Engaging men and boys in conversations about gender violence: Voice Male magazine using vernacular rhetoric as social resistance.

Phillips, Joshua Daniel

Voice Male magazine is an on-going, in-print publication that touts itself as "male positive, pro-feminist, and open-minded." Being distributed four-times a year, this small publication is steeped with articles, book reviews, and editorials about gender violence and masculinity. The topics included within this text are inclusive across various factions of sexual violence, sexuality, pornography, and fatherhood. In addition, the National Advisory Board for this publication reads like a Gender Communication 101 syllabus and draws on the work of several well-known activist and scholars such as Eve Ensler, Robert Jensen, Jackson Katz, Michael Kimmel, and Sut Jhally. However, while the richness of academic and activist experience is appreciated among its contributors, Voice Male magazine is not exclusive in its published expressions and actively encourages outside voices to submit for publication.

As a publication that specifically addresses men and men's roles is ending gender violence, Voice Male magazine offers a unique perspective as vernacular rhetoric to end gender violence; a movement that has traditional focused solely on women's roles. Within the confines of the academy, a rhetorical analysis of this publication would help develop new ways of comprehending men's roles in ending men's violence against women, children, and other men. With a focus on men's roles in a traditionally female movement, Voice Male articulates the various struggles and tensions of men working through a patriarchal system that privileges their gendered identity. While traditional socialization may push men into prejudicial ways of thinking and acting, spaces such as Voice Male aim to counteract these exclusionary systems of oppression and opt to open up new spaces that provide men with a model for working against gender oppression from within a privileged body.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the ways Voice Male magazine uses vernacular rhetoric as social resistance and challenges dominant discourses. Furthermore, this essay will look at the rhetorically strategies used by Voice Male in discussing issues of gender violence and masculinity within the confines of a publicly available text. By analyzing the topics and themes represented across several issues of the magazine, I hope to unveil some of the strategies implemented by Voice Male in an effort to determine how Voice Male creates a space for more inclusive dialogue about gender violence and masculinity.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

One way culture has begun addressing the larger systemic issues of sexism and gender violence is by highlighting conversations where men are actively engaged in educating other men through mainstream forms of mass communication. With these thoughts in mind, the purpose of this review of literature is to place Voice Male magazine within a larger, contemporary cultural context. By understanding the current cultural climate and literature that addresses men's violence against women, children, and other men we can better understand how Voice Male might function as a written text within a larger conversation about gender violence.

Gender Violence Statistics

In speaking about the prevalence of men's violence against women, the United Nations estimates that one-third of the three billion women on our planet will be abused, beaten, and/or raped in her lifetime (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Men's violence against women is ubiquitous and can manifest as child abuse, child sexual abuse, stalking, sexual harassment, sexual intrusion, rape, murder and/or domestic violence. Drawing from The World Bank to highlight the pervasive nature of domestic violence specifically, Alhabib, Nur, and Jones (2010) assert "Worldwide, domestic violence is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women aged 15-49 years as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria combined" (p. 370).

Turning to statistics of sexual assaults, in 1987 Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski released a landmark study indicating that one in four college women was the survivor of a completed act of sexual assault. Troubling, these numbers remain unchanged in the last 20 years despite federal and state mandates for sexual assault prevention education at institutions of higher learning (Carter, 2004). In fact, it is only within the past few decades that scholars have even begun situating men's violence against women as a culturally systemic issue (Odem & Clay-Warner, 1998). Before this perspective, issues of gender violence were largely understood as interpersonal incidents and consequentially tucked away from our cultural narrative. However, contemporary feminist research supports the notion that men's violence against women is a direct result of patriarchal systems where cultural circumstances "promote violence against women" (Odem & Clay-Warner, 1998, p. 91). By positioning men's violence against women as a culturally supported act created through large systems of power and oppression, we can begin to see the fallacy in addressing violence solely on a case-by-case basis.

