Dear Hamilton community,
The Men of Hamilton Against Sexual Assault (MOHASA), are committed to fighting toxic masculinity in order to make our communal home a safer place. Since its inception, our organization has come under significant public scrutiny. We have taken, and will continue to take, the concerns expressed by the student body seriously. In the course of this open letter, MOHASA will acknowledge and address some of these concerns. We hope to begin a public conversation so that we can continue to improve our organization in ways that will help us meet our goals.
Though we have already started working towards some of our goals, we have not yet publicly outlined our mission or taken the opportunity to address outstanding concerns in a public space. The critiques we have heard appear to be based in skepticism about our intentions, our underlying values, and the process that led to the creation of MOHASA. As such, we will begin by responding to each of these concerns with transparency. This article will explain where we come from, what we stand for, and how we intend to serve the Hamilton community that we love and appreciate.
MOHASA’s core values are as follows:
We recognize that we live in a society where toxic masculinity runs rampant and hurts everyone, especially women and persons of marginalized identities.
We recognize that men have not done enough in addressing the issues of sexual assault and holding themselves/ ourselves accountable. Our community deserves more support.
We recognize that the best way to support our community is through active listening. We are committed to educating ourselves with the truths and experiences of women and persons of marginalized identities.
We believe that it is our responsibility to play an active role in finding the solution.
Our mission is to promote respect, gender equity, healthy relationships, and socially positive ideals of masculinity. In doing so, we hope to combat sexual violence and foster a campus environment of both physical and emotional safety. We intend to accomplish these goals through awareness campaigns, engaging events, educational opportunities, and activism.
The need for an organization like MOHASA was first identified last year when several of us, after attending organized conversations about the culture surrounding sexual assault at Hamilton, noticed that they were under-attended, especially by men. As sexual assault continues to be one of the most prevalent issues on college campuses, we were left feeling frustrated with nagging feeling that something more could be done. We then sought guidance from Cori Smith, the Title IX Education and Compliance Coordinator, and leaders of SAVES and SMART to see how we could enact change. Their feedback and insights have been integral in creating the foundation of our organization. Additionally, we model our activities around those of globally established organizations like OneLove, A Call to Men, and White Ribbon. MOHASA wasn’t created overnight, we have been very intentional and thoughtful in every decision made.
Overarching goals and mission of MOHASA aside, there are still several specific critiques that we would like to explicitly address. While the reactions MOHASA has elicited from some students were unexpected, we are committed to listening to and learning from the criticism. As members of MOHASA, our first priority is to be empathetic, open-minded, and accepting of feedback to ensure that our organization is serving the needs of the community.
There are two main critiques we are aware of:
1.) “Why is it the ‘Men of Hamilton,’ isn’t this exclusive by nature and not appropriate for non-gender conforming individuals?”
2.) “Isn’t it just ‘men talking to men,’ if so, this seems to lead to an environment uninformed by women and persons of marginalized identities that only reinforces toxic masculinity.”
The first of these concerns appears to be rooted in the worry that conversations between men, in absence of the voices of women and persons of marginalized identities, will only do more to reinforce toxic masculinity. While we appreciate this concern, MOHASA chose this organizational model because we feel it is currently the best way to engage with the male population on campus, which has been largely absent from important and productive conversations about sexual assault and toxic masculinity. We believe that men lack the language and education to effectively participate in the conversation and we hope to change that. We also believe that this lack of male participation is a result of the implicit culture on campus and not the fault of any organization or group. Moreover, we want to stress that we are basing our educational programs on pre-existing ones and are exploring strategies already used by the established organizations mentioned above. Though the spaces we create for this discussion will be heavily masculine, we see them as a useful precursor to community wide conversations. We do not want these conversations to stay in a room of just men. We aim to serve as a bridge between the male population and organizations like SMART and SAVES.
We chose our logo to symbolize this engagement with the male population. The male lion with a teal sash illustrates that masculinity and respect for women are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are complementary. This relationship also provides the basis for our slogan: “Take pride in respect.” Lions are the archetypal masculine animal, symbolizing the strength and power that men are socialized to identify with. We hope to educate men about the pitfalls of toxic masculinity and the gender norms reinforced by the media and popular culture. In sum, we feel that our logo does a good job representing respect and compassion as masculine ideals.
Ultimately, we hope to bridge the gap between men and the conversation about sexual assault on campus. The bridge we hope to create is not a one-way bridge. MOHASA will always ensure that we are learning from women, persons of marginalized identities, and groups who have been leading this movement for decades. Our members are committed to welcoming criticism and meeting it with change and improvement. We do not pretend to be the sole group on this campus working towards these goals, nor do we pretend that we will be able to end gender-based violence. While MOHASA’s goals overlap with those of SMART and SAVES, we believe we are unique in our ability to engage with men. We see MOHASA as complementary to groups that already exist and we are eager to learn from those who have been involved in these issues longer than we have.
At this point we’d like to turn our attention to the second critique delineated above, the perception that MOHASA is “just men talking to men.” MOHASA is a nuanced organization in that we aim to create spaces for transformation of traditional masculinity. While these spaces will be inherently male dominated, they are a means to an end. The workshops we will hold and the curriculum we will teach will be developed collaboratively and will largely draw on knowledge generated outside our organization.
The reality is that not all men are prepared for this conversation, and not all men understand the important nuances in communication that are so critical to healthy relationships. Toxic masculinity is real and scary. However, MOHASA believes that if we approach this issue with empathy, open-mindedness, compassion, love, and respect we can help improve the culture on campus. Together, working with anyone and everyone willing to help us or criticize us, we want to serve our community.
We hope that this article has both provided clarity about our organization’s goals and addressed some of the critiques we have received. We hope to keep the dialogue going and to do more active listening. We will be holding a “listening hour” (date TBD, watch out for an email once we get back from break), during which we will give those interested an opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about our organization and provide any input that might be helpful or appropriate. We will also make ourselves personally available to anyone who would like to chat over lunch, coffee, tea, or whatever else works.
We hope that this has resolved some of the concerns expressed so far, or at least painted a more accurate picture of who we are and what we hope to accomplish. We acknowledge the complex and sensitive nature of this work, and are open to hearing any disagreements so that we can be better informed as we proceed. So, to those who still have concerns, please know that we want to hear from you; your voice is important to us and will be heard.
Yours,
Richard Court (rcourt), Kena Gilmour (kgilmour), Sterling Bray (stbray), Dana Marrocco (dmarrocc), Jonathan Stimola (jstimola), Ryan Phelps (rphelps), Karthik Ravishankar (kravisha), Jack Fischman (jfischma), Blayne Oliver (boliver), Rob Hallock (rhallock), Sam Jones (sjones2), Richie Nelli (rnelli), Tyler Spector (tspector), Mark Lutz (mlutz), Peter Hoffman (phoffman), Jack Gumina (hgumina)
