The Womens Center at Vanderbilt University will sponsor a week-long series of events dedicated to telling men how to be masculine. "Healthy Masculinity Week" will feature a series of lectures and forums dedicated to showing men the error of their ways and, judging from some fo the topics, replacing traditional masculine values with male characteristics more amenable to feminists and other men-haters.

MRC:

The mission of the Women’s Center is to affirm a “space for all members of the Vanderbilt community that acknowledges and actively resists sexism, racism, homophobia, and all forms of oppression while advocating for positive social change.”

The “core values” of the Women’s Center includes the idea that, “progress toward gender equality calls all of us to be champions for change” while simultaneously claiming to “celebrate the unique differences among all persons and work to build community in diversity.”

“Healthy Masculinities Week” hopes to encourage men to “[e]xplore healthy masculinity through various lenses,” such as “American society, the gay and bisexual community, fraternities, and more.”

Because nothing says "healthy masculinity" quite like emulating gays and bi's.

A male author, Jackson Katz, will put on a seminar titled “The Macho Paradox: Why some men hurt and how all men can help.” 

According to a review for Katz’s book, “Katz explores those aspects of American culture that promote violence against women, focusing separate chapters on pornography, prostitution, and other sex-related businesses as well as sexual violence in the military, the music industry, and athletics.” It also “offers advice on how men can ally with women to curb violence and change those aspects of the ‘boys will be boys’ attitude on male aggressiveness and masculinity that can lead to violence and abuse.”

In 2012, Katz gave a TED talk with the title, “Violence against women—it’s a men’s issue.” In his talk, Katz asserts we need to “change the socialization of boys and the definitions of manhood that lead to these current outcomes [violence against women].”

Katz appears to believe that all men are beasts so that socialization and the "definition of manhood" leads directly to rape and abuse of women. This is nonsense. The traditional socialization of boys teaches them not to hurt women and be solicitious of their feelings. Abuse of women is generational; there's a very good chance if your father hit your mother, then you will beat up your own spouse or girlfriend. This cycle of abuse is well known in mental health circles and has nothing whatsoever to do with traditional "socialization" or men or the "definition of manhood."

In short, if your father taught you through example and otherwise to be a gentleman, you likely end up treating women fairly and with respect.

But that doesn't stop the Women's center. They're on an anti-male roll: 

Other events as part of “Healthy Masculinities Week” include “Maintaining ‘Bro’ Status: Fraternity men discuss masculinity and mental health,” “Masc 4 Masc: Policing masculinity in the gay and bi communities,” “Masculinity XXL? The portrayal of manhood in Magic Mike,” and a screening and discussion of the film, “The Mask You Live In.”

The advertisement for “Healthy Masculinities Week,” which was emailed to members of the student body, includes a portrayal man with a thought bubble, thinking, “Don’t cry,” “Have sex,” “Major in business,” “Play sports,” and “Man up.” Allegedly, these are examples of unhealthy masculinity.

Vanderbilt’s “Healthy Masculinities Week” is scheduled to run from Sept. 10-17.

Let's acknowledge that there are a significant number of males who are cads - in the traditional sense of the word ("an ill-bred man, especially one who behaves in a dishonorable or irresponsible way toward women."). They think "no" means "yes." They treat women like slaves - beating them, humiliating them,cheating on them, treating them like dirt. This is the opposite of the traditional  masculine ideal that has been evolving since I was a young man, to respect women, to treat them as equal partners in a relationship, and, for lack of a better term, to protect them. We don't always live up to the ideal. But neither can we be lumped together with the cads and be instructed by a bunch of men-haters on what constitutes "healthy" masculinity.

Actually, the idea for a "Healthy Masculinity Week" wouldn't be bad if it were structured as a dialog rather than a series of hectoring lectures. The idea that men and women should discuss what sort of expectations are present in their interpersonal relationships might be valuable for young people. But all the feminists are doing at Vanderbilt is confusing the issues. Rape and abuse of women by men is a serious subject, but the feminists at Vanderbilt have constructed a laughable means to address it.