Gender Violence as a Cultural Issue

In addition to the shocking frequency of men's violence against women, there are several cultural issues that complicate gender violence. One of these issues is myths. Myths about gender violence not only blame survivors of violence, but myths simultaneously dismiss the accountability of male perpetrators in a male-centered, male-identified, and male-dominated society. According to Stoner, Deer, Clairmont, and Martell (2008), myths perpetuate sexual violence because they are widely accepted and oftentimes never questioned. Moreover, myths about gender violence trivialize men's violence against women and suggest that women: lie about being harmed; ask for it/deserve to be abused; enjoy being victimized; exaggerate their injuries; could escape if they wanted to; and that only certain types of women (e.g. poor women, women of color) are abused.

In order to disband these myths and contextualize these statistics, feminist rhetoric has moved from solely addressing individual acts of violence toward conversations aimed at dismantling and diminishing the dominating patriarchal systems that allows these violent acts to exist in the first place (hooks, 2000). However, attempting to address a culture in such a manner may prove difficult insomuch that this dismantling encourages us to draw attention to the problematic practices of patriarchy. Essentially, Voice Male, and other similar texts, inevitably asks men to deconstruct the very essence of their socialized gender identity (Johnson, 2005).

In an effort to draw attention to the problematic nature of patriarchy without male-bashing, I find value in Choate's (2003) argument of teaching men about gendered socialization. This pedagogical practice invites men to discover the ways they may have internalized problematic gender norms through gendered socialization without attacking the male gender as inherently oppressive.

Gender as Performance

Gender performance is the idea that gender is not a biological quality that one possesses, but rather a way in which we move through our every lives (Butler, 1999). Essentially, men have been taught how men are supposed to act through cultural scripts. Performing gender becomes problematic when these gender performances perpetuate systemic worldviews that elevate men while dehumanizing and marginalizing women. For example, King's (2009) analysis of Fight Club illustrates how dominant cultural narratives of hegemonic masculinity become pervasive in pop-culture and thus reify our beliefs surrounding male and female gender roles--males are positioned as dominant while females are positioned are subservient.

Gendered Rhetoric of Culture

In addition to King, there are several other scholars that take a feminist rhetorical approach to understanding how we culturally internalize popular culture. As a methodological framework, feminist rhetorical criticism offers us a way to discuss pop-culture by probing specifically amongst the text for what the media "presents as the norm" as well as to discover the "implication of these descriptions for men and women" (Hart & Daughton, 2005, p. 291). In her book Gendered Lives, Wood (2009) discusses how the cultural texts of our everyday lives shape our gender and our views of gender. Pertaining to gender violence, cultural texts shape our attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of rape and domestic violence. For example, through a rhetorical analysis of news coverage, Worthington (2008) concludes that the media representations of acquaintance rape on college campuses denotes distorted stories and fails to address the systemic realities that create a system where women are sexually preyed upon.

Men's Educational Programs

Holding onto these fundamental understandings of gender violence, gender performance, and feminist rhetorical criticism, I come to a place where I am greatly concerned with how to challenge these problematic gender roles in order to create non-oppressive communities. To best achieve this, McIntyre's (2008) Participatory Action Research offers insight which creates an understanding that researchers and activists who are engaged with social justice should first educate themselves on how they can best be used through conversations with the community. Since the Koss et al. study in 1987, sexual assault education has become a mandate at most institutions of higher learning. While most institutions comply with this mandate (McMahon, 2008), the educational experience is customarily limited to teaching young women how to protect themselves and fails to address how young men might change their behavior. This approach places the burden of gender violence solely on women and provides no framework for holding men accountable. Therefore, one of my primary interests in analyzing Voice Male magazine is steeped in how it attempts to educate men and boys about men's violence against women through inclusion and collaboration.

