Here is finally the second part of the stories from our project ‘I Act – Exploring Masculinities‘ which gathered from the 24th to the 31st of March around 30 participants in Milan, Italy, with the support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
Together we discovered different expressions of masculinity and the power it holds in our societies and cultures. This time Indra shares her experiences during the weeks.
You can find the first set of stories here.
Beyond clichés
Beyond clichés, I can say that the seminar succeeded expectations, in the knowledge gained as well as the not only lively, but truly open exchanges that took place during this one week learning journey. At the beginning of any endeavour, the path to be taken and experiences to be made are a leap into the ‘unknown’ - in retrospect the venture was well worth the rewarding outcomes.
The themes covered were comprehensive and wide reaching – which I had hope to be the case. The week Kicked off with topics on socialisation of gender conceptions and impacts of traditional forms of masculinity at both individual and societal level. Over the days, our dialogue reached across issues of gender roles, identity, sex, pop culture, violence, consent, the bystander model, inter-sectionality and intercultural contexts – all this in a view to underlying power dynamics, that are the creational fuel and limitational force to ‘all things gender’. This and much more lead us to reach deeper learning outcomes.
The open invitation
The open invitation extended to participants to partake in the seminar, in my view, carries a key value in itself - it stood for a recognition of each individual’s potentials and was a clear call to strengthen the belief in each’s ability to contribute. In this case a call to take action in breaking one’s own gender boundaries and those defined by ‘others’.
This open outreach of IFM-SEI and the COE can be seen as an invaluable back hold to encourage young people to continue on a path of creating societally relevant initiatives and value in itself – counter to what popular opinions may claim to yield as a “successful” path of action in a young person’s life.On a personal note, the stimulated socialist perspective to education and our humanitarian system at large – was a reviving reconfirmation in the relevance of some of my own world views, and grew confidence in ‘being the change in the world we wish to see’.
New forms of solidarity
Sharing and building our views on ‘new forms of solidarity’ was also at stake. The seminar not only achieved this, but was able to demonstrate ‘lived solidarity’, that manifested itself in the everyday, mundane actions, interactions and gestures participants extended to each other.
Freedom of expression and respect
The Facilitators did a highly professional job, in sharing their knowledge, guiding group dynamics, capitalizing on critical discussions, applying engaging informal learning techniques, story telling, biographical reflections, and open space methods. Freedom of expression and respect were guiding principles, creating a safe and trusting space – which undoubtedly was the secret ingredient in building harmonious group connections that inspired to collaborate beyond the seminar.
Through the knowledge, lasting bonds and open minds created and shared in the seminar, IFM-SEI continues to support participants to carry forward COE’s strive to end gender struggles and all/any forms of violence.
The ‘unknown’ is uncovered
Although the ‘unknown’ of this one week journey is uncovered, in the perspective of the life long learning journey, the wonderful thing is to now be left with the certainty that more inspiring experiences will follow and the upcoming collective projects on tackling gender issues are just around the corner.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone that took part and will continue to.
By Indra, Germany & Belgium
Next week, our stories will take ous all the way to Medan, Indonesia. Get excited!
Have you been part of this or another IFM-SEI activity? Do you want to tell us about your experience? Send us an email to comms@ifm-sei.org!
Comments are closed