“Who would you be if you were allowed to walk into your full self?” – Kenyon Farrow
In this powerful panel discussion (which is also a quick watch at less than 15-minutes), five Black gender activist-scholars grapple with the role of patriarchy in their/our masculine identities, families, relationships, and communities. While the discussion poses more questions than answers, these are the questions that must be engaged to move masculinity beyond the confines of cis-gendered-heterosexuality that result in limited capacities for masculine-identifying people with toxic and violent repercussions.
Two of my favorite moments:
- Panelist, Kenyon Farrow (he/him) struggles with the memory of how patriarchy resulted in him, as a child, lashing out at his mother for accepting domestic abuse rather than questioning or challenging his father’s use of abuse and violence.
- Nalo Zidan (all pronouns) questions how masculinity might grow and evolve by our recognizing that masculinity is not the sole property or identity of men (and particularly cisgendered heterosexual white men).
Original video via Black Feminist Future on Youtube.
– Brett S. Goldberg