In this regard, it is imperative to remain empathetic to the socialized realities of your audience (Rodriguez, Rich, Hastings, & Page, 2006). Here, I would note that men who have been socialized in a patriarchal system that elevates men through the oppression of women are just as vulnerable to the vices of patriarchy. This is not to excuse male accountability around issues of sexism, but to take note of the dominant narratives that are cemented at the core of men's existence. Understanding that men learned masculinity through oppressive systems helps us make sense as to why men who are exposed to vast amounts of misogynistic hip-hop music are more prone to objectify women (Kistler & Lee, 2010) and why men who view more pornography are more prone to accept rape myths as well as uphold harmful attitudes about women (Wei, Ven-Hwei, & Hsiaomei, 2010). Male-centered texts like Voice Male might allow men to navigate these socialized realities, redefine their masculinity in new ways, and support other men who are working to end sexism and gender violence.

VERNACULAR RHETORIC

Historically, the study of rhetoric has been drawn to the speeches and texts deemed worthy of cultural importance (Ono & Sloop, 1995). More often than not, these texts come from places of power and are circulated among the upper echelons of the privileged class. However, recent rhetorical scholarship has created an academic interest in studying texts that resonates in smaller, local communities. As a rhetorical perspective, vernacular rhetoric uses text produced from historically marginalized communities in order to investigate the power dynamics of the culture at large (Ono & Sloop, 1995). These non-institutional forms of communication can be found in music, dance, storytelling, popular culture, and other communal expressions (Howard, 2010). Whatever the medium, vernacular rhetoric provides a voice to those groups that have historically been rendered invisible and inaudible.

The ways marginalized groups resist the status quo while operating within the status quo should be well considered when analyzing from the vernacular perspective. As Hauser and mcclellan (2009) discuss the various layers of power, they illustrate how power perpetuates itself through dominant rhetorical ideologies. In an effort to break the cycle of dominant rhetoric, marginalized groups attempt to utilize popular culture in an effort to create new stories. Essentially, groups borrow popular culture mediums and reconfigure them in a way that will gain the attention of the larger systemic institutions (Ono & Sloop, 1995). Howard (2010) further discusses this idea drawing attention to how vernacular rhetoric is a blurring between the larger institution and the marginalized communities. Because we are all operating under similar systemic structures of power, marginalized communities need the larger media institutions to illustrate how their rhetorical acts are different, counter hegemonic, and just as valuable as dominant discourse.

The vernacular perspective is interesting to this study in how it is used to denaturalize power. Through various forms of communication, groups rendered invisible must consistently employ resistance in an effort to bring forth social change beneficial for the communities. In this vein, we can situate Voice Male as a text looking to create new knowledge about gender violence even while being trapped in a system that perpetuates gender violence.

ANALYSIS

Traditionally, addressing men's violence against women has been an issue primarily dealt with through the leadership and activism of women. Yet, recently we have begun to witness an influx in the number of men and men's groups who are joining the cause to end gender violence. For example, in the mid-1990s community groups like Men Can Stop Rape, Men Against Violence, and Mentors in Violence Prevention began organizing young men and created contemporary models of how to educate young men and boys about gender violence. In the late 1990s to mid 2000s male directed movies such as Tough Guise (Katz, 1999) and Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (Hurt, 2006) deconstructed the various ways pop-culture teaches men to be violent. More recently, Macho Paradox (Katz, 2006) and Guyland (Kimmel, 2008) were released respectively as academic books written by men that discussed men's role in ending men's violence against women. Taken collectively, these organizations and cultural texts have been very important in carving out spaces where young men can now actively combat sexism with the support of more widely available media.

In educating men about their role in ending gender violence, Katz's (2006) ask that we (men) first take ownership of our male identity by using the active phrase "men's violence against women" as opposed to the passive phrase "violence against women" (p. 91). By omitting the gender of the perpetrator, we have rhetorically positioned our focus solely on the survivors (mostly women) and therefore, have never been forced to recognize the sameness of our (male) identity with the perpetrator. Furthermore, research also asks us to create experiences that would prevent gender violence through challenging male behavior (Hillenbrand-Gunn, Heppner, Mauch, & Park, 2010; Rich, Utley, Janke, & Moldoveanu, 2010).

