The furor over sexual harassment and assault led by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements is also sparking conversations about the modern definitions of masculinity. It’s a subject that will be addressed at a panel called “What is the New Masculinity?” on May 1 at the Toronto Reference Library’s Appel Salon. The conversation is part of On Civil Society, a series of events and debates run by the Toronto Public Library across many of its 100 neighbourhood branches.

Journalist Rachel Giese, author of Boys: What It Means to Become a Man, will be joined by Todd Minerson, former executive director of White Ribbon, an organization working with boys and men to end violence against women. They’ll discuss the issue then answer audience questions.

Giese characterizes the current examination around definitions of masculinity as something that has been brewing for years, heightened when male-dominated employment and labour sectors took a hit following the economic crisis of 2008.

Social change movements, including those furthering feminism and LGBTQ rights, have “really changed how we understand gender roles,” Giese says. “It’s also called into question what it means to be a man and the roles of masculinity that have led to a sense that men should dominate women,” says Giese.

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein brought further attention to women’s movements that were already underway, she says, as more women felt empowered to speak out. Its result is what Giese and others call “the #MeToo reckoning.” She adds Gamergate and the sexism in video game culture as another example of this changing dynamic.

For Minerson, who spent 12 years working to end gender-based violence with White Ribbon, the key is challenging harmful ideas of masculinity. “Absolutely, masculinity has been changing,” he says. The new masculinity, he argues, is rooted in equality and humanity — “in the humane sense of the word” — along with more men turning their backs on “this posturing we have been taught to do as men.” Tropes like boys don’t cry or that asking for help telegraphs weakness are some of the harmful clichés about masculinity that need to be decoded and outgrown. Minerson sees contemporary fathers as evidence of a decade-long shift in our perception of masculinity. More men now take extended parental leave and play “vastly different roles” in their children’s lives as they grow up than fathers did a generation ago.



Giese, the mother of a son, sees the current moment as an opportunity for men and boys to think about “their role in creating change and making the world fairer.



“They don’t have to be limited by gender stereotypes.”