WE BELIEVE...

  • Life is sacred.
  • No human being is illegal
  • Love is Love
  • Women’s rights are human rights
  • Science is real
  • Water and air are life
  • Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

"A woman simply is but a man must become. Masculinity is risky and elusive. It is achieved by a revolt from women, and it is confirmed only by other men. Manhood coerced into sensitivity is no manhood at all.”

                   

Camille Paglia, Sex, Art and American Culture: New Essays (1992), p. 82.

  • Menswork Institute is born out of the recognition that most humans who identify themselves as “men” feel, consciously or unconsciously, that they are missing something, that they are not living lives they were meant to live. Deep in their bones they are dissatisfied with their “manhood.” They are disconnected from Mature (Archetypal) Masculinity.


  • In tribal societies, initiation, rites of passage, started the boy on the journey toward Mature Masculinity. A mature man served the tribe as hunter, protector, healer, procreator, and generative steward of the tribe’s very existence. Today, in Western culture, at least, there is no equivalent, culturally sanctioned process through which a boy is launched toward authentic maturity. 

  • There are three (or more) generations of men in America whose maturity is questionable, fragile or absent. That means that the bedrock institutions of this country – government at all levels, politics, education, science, communications, industry, the economy, the system of justice, sports, entertainment – are largely in the control of little boys. Menswork Institute believes that many of today’s crises — crime, sexual abuse, prejudice, environmental decline, economic inequality, greed and oligarchy — exist primarily because Mature Masculinity is largely absent from our society. Immature little boys lack the capacity, the wisdom, the perspective and the empathy to be responsible stewards of civilization and the planet upon which our species’ existence depends.

 

  • Reclaiming Mature Masculinity through initiation and training is part of our mission. Menswork Institute also consults, counsels, trains, educates, and advocates with individuals, families, organizations and institutions about Initiation and Masculinity, productivity and relationships, and lives of peace and abundance.


These are our values

MENSWORK INSTITUTE HOLDS THAT EACH HUMAN BEING IS BORN FREE AND EQUAL IN DIGNITY AND HAS THESE RIGHTS. 

 

  • Life, liberty and security of person and property everywhere.
  • Control of body.
  • Travel and asylum from persecution;
  • Freedom of thought, conscience, expression and religion in public or privately.
  • Exercise of economic, cultural and social rights indispensable for dignity and development of personality and livelihood.
  • Favorable work condition; just and equal pay that guarantees an existence worthy of human dignity; leisure and rest.
  • Security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, loss of spouse, old age or other loss of livelihood or support.
  • Proper nutrition, adequate shelter and freely available comprehensive medical care, shelter, and necessary social services. 
  • Physical, emotional, spiritual, geographical and economic liberty.
  • Fair and respectful regard and treatment without prejudice or discrimination based on gender or gender choice, sexual preference, race, ethnicity, culture, religious or spiritual belief or practice, age, physical or mental ability, national origin, and access to economic resource or political power.

 

The commission of these crimes against common humanity assault humanity everywhere.

 

  • Poverty, hunger, homelessness.
  • Torture, violence, war, profiteering from war. 
  • Trafficking, servitude, slavery. 
  • Racism, homophobia, gender inequity, misogyny, misanthropy, nationalism, ageism, Islamophobia, Judaeophobia (anti-Semitism).
  • Laws, customs, practices or business operations that deprive women of the control of their own bodies.
  • Greed clothed in the language of free markets and capitalism. 
  • Perversion of justice and corruption of government to suppress voices of civility and righteousness. 
  • Allowing industry to deplete the Earth of its natural ability to sustain life. 
  • Teaching hate and violence. 
  • The persecution of those fleeing oppression or seeking a better life.
  • Subjugation of science, learning, and human discourse for political, economic or social gain.
  • Being sacrificed or demeaned to serve the interests of people of wealth, power, and influence. 
  • Subjugation to blind beliefs, uninformed values, religious dictates, or cynical judgments.
  • Deprivation of free and competent education that ensures full development of the human personality and strengthens respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
  • Lack of access to decent nutrition, housing, education, health care and emergency social services.
  • Deprivation, without fault, of the opportunity to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. 

 


    To further these values, Menswork Institute initiates, trains and educates people, especially men, in Archetypal Masculinity in which belief in and support of these values is implicit.