In the winter of 2009, Voice Male magazine joined the "men educating men" movement to challenge men and hold them accountable by creating a new national platform for addressing men's violence against women. As Voice Male attempts to package and promote its identity in the 21st Century, Editor Rob Okun (2009a) writes about the importance of Voice Male magazine in today's social climate,

   Men and women are collaborating more than ever before. Sexism, and
   abuse perpetuated by men, are still, sadly, all too common, but the
   number of younger and older men engaged in challenging
   violence--and each other--is steadily growing. I feel encouraged.
   Getting men to take a good hard look at ourselves isn't easy. I
   know; I grew up socialized in this society, carry much of the same
   baggage as other men. Yet in reading and editing the range of
   articles and story ideas that come across my desk, I see more men
   willing to take that hard look. (p. 2)

Overall, Voice Male attempts to draw attention to the problematic nature of patriarchy by complicating the notion of gender and creating spaces where different embodiments of masculinity are valued and accepted. Not only does Voice Male value female bodies, but it values gay male bodies, bodies of color, and bodies with disabilities. By embracing different male bodies, Voice Male challenges its readers to understand performed masculinity in a variety of ways. Our cultural notions of masculinity, or "real men," no longer need to fit the ideologies of dominant discourse. Instead, Voice Male locates a space where there are multiple ways of showcasing one's masculinity. Thus, Voice Male becomes a cultural text that contests restricting binaries about gender. In analyzing Voice Male, five themes emerged that illustrated the viewpoints and objectives of the publication: (1) teaching men and boys, (2) emphasizing family, (3) inclusion of identities, (4) tension between violence and nonviolence, and (5) transforming men into leaders.

Laying out the first eight issues of Voice Male in front of me, the first thing I notice is the colorful covers. In the top, left-hand corner of each cover reads the title Voice Male in bold red and orange lettering. Directly underneath the title is the phrase "Changing Men in Changing Times." These words are already encouraging the reader to think of this text as transformative before the magazine has been opened. Another observation about the covers is that each of them references a "gender" theme in some form. For example, six of the covers reference the words "boys" or "men" as a way to discuss young boys growing up to become men. This idea manifest in such cover phrases as "Into the Heart of Manhood" and "From Boys to Men." As we begin to search for other clues within the cover text, we are invited to understand Voice Male as a publication that aims to trouble our current constructions of traditional gender norms.

Voice Male also creates a space for men to challenge traditional gender norms through open-dialogue. One of the areas where gender norms are discussed is in parenting. Out of the eight issues, four of covers reference "fathering" or "parenting" as active roles men must be involved with. Phrases such as "Searching for My Father in Me" and "A Father's Legacy" compliment the bright colors of the covers and are positioned underneath pictures of men and boys of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Glancing over the covers, the overwhelming sense gathered is that Voice Male is going to disrupt current conceptions of what it means to be a "real man." Issues of boyhood, parenting, and sexism remained juxtaposed on these covers and as I open the issues to reveal the first few pages, the concept of masculinity becomes even more complex.

Opening the issues, my eyes immediately go to the bottom right of the two-page spread. Bellow every table of contents in all caps reads, "MALE POSTITIVE. PROFEMINIST. OPEN-MINDED." Once again, the audience is invited to envision new notions of gender construction and draw tension with the ideas of how to be both "male positive" and "pro-feminist." Looking to the left of this spread, the audience is greeted with a lengthy, full-page letter "From the Editor." Editor Rob Okun's picture in the top left shows a man with a full head of grey and full beard to match. His full page column is printed on the backside of the front cover and this placement communicates both his importance and experience with this publication. However, Okun's work remains open and inclusive by stressing both his faults and shortcomings when it comes to male privilege. Okun also uses the collective "we" and "our" that encourages the readers to become a part of the discussion. This invitation to an open discussion with the readers becomes even more evident as we turn the page and encounter the section "Mail Bonding."

