Posts in Learnings & Unlearnings

I Saw My Father

I have spent the last four years of my life working on the protection of boys from sexual violence. I literally travelled across the world to learn from front line practitioners how to protect boys and transform their understanding of what it means to be a boy and a man. From Bolivia to Cambodia, then from Namibia to France, I had the privilege to see how these amazing individuals engage with boys and support them in ways that not only protect them, but also liberate them from rigid ideas of masculinity.

In my travels, I could also see how that same rigid idea is engrained in boys’ minds from a very young age. I have seen how social workers, teachers, community educators, and others, had to come up with new ways and constantly be creative to reach out to boys and show them that an alternative existed. That boys could be vulnerable, that boys could ask for help, and that boys could care

Learnings & UnlearningsGuest UserJune 15, 2026Masculinity

What Boys Could Be (Not Just What They Shouldn't)

Last week I was listening to The New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast and heard something that got me thinking.

Amanda Askell works at Anthropic, the company that makes Claude. She's a philosopher, and part of her job is shaping Claude's personality. She was talking about a problem they're running into. Claude is learning about itself from the internet. And a lot of what it's reading is negative.

Learnings & UnlearningsJake StikaFebruary 11, 2026Masculinity

Living Within a Lie: Performing Masculinity Is Exhausting

During 2026’s World Economic Forum, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney stood in Davos, Switzerland, and did something that caught my attention. He quoted a Czech dissident from the 1970s to talk about the future of global power.

Learnings & UnlearningsJake StikaJanuary 26, 2026Masculinity

The Best Recent 2SLGBTQ+ Movies About Boys

In honour of a seventh grader I know whose friends just accompanied him to his first-ever Pride parade, here are are the four best films from the last few years telling the still-emerging story of young queer masculinity.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedJuly 1, 2025Youth, Masculinity, 2SLGBTQ

What Netflix’ Adolescence Can Teach Us About How We See Boys

While Adolescence is telling a devastating story, it is also telling a limited one. We see adults acting professionally and adults falling apart, but this show doesn’t show us what curious and compassionate adults look like in the face of boys’ pain and harm. We see angry boys and hurt boys, boys carrying fear and boys bluffing with bravado, but we don’t see the thoughtful, clear-eyed and gentle masculinity that is already being championed by boys who will become the next generation of men.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedApril 9, 2025Masculinity, Violence Prevention, Youth

How Rites of Passage Nurture Positive Masculinity Within Boys

When they come through the other side, they inevitably become something more than they were before. They have a new sense of capability. New stories. New relationships and responsibilities, and a new sense of themselves as boys becoming men.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedJanuary 31, 2025Youth, Rite of Passage Expeditions, Masculinity

Research Report: What We’ve Learned About the Online Lives of Boys Who Are Embracing Positive Masculinity

As part of our ongoing mission to support boys’ well-being, my colleagues and I decided to take on a research project designed to better understand their feelings, stresses and needs. What we uncovered was a surprising distance between their beliefs and attitudes about toxic and positive masculinity, and their lived experiences—particularly online.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedOctober 22, 2024Masculinity, Youth, Status of Boys Report

6 Things Educators Should Know About Positive Masculinity

It’s not for no reason that we dedicate ourselves to the next generation of men—and we don’t take the educators in their lives for granted. You are their champions, their stewards and their witness.

For every time I’m invited to be part of a professional development opportunity, for every time that Next Gen Men’s resources are downloaded and used in schools, and for each and every thing that you, who are reading this, do to engage boys in the movement for gender justice, thank you.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedMarch 14, 2024Youth, Masculinity, Education

How Driver’s Ed Can Inspire the Way We Teach Consent to Middle School Boys

We do young people a disservice by operating under the assumption that a list of warning signs or an affirmative acronym will be enough to help them effectively communicate within healthy relationships. Instead, we need to engage boys in open and honest conversation about what is difficult, challenging or confusing for them with regard to consent—beyond just stop signs.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedFebruary 21, 2024Sex Education, Sexual Violence, Masculinity, Youth, Education

Misogyny, White Supremacy and the Blueprints for Mass Shootings

Mass shootings take place within a web of conspiracy-rich sexist and racist ideologies that are propelled by the anonymous radicalization and copycat reverence found within internet subcultures. The thing is, this is only happening with boys and men.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedJanuary 10, 2024Violence Prevention, Race, Masculinity

What We Know About Boys and School Shootings

What came to the fore in Columbine in 1999 has become a pattern of violence that stems from the disconnection, aggrieved entitlement and rage rebellion of vulnerable boys and young men. To change that, we need to look with our eyes wide open at the ways young people navigate the violent tenets of masculinity, and we need to empower boys themselves to become leaders of the change we so desperately need.

Learnings & UnlearningsJonathon ReedNovember 3, 2023Violence Prevention, Youth, Masculinity

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