Gary Barker (Equimundo) - Promoting Nurturing, Non-Violent Masculinity in Times of Political Upheaval

Gary Barker has been a trailblazer in the field of men and masculinities for over thirty years. He is the co-founder and CEO of Equimundo (formerly known as Promundo-US and Instituto Promundo), which does a wide range of innovative work and research with men and boys for gender justice across the globe. We explore his own personal story of how he came to be involved in efforts against violence and for gender equality, and how his own ‘journey’ overlaps with the development of the organisations he has led. As well as hearing from Gary about some of the exciting current elements of this work, we discuss the political turbulence in the United States (where he is based) and Brazil (where he has lived for over fifteen years) in the midst of elections in the two countries. Gary also shares with us his experience of writing fiction, and the conversation ends with him reading a passage from his novel ‘The Museum of Lost Love’.

• Find out more about Equimundo and follow them on social media via https://equimundo.org
• On 8th November 2022 the Global Boyhood Initiative launched a report called ‘The State of UK Boys’ - read it here: https://boyhoodinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/State-of-UK-Boys-Long-Report.pdf (pdf)
• Watch the launch event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efxq6M9ESAM
• Find out more about Gary’s fiction writing: https://garytbarker.com

We discuss the following topics in the episode:

• How Gary became involved in working on issues of masculinity, violence and gender equality in the first place
• Gary’s PhD in Developmental Psychology, which researched young men’s experiences of growing up in societies with high levels of violence, and led to the book ‘Dying to be Men’ (more info:https://www.routledge.com/Dying-to-be-Men-Youth-Masculinity-and-Social-Exclusion/Barker/p/book/9780415337755#)
• The history of Equimundo, and how Gary’s personal story maps onto that
• The International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) survey and generational shifts that can be observed from it
• The Global Boyhood Initiative – a collaboration with the Kering Foundation, Gillette, Plan International, and Meghan Markle (the Duchess of Sussex) and her new podcast Archetypes
• Caring masculinities, the MenCare global fatherhood campaign, and why caregiving is such an important part of engaging with men and boys 
• The political turmoil in the United States surrounding the midterm elections - from the attack on Capitol Hill, to the rolling back of abortion rights, to the ever-increasing toll of gun violence
• Connections with the masculinist right-wing populism of the Bolsonaro government in Brazil
• The four fiction books Gary has written and how they connect to his other work
• Gary reads out and reflects on a passage from his novel ‘The Museum of Lost Love’ (2019), which is influenced by a real museum, the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb (more info: https://www.worldeditions.org/product/the-museum-of-lost-love/) 

More information:

• The Global Boyhood Initiative: https://boyhoodinitiative.org
• Lifting Limits are the organisation delivering the Global Boyhood Initiative in the UK: https://liftinglimits.org.uk/2022/05/gbiuk_launch/
• The MenCare global fatherhood campaign: https://men-care.org
• The International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES): https://www.menandgendersurvey.org
• Research with the Geena Davis Institute on representations of masculinity in boys’ television: https://www.equimundo.org/resources/if-he-can-see-it-will-he-be-it-representations-of-masculinity-in-boys-television/
• Article by Gary, Stephen and Sandy for the journal Men and Masculinities on ‘Covid-19 and Masculinities in Global Perspective’: https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X21100038
• The Equimundo report by Sandy and Stephen which influenced it: https://www.equimundo.org/resources/masculinities-and-covid-19-making-the-connections/
• A couple of times, Gary refers to ‘Raewyn’ – this is Prof Raewyn Connell, who we interviewed in episode 12: https://now-and-men.captivate.fm/episode/raewyn-connell