The "Mail Bonding" section of Voice Male is the place where readers can find the opinions and expressions of other readers. Throughout the eight issues, this section has taken up as little as one page and as many as four. On the surface, this section seems to be a place where readers can send in letters about stories from Voice Male. However, what is particularly interesting about this section is that many of the letters do not directly address previous columns in Voice Male. In fact, some of the letters resemble short-editorials about new subjects. For example, Chuck Derry (2010) wrote "That T-Shirt is not a Joke" in response to a humorous column written in The Onion about child prostitution. Rose Garrity (2011) wrote "Men help honor Friedan" to draw attention to what men in her community did to honor The Feminine Mystic author Betty Friedan. Finally, two readers independently wrote about their experiences of addressing patriarchy with young men (Chaffin, 2010; Rodgers, 2011). There still remains the occasional letter that praises Voice Male for the work that it does such as E.T. Knowles (2009) letter "Voice Male 'Rocks My View' of Men," but overall "Mail Bonding" creates a space where additional voices can be heard a part from the topics discussed by the contributors.

Moving into the contributors' portion of the magazine, the five themes manifest more clearly. Focusing on teaching, Voice Male positions its self as taking a feminist pedagogical approach in communicating its overall objectives. Through collaborative teaching models, Voice Male invites multiple voices from multiple backgrounds to contribute materials relevant to masculinity. Both female and male contributors challenge readers to complicate the ways society teaches lessons about gender. Shira Tarrant (2009) summarizes this idea in her piece "What do I know about Men?" when we she writes, "I invite us to think more courageously" (p. 16). In complimentary pieces written in the spring 2010 edition, Jennifer Sey and Michael Kimmel discuss traditional gender roles in heterosexual relationships. Sey's piece "Who wears the Pant?" is followed by Kimmel's "What do Real Men Wear?"

Additionally, Voice Male uses feminist pedagogy to teach men and boys about the gendered interaction between men and women. Lillian Hsu's (2010) piece "Women's Bodies, Men Minds" reminds us of the ways that female bodies are put on display for sexualized consumption while Kimmel's (2011 b) "Women Can Say No ... and Yes" examines the communication strategies of men and women during sex. And although it is important to note some of these very real differences between genders, Voice Male always circles back to confront some of the damaging implications that can happen when we place gender on a binary. These implications are most clearly recognized in Robert Jensen's (2009) "Masculine, Feminine or ... Human?" and this mentality invites male readers to begin imagining a world where ending gender violence is not a male or female issue, but rather an issue that can only be solved through coalition building across gendered differences.

Teaching coalition building across gender differences is an important theme emphasized by this publication. One piece that captures this theme in its entirety is Michael Flood's (2011) "Where Men Stand in Ending Violence against Women." As referred to in this piece and others, gender violence is an issue socially situated as a "female issue" and men remain perplexed as to how they might become allies in putting an end to such violence (p. 21). Therefore, men and boys are taught how men's violence against women affects them and why they should be concerned about ending men's violence against women (Flood, 2009; Horowitz, 2009). Voice Male draws attention to men who are doing this type of anti-sexist work in their communities as a way to create examples of what male activism can look like.

One component of engaging in anti-sexist activism is to teach men and boys how to work against oppressive forms of patriarchy. Writing about patriarchy and male privilege is commonly found in the pages of Voice Male and can be seen in such headlines as "Stepping off the Pedestal of Male-Privilege" (Peretz, 2010), "Cracks Spreading in Patriarchy's Great Wall" (Okun, 2009b), and "Letting go of Privilege" (Okun, 2010). However, just because Voice Male critiques patriarchy does not mean that Voice Male understands all manifestation of masculinity as inherently bad. Staying true to its mantra of "Male Positive," Voice Male publishes articles such as "Uncovering the Good in Traditional Masculinity" (Hammer, 2009) to call attention to how conceptions of traditional masculine attributes such as stoicism, risk-taking, and logical problem solving are valuable in certain situations. Therefore, the lessons to men are not to abandon all of their traditional attributes, but to be flexible and allow themselves to move in and out traditional gendered norms. In this vein, it appears that Voice Male is more concerned about stretching the concept of masculinity rather than simply replacing old masculine attributes with new masculine attributes.

