New Mexico Healthy Masculinities Toolkit Now Available

“Men and boys do not simply uphold and reproduce patriarchy, they are deeply harmed and constrained by it themselves. We are in a crisis of masculinity and gender, with profound impacts upon our families and communities. Healthy masculinity and reimagining our gender frameworks are essential to healing our communities.”

– The New Mexico Healthy Masculinities Collaborative

One in three women will experience some form of intimate partner violence. Men also experience violence at the hands of other men. Nearly half of transgender people will experience sexual assault in their lifetime, mostly perpetrated by men, with the numbers even higher for transgender people of color. And we continue to see incredibly high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people, largely perpetrated by men. Research from the American Psychological Association has found a deep connection between violence and negative male socialization.

Because of limited and prescriptive social norms around gender, men are conditioned to repress their emotions. This has led to devastating outcomes, including high rates of suicide. Men are nearly four times more likely to die by suicide than women in New Mexico, which had the highest national suicide rate in 2018.

The NM Healthy Masculinities Collaborative, of which Tewa Women United is a member, has created a Toolkit with a collection of readings, workshops, and exercises aimed at helping audiences reimagine masculinities, raise awareness about the concept of healthy masculinities, and provide resources that promote self-awareness, healthy relationships, and thriving communities. The kit serves as a guide for facilitators to host conversations about and engage in activities around healthy masculinities.

The Collaborative knows that it can take generations to truly heal from the harms of patriarchy. The purpose of the toolkit is not to heal individual or collective trauma; however, it may lead to transformations and understandings that contribute to such healing. The conversations prompted by the toolkit offer an opportunity to become more aware of conditioned behaviors in order to disrupt the harmful impacts of patriarchy.

The Collaborative is partnering with Together for Brothers, an Albuquerque-based community organization led by boys and young men of color, to host a virtual event about the toolkit on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 5:30pm – 7:00pm.

“This work is about reimagining masculinity in our communities. The toolkit is a step towards healing intergenerational traumas caused by violence, loneliness, shame and other gender wounds that stem from patriarchy and toxic masculinity.”
– NM Healthy Masculinities Collaborative

The New Mexico Healthy Masculinities Collaborative is a multi-gendered and inter-generational group of organizations and individuals from diverse racial and geographic communities across New Mexico. It was formed in 2018 to identify programs across the state that engaged men and boys, along with trans and gender nonconforming communities, and to review existing resources and curricula focused on masculinities. Collaborative partners include: NewMexicoWomen.Org, New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, Tewa Women United, Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, Together for Brothers.