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Since 2014, we have written over 35 articles dealing with the intersection of gender issues, masculinity, and life. Topics have spanned from the Zika virus to women airplane pilots to the Colombian peace process. We develop campaigns to debunk outdated social notions such as the meaning of "man up!" or the role of men in the household.
The fundamental idea behind DGR is to make visible the role of gender in our lives, to make it as explicit as possible. It is not about telling people what is right or wrong, it is about allowing them to gain awareness of how gender aspects are part of their day-to-day of life. In our work, we make a strong emphasis on engaging men and find ways to make visible harmful as well as desirable traits of masculinity.
The conceptual framework of DGR relies on the work of Paulo Freire in his “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. Adapting his concepts to the gender field, it suggests that the oppression that women experience in the current patriarchal system is also experienced by men. Therefore, if we want to liberate women of such oppression, we ought to liberate men in the process. The only way in which we will achieve gender equality is by involving purposefully men and boys too.
The cornerstone of this process of liberation is critical reflection. This means a purposeful introspective process that invite us to review what informs our actions, attitudes, and beliefs around gender. We understand gender as a structural power relation. As such, the way in which each of us experience gender is deeply personal. Gender is one of the fundamental pieces of who we are, how we see the world, and how the world perceives us. However, it is not the only factor that shape our experience in life. As result, in DGR we strongly believe that we need to take into consideration other key factors such as race, sex, religion, ability, age and class. This manifests in our written pieces.
Defying Gender Roles has published 40+ articles on gender issues in these outlets from 2013 to 2022: Defying Gender Roles (20), Vice Colombia (1), Voice Male Magazine (2), Words in the Bucket (17), Good Men Project (6), Género-Equidad (2), MenEngage (1), Papo de Homem (1).
COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS:
Defying Gender Roles worked with the Promundo organization to use in their gender work. Defying Gender Roles developed a portfolio and strategy to work with organizations engaging men and boys in gender interventions in Honduras and Guatemala, including two concept notes and site visits. As a result, Promundo secured funding for their work in Central America (Summer-Fall 2015).
We developed a proposal for an innovative curriculum that integrates gender, race and class targeting upper middle-class young men. Promundo is currently seeking funds for this proposal (2016-2017).
Below are some samples of writing pieces we have published.