Men Talk Consent: Day 2

On the 26th of November, we finally hosted an event exclusively to have conversations with men! We spoke about ideas of consent, relationships and navigating sensitive terrains with regard to love and sex. We were thrilled to have 3 speakers: Vetrivel Karthikeyan, who spoke on "The ‘Yes/No’ mystery: So does s/he mean yes or does s/he mean no?", Ganeshkumar M, who spoke on "Guy Talk: What it means to me to be a man" and Sandhiyan Thilagavathy, who spoke on "Man in the making: The challenges and travails of adolescent masculinity"; moderated by Peer Mohamad. 

The discussion started off with a basic introduction to consent, and why men specifically have to engage with these ideas. It then moved into a series of interesting anecdotes and personal narratives. 
We heard a story about toys being gendered into blue for boys and pink for girls, such so much that one wanting another was seen as a complete shock. We covered issues of how a 'no' is taken as a 'yes', especially in professional environments, and how this is taught to us from a young age, in instances where children are forced to show physical affection to strangers just because their parents tell them to. We then moved into interacting with the audience where multiple questions were asked, like if men are complicit towards sexist actions when their friends do them, or do they call them out. The discussion also covered the role of the media, and how constant focusing on media attention moves us away from the issues that are important. The portrayal of women and consent by media outlets and how that outlook has changed was also a key discussion point. 
We ended with the men in the group promising to take these issues forward, and no longer remain silent when their circles made problematic comments. The session was enlightening, and we were thrilled to have a larger number of men turn up (thanks to Kritika Jain!) and participate. 

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Malavika