The FAM workshops have the ultimate objective of shifting the way males engage females but a major part of that is providing context and space for females to re-consider their own relationships with their bodies so that they too, can engage their agency in directing males.
Young people are simultaneously bombarded with incessant sexual imagery but are encouraged to inhibit their sexual selves and the peripheral activity that accompanies that nascent curiosity. I’m wholly disinterested in when young people decide to engage their curiosity and more invested in providing a space of practice that is grounded in relationships of reciprocity, equality and safety.
It’s the details. As adults, we bemoan catcalls and public obscenity but we rarely speak to young people about their experiences participating in or being subjected to this street harassment. In fact, we fail to regularly identify it as harassment. Taking it a step backwards, we fail to teach our young girls how it is appropriate to be engaged by a stranger. It’s insufficient to declare that they shouldn’t speak to strangers. They will. How can they discern a wholly inappropriate engagement?
Walking home from school, someone is going to exclaim, ‘hey beautiful’. Someone is going to ask for their number so they can get to know each other and ‘be friends’.
One of the things my workshop explores is why these are inappropriate engagements. At that age, it’s difficult for them to articulate although many young people intuitively sense that to be the case. The boys wonder, well, if I think she looks good–what’s wrong with telling her? Why can’t I engage her? There is an answer for that. These workshops help the students explore the questions critically.
Current Projects
Research: Tech Startups. Current funding is to explore the anatomy of tech startups, the infrastructure that supports a vibrant tech entrepreneurship ecosystem and to dissect the cultural make-up of tech startups from an ethnographic perspective. The funding for this research will transition from private funding to public funding during the Summer of 2011 in effort to publicly disseminate my writing and engage the tech community in a discourse surrounding this research. Send a note if you have recommendations for people to interview and events to attend.
Secondary Research: Currently studying domestic terrorism and the surrounding psychological orientation of domestic terrorism as a site of subcultural identity and liminality.
Open Tech Foundry: This nonprofit creates programming that makes tech entrepreneurship broadly accessible to under-resourced and underrepresented communities. We provide training in computer programming as well as practice-oriented education in how to launch a tech startup. Join the Meetup group at www.meetup.com/open-tech.
The Willing Project: A member-based collective for folks willing to radically shift their relationship with the destructiveness of this culture + industrial civilization. We endeavor to design projects that demonstrate best practices for participating within a culture intent to destroy the land base that sustains us. Through carefully crafted events + experiences, we ideate around how to best live in this culture and how to most effectively bring civilization to its necessary end. Website coming soon.
Saving Our Savages: This support group provides an opportunity for like-minded folks to get together to discuss and strategize around the difficulty of living in such an exploitative culture.
Hunt When Hungry: This blog focuses on issues relating to cultural hegemony and the problem of industrial civilization. http://huntwhenhungry.com
Savage Sekai: Personal blog featuring miscellaneous musings, criticisms and celebrations. http://savagesekai.com
Feminist Academy for Men: Workshop and lecture series for teenagers and young adults with the goal of radicalizing the relationships and methods of engagement that boys and men emplwith girls and women. Currently conducting workshops in middle and high schools throughout NYC for males and females. These workshops are available to schools and nonprofits free of charge.
