Men- Versity is a safe space for men to meet, interact and share about many things that are close to their heart like intimacy, fear, challenges, sex, stress, masculinity among other unspoken matters without judgement. The idea is to create a dialogic space for men where they can express freely and be vulnerable for who they are!.
At Deer Park meeting of the Indian Multiversity Alliance in May 2019, few of us men realised the need to come together to share about men-matters, and create a deeper understanding amongst ourselves about what it means to be men! It has been hard to find a space where men from different age groups could come together and talk about whatever they are facing in their current scheme of things. After the initial meeting, the Mens-versity came into existence with many participants at the IMA showing interest.
It is open to men members of the IMA who are willing to give time and share their concerns and issues. Since it has just started the initial idea is to meet once a month and six months down the line one personal meet up of all the members. The ground rules for the same got co-created by all of us which include confidentiality, commitment to come in monthly virtual circles. Each circle is facilitated by two people who are nominated within the group.
Until now three circles have been hosted and each one of it has been deep, emotional and intense. Sharing around sex, money, relationships, fear, broken marriage, gender specific abuse and its affects and more have been shared in detail and each time the intimacy of the group has increased. It has brought a certain sense of respect for each member. Every circle gets harvested and the insights and minutes gets shared through email. At times it becomes difficult to bring in all the members at one time to which we are figuring out certain other options.
The idea is to host these circles in different cities and eventually develop a module for a workshop. We hope to reach out to others as well of the need for hosting such dialogic spaces for men.