

02:10Why do I have to delegate homework or taking care of the children to women?

02:17Why can't I express myself emotionally?

02:27In order for this to change, effective interventions must be carried out with men,

02:32so that men put aside machismo.

02:35Many times we do not realize that we are being macho, misogynistic, homophobic, violent, aggressive.

02:43Because that has become natural to us.

02:45We have been taught that this is how it is to be a man.

02:48We have been taught that this is how it is to be a woman.

02:51We have been taught that this is how it is to be a man.

02:54The third step we take with them is to break that contract.

02:58So that men learn that it is possible to be a man in a different way.

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