While a theoretical understanding of gender construction is vital in understanding how traditional gender norms create gendered privilege and marginalization, Voice Male also offers its audience examples of what anti-sexist activism can look like on a practical level. As Voice Male teaches men and boys about anti-sexist theory through discussions of patriarchy, it simultaneously confronts gender violence on the grassroots level by providing men and boys with steps they can take to end gender violence in their communities. One way it attempts to achieve this objective is by creating lists. For example, Jewel Woods' (2011) piece "10 Things Men and Boys Can do to Stop Human Trafficking" educates readers about world-wide human trafficking while giving them tangible ways they can help end human trafficking in their communities. Some of these ways include; not glamorizing "pimps"; not consuming pornography and sex tourism; and mentoring the young men in your neighborhoods.

In all, Voice Male emphasizes that it is not enough just to be educated on the subject of sexism, but that men and boys must be active in ending gender violence and sexist behavior. In the winter 2010 edition of Voice Male, Byron Hurt (2010) wrote the article, "Moving from Bystander to Activist: Why Men can't Remain Silent." This article encapsulates several contributors' stance on men's activism and encourages the audience to get involved because ending sexism is in the best interest of both women and men. And in the case that this feat seems daunting, Voice Male provides its readers with several resources to stay active and remain encouraged ("Men's Resource," 2010; Porter, 2009).

In order to stay relevant and effective in reaching its audience, Voice Male relies heavily on its ethos. As listed in every issue on page four, the National Advisory Board for this publication list several well-known activists and scholars. These well-known names are juxtaposed to the "Mail Bonding" section and create a link between the advisory board and the letter writing public. By position the board and the reading public on the same page, Voice Male forefronts the ethos and experience of the nationally known contributors while sending the message that it values new input and welcomes conversation from its readership.

Another way Voice Male adds to its credibility is by discussing such topics as sports and pop-culture. By using acceptable jargon found in traditionally masculine venues, Voice Male reveals itself as a text that is not trying to stop masculine culture, but instead asking men and boys to conceptualize masculine culture in new ways. In doing so, Voice Male draws on sports' figures to write columns about their experiences with masculinity. In "For the Love of Women" New York Jets' linebacker Bart Scott (2009) writes about domestic violence. As a football player, Scott draws heavily on references of "power" and "strength" and imparts that men's biggest strength is not found in their physiques, "but in our ability to connect, emphasize, and protect" (p. 9). Sports' columnist Dave Zirin has also contributed to Voice Male with a piece that discusses the NFL and concussions. In this article, Zirin (2011) draws parallels between violent head hits and our masculine desire to see players "tough it out." One conclusion that can be drawn from this article is that our masculine desire for violence is quite literally hurting men's bodies and brains.

As Voice Male works to connect with its audience through sports, it also works to connect on a more personal level. Flipping through the pages of Voice Male, a reader will find several references to family relationships. Haji Shearer's (2009) article starts to bridge this gap between pop-culture and family in his piece "Hey Chris! Letters to a Young Brother." Shearer uses his column as a way to build a relational bond with Chris Brown in the aftermath of Brown's domestic violence situation with former girlfriend and pop-star Rihanna. This article does not demonize Brown as a person, but instead points out the faults in Brown's actions and invites Brown to use his star-power to becoming part of the solution. We also see the "brother" reference in the winter 2011 "Men@Work" section as Voice Male illuminates the book Brother's Keeper as a spiritual way of viewing the men in our lives. Taking together, these brotherly bonds ask that all men grow accountable to each other.

