Boysen Hodgson is the communications director for The Mankind Project. It provides weekend initiations and support groups for thousands of men in 25 countries. This is what I asked him:
1. As a boy, what and how did you learn about becoming a man? Young men tell me it’s mostly don’t be a …… Men’s movement leaders emphasize the harm of father absence.
2. Your education and career path. Why are more women in college than men except in Sub-Saharan Africa?
3. How you got involved in the Mankind Project. Its influence on your marriage and parenting? Why do women initiate 70% of divorces in the US? Men tell me they feel women have an advantage in emotional communication.
4. History: Based on the mythopoetic or New Age men’s movement of the early ’80, unconsciously the 3 founders (Bill Kauth, Ron Hering, and Rich Tosi) created an initiation ceremony in 1985 Wisconsin. They drew on Native American traditions and Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey: descent, ordeal (explain), and return. How is this different for men than women? Bill Kauth said he wanted an alternative to the “soft masculine,” a “sense of ferocity, hard masculine.” Explain. How does dancing fit?
Seems to emphasize doing service and accountability, and provide support groups.
5. The 4 components of the Mankind Project:
New Warrior Training Adventure weekend initiation (one-to-one staff) over 60,000 men—update from 23 countries.
Gateway New Warrior Training Adventure—which most participants? What’s RAW?
Integration i-groups with a series of rounds (1000 groups, peer-facilitated)
Training to staff the above.
Who is the average participant? Evaluations?
6. Despite the hazards of being male, why isn’t there a larger and more politically active men’s movement? “Movements fail because of the lack of mature bonding, the kind of connection that allows groups to overcome personal and psychological blocks and resolve interpersonal conflicts in a way that is energizing rather than draining to their efforts.”
