A beautiful short film on the father-son relationship
posted by Eivind on March 26, 2011, at 10:00 am
Dag Furuholmen just made me aware of this movie. It is just five minutes and very beautiful.
Masculinity-Movies blog
New blog on masculinity: Men in the Media
posted by Eivind on March 25, 2011, at 1:43 pm
Some years back, I attended a very powerful workshop series called Levende Maskulinitet (Living Masculinity). The workshop facilitators Dag Furuholmen and Eirik Balavoine took us on a journey deep into our masculine core from which I re-emerged a more integrated and open-hearted boy (yes, I was a boy back then).
They have now started a blog in preparation for a book which they have been commissioned to write.
Dag and Eirik’s work has been very important in my life and I suspect that I will contribute a great deal on their blog.
Check out: Men in the Media
Discover the Warrior with the Maori Haka
posted by Eivind on March 16, 2011, at 8:42 am
I’m not going to say so much about this, other than to explain that the surges of energy you are likely to feel from watching this stuff is Warrior archetypal energy as well as your Wild Man roots. I’m definitely going to introduce this in a future Masculinity Movies LIVE event. This stuff will heal your masculine Warrior Soul at a deep level. If you are skeptical, the healing will be all the greater.
Thanks to Irishman Larry who challenged me to one of these in a bar on Monday. It was thoroughly stimulating and completely hilarious.
Ka Mate, Ka Mate – Ka Ora, Ka Ora. Ka Mate, Ka Mate – Ka Ora, Ka Ora. Tenei te tangata – Pu’ru Huru. Na’a nei tiki mai – Whaka-Whiti te Ra. Hupane – Ka-upane. A Hupane – Ka-upane. Whiti Te Ra. HI!!.
We’re going to die, we’re going to die – We’re going to live, we’re going to live. We’re going to die, we’re going to die – We’re going to live, we’re going to live. This is the man – So hairy. Who fetched – and made shine the sun. Step upwards – Another. Step upwards – Another. The sun shines. HEE!!
MM LIVE #5: I love you, man
posted by Eivind on March 13, 2011, at 6:50 pm
The evening's selected movie
Masculinity Movies LIVE #5 has come and gone. It was a great evening with several new faces. Unfortunately, the event crashed with two other events which drew participants who would normally attend MM LIVE. Still, we were a nice, dynamic group of seven and had a thoroughly good time.
“I love you, man” is a movie which has not yet been reviewed on the site. It’s a comedy about Peter Klaven, a man who is to marry his beloved, but who has no close male friends to stand as his best man. He has spent most his life focusing on his relationships and all male friendships have been neglected. Peter is a thoroughly nice, soft and gentle guy – a man very much out of touch with the Red inside himself (the primal masculine force).
Then Sydney enters his life and all of a sudden he has a friend – and a friend who is much more in tune with his animal masculinity than Peter himself. The movie is about their friendship, their differences and qualities that they inspire in each other and is an enjoyable ride full of poignant insights into the modern male.
After the movie, we explored some questions in dyads (groups of two men). They were “Do you spend more time with men or women? Why?”. We also explored “What do you most long for in friendships with men – being challenged or accepted as you are?” as well as “does homophobia ever limit the depth of your male friendships?”.
All but one man longed first and foremost for being accepted for who they were. But this is not a binary equation of course so we completed the evening with an exercise in which we combined these two qualities – challenge and acceptance. The man stood facing each other and were told to fully accept the other and to challenge him when his consciousness was slipping, by being physical with him if necessary.
This exercise completely opened the room and the men started connecting at a deeper level. Men being physical with each other always leads to more juice and consciousness. This exercise is also a nice exploration of the dynamic relationship between the Lover and the Warrior archetype, which is also central in the movie. I spoke about the importance of having a strong internal Warrior to guard the vulnerable Lover within (and could have added that we need a Lover to keep the Warrior from sadism). I suggested that unless we are able to fully accept someone, we are not able to fully challenge him – and vice versa.
I have explored these archetypes and their inter-being on the dance floor doing five rhythms lately and have learned a lot from that. For me, that was a big takeaway – introducing the same energy into the group and feeling the valves open.
All in all, it was a great night, one which made me realize that I want to tie these evenings more closely to the KWML archetype model.
Amazing lecture by Jacqueline Novogratz
posted by Eivind on March 12, 2011, at 12:38 pm
I was very inspired by this incredible TED talk by Jacqueline Novogratz. Not only is she a wonderful, heart-open and humble woman deeply in tune with humanity’s challenges, but she has the visionary insight that male depression is related to female suffering. It’s so common today to think that men make women suffer because we are evil and uncontrollably violent, little else but walking testosterone bombs who need to be feminized to heal us from our inherent evils. (I have ended this post with some feminist quotes to make you understand what I’m talking about.)
Jacqueline understands that young men who have not been loved, blessed or nourished by elder man will turn into bitter, disempowered, depressed men who will lash out from a place of pain and who are easy prey for tyrant demagogues. She also seems to understand how masculinity is a wonderful thing that the world needs more of, empowering men to serve as stewards of our future.
One story she told impacted me a great deal. Ingrid Washinawatak (sp?), a native American woman, told Jacqueline how elders of her Native American tribe would visualize children from seven generations into the future watching them from above, seeing them as stewards for the time that was once going to be theirs (around 2:30). This concept is so powerful it strikes me right in the heart. All we think of in the midst of consumerist hysteria is “I need more”. Selfish, ignorant and altogether miserable are so many modern lives.
Have a look. It’s worth your time. Trust me.
“All sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman.” – Catherine MacKinnon
“The media treat male assaults on women like rape, beating, and murder of wives and female lovers, or male incest with children, as individual aberrations…obscuring the fact that all male violence toward women is part of a concerted campaign.” – Marilyn French