The most dominant family role that Voice Male highlights is that of a father. There are several references throughout all eight issues that discuss parenting as a way of "handing down lessons" and "teaching boys well." We also see sport references when fatherhood is positioned as "coaching" our sons. Unger (2010b) gives us a framework for fatherhood in "Fathering in the 21st Century" and begins the conversation about how men can expand their worldview and become better fathers. A few additional examples that touch on the importance of fatherhood and illustrate just how important fatherhood is to Voice Male include "Dad's Coming to School ... and the PTA" (2009); Allison Stevens' (2011) "Real Men Know How to Take Paternity Leave"; and Unger's (2010a) "Can Fathers 'Mother?'" Tying together this familial theme, Voice Male finally addresses the stressed relationships that can happen between fathers and sons when emotional bonds are not formed (Badalament, 2010; Okun, 2011; Sheldon, 2010). By confronting these broken family relationships, Voice Male sheds light and offers examples as to how fathers and sons can begin mending torn relationships and forming stronger bonds.

Using similar rhetoric, Voice Male welcomes additional voices and attempts to be inclusive across identity markers. First, Voice Male creates a space for international approaches to anti-sexist activism to break away from any misgivings about ethnocentric activist models. For example, articles are written about Congo and the ways Congolese men are confronting the systemic violence perpetuated upon Congolese women ("Congo," 2010; Katz, 2010). Additionally, Rio de Janeiro is spotlighted in the spring 2009 and summer 2009 editions in response to Rio's "Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality" (Okun, 2009c; Okun, 2009d; "Rio," 2009). This six day conference hosted women and men from over eighty countries as a way to share stories about how gender violence is being addressed all around the world. Finally, Saudi Arabia is critically examined twice for its various legal policies that allow women to be beaten by their husbands and fathers ("Father," 2011; "Saudi," 2009).

Beyond a global approach, Voice Male also addresses diversity issues within the United States. There are clear markers of difference in the racial and ethnic make-up of the contributors' photos as well as the various other pictures of people who embellish the pages. But more than skin tone, Voice Male takes to tasks the very differences of our experiences based on identities. On way Voice Male strives for inclusion in conversations about masculinity is by addressing sexual orientation. Several articles address hate crimes and bullying (Buttenwieser, 2009; Kimmel, 2011a; Tapley, 2010) while Christopher White's (2009) "Why I'm Such an Angry Faggot" vehemently articulates his frustration as a gay man who is not afforded certain human rights. These spaces for nontraditional masculine voices further illuminate the various ways in which masculinity can be deconstructed and reconstructed in a more inclusive manner.

As we lean on the publication's deconstruction and reconstruction around masculinity, we simultaneously understand Voice Male as a publication struggling through tensions. Displaying its overall structure, Voice Male operates from a configuration of problem-solution patterns. More often than not, this problem-solution pattern becomes evident in the tension between violence and nonviolence. Such problem-solution patterns are made visible in Jan Passion's (2011) article "Finding the Peacemaker Within." This and other works challenge men and boys to confront systemic violence and to become creative in finding solutions that address these problematic narratives ("A Call," 2010; Passion, 2011; Vissell & Vissell, 2010; "Voices," 2010). Through articles like this, the audience is constantly given examples of what Voice Male contributors have done to address men's violence against women in hopes that men and boys will come up with solutions for addressing men's violence against women in their own communities.

Throughout the text, addressing sexism and gender violence in our local communities surfaces as the overall purpose of Voice Male magazine. The strategy for achieving this is found in the publication's approach of empowering men and creating transformational leaders. At its core, Voice Male uses the tactic of transformation to create active leaders as opposed to passive readers. This empowerment can be seen in Patrick McGann and Neil Irvin's (2010) article, "We can Change the Culture of Rape." Through their work with Men Can Stop Rape in Washington, DC, McGann and Irvin show us how their after-school programs mentor young men daily about the realities of gender violence. Similarly, Gilmore (2009) writes about the anti-sexist work being done on college campuses by college students and Keith (2010) writes about his work as a documentary film maker. When it comes to transformational leadership, Voice Male provides its readers with plenty of options of what activism can look like; e.g., mentoring young men in after-school clubs; participating in community outreach on college campuses; or writing books or making films. As long as work is being done and the conversation about ending gender violence continues to move forward, Voice Male will be there as a place to share your stories.

DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS, AND CONCLUSION

In the end, Voice Male showcases how it is using a system that promotes the consumption of popular culture to its advantage. As a text that encourages the formation of alternative knowledge, I situated Voice Male as a magazine that uses vernacular rhetoric to resist dominant discourse about sexism, gender violence, and masculinity. Additionally, Voice Male magazine has created a unique niche for itself as an anti-sexist publication that reaches out to an audience of men and boys. At its core, Voice Male holds men accountable by challenging the ways men think and respond to gender violence. As a teaching tool, Voice Male not only provides us with a theoretical lens for understanding patriarchy, but also draws attention to the tangible ways gender violence is being addressed both within the United States and on an international stage. Through inclusive dialogue that crosses boundaries of race, gender, nationality, and sexual orientation, Voice Male is actively striving for multiple meanings of embodied masculinity in the 21st century.

In addressing the limitations of this study, two issues become apparent: (1) my positionality and (2) the quantity of available text. First, my positionality as a White, able-bodied, heterosexual, American male greatly influences my perception of Voice Male. Perhaps those with different identities and experiences would highlight different concepts within the magazine and problematize certain areas that I have overlooked. My recommendation is for multiple voices to comment on the text of this magazine and offer new insights that challenge existing beliefs. Second, at the time this research was conducting, only eight issues had been printed. It would be valuable to return to this study in a few years once Voice Male becomes more established with a longer history.

In closing, I turn Audre Lorde (1984) as her wisdom guides my research through her essay Poetry is Not a Luxury. In this piece, Lorde notes:

   But there are no new ideas still waiting in the wings to save us as
   women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new
   combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within
   ourselves--along with the renewed courage to try them out. And we
   must constantly encourage ourselves and each other to attempt the
   heretical actions that our dreams imply and so many of our old
   ideas disparage. (p. 38)

To me, these words communicate a sense of responsibility to our research and to our communities. Men's activism that aims to end men's violence against women, children, and other men can take many forms and it is up to men to try out new ideas. Voice Male may be incomplete, but by joining the conversation about gender violence, it is actively attempting to find new and creative ways to help end sexism and sexist oppression. Additionally, it is important that activist groups like Voice Male maintain transparency and struggle through cultural text in collaboration with women. As Murphy (2009) notes, male activists must remain critical of their scholarship in an effort to remain inclusive and not re-center patriarchy. As we move through the text of Voice Male magazine and other comparable spaces, my hope is to contribute to the conversation as to how men can better address sexism and gender violence in a manner that is inclusive, progressive, and honoring to the women whose scholarship has created spaces for men to speak openly about these issues.

REFERENCES

Alhabib, S., Nur, U., & Jones, R. (2010). Domestic violence against women: Systematic review of prevalence studies. Journal of Family Violence, 25(4), 369-382.

Badalament, J. (2010, spring). The modern dad's relationship check-up. Voice Male, 17.

Brother's keeper. (2011, winter). Voice Male, 6.

Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

Buttenwieser, S.W. (2009, summer). Boys, bullies and parents' fears. Voice Male, 15-16.

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JOSHUA DANIEL PHILLIPS, Southern Illinois University--Carbondale.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joshua Daniel Phillips, Dept. of Speech Communication, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Communications Building 2205, 1100 Lincoln Drive Mailcode 6605, Carbondale, IL 62901. Email: joshua.d.phillips@siu.edu

DOI: 10.3149/jms.2003.259