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Addressing sexual violence and rape culture:

Issues and interventions targeting boys and men

Shannon Walsh

To cite this article: Shannon Walsh (2015) Addressing sexual violence and rape
culture: Issues and interventions targeting boys and men, Agenda, 29:3, 134-141, DOI:
10.1080/10130950.2015.1050817

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briefing
Addressing sexual violence and rape culture:
Issues and interventions targeting boys and
men
Shannon Walsh

abstract
While girl-led projects that address sexual violence can empower girls to seek consent and to understand their right to
safety, this alone cannot deal with the reality of everyday violence. While girls are told to empower themselves and to
voice their concerns, the surrounding cultural environment often reinforces silence, dismissal and retribution towards
women who speak out. Men and boys need to be part of the solution. This briefing investigates the potentials of pro-
feminist approaches to gender-based violence (GBV) targeting boys and men.

Using examples from South Africa and North America, I look at various approaches and initiatives taken by and
with men and boys, often with a desire to centre more radical analysis of patriarchy within the work itself. The
briefing unpacks some of the dilemmas and potentials that have been raised by working with men and boys as allies
around sexual violence, and ways to distinguish pro-feminist projects.

keywords
masculinities, patriarchy, gender-based violence (GBV), rape culture, interventions

Introduction working to support gender equality and fem-

Interventions targeting boys and men that
focus on how patriarchy and rape culture
operate politically, socially and psychologic-
ally can add an important element to broader
strategies against gender-based violence
(GBV) (MenEngage-United Nations Population
Fund [UNFPA], 2012). This is not to diminish
the importance or effectiveness of projects
targeting women and girls, but rather to point
out the complexities of involvement of men in
a pro-feminist struggle against violence. In
this briefing, I investigate in what context
and under what conditions interventions with
men might be identified as pro-feminist. Pro-
Feminist refers to men who are actively
inism (Bojin, 2012).
In assessing interventions with men
around sexual violence, there is an ambival-
ence around both successes and future pos-
sibilities for pro-feminist work. There
continues to be scepticism as to whether
many (or any) transformative pro-feminist
projects currently exist that work with men
and boys (Meer, 2013; Peacock and Barber,
2014). This scepticism highlights the diffi-
culty that both women and men involved in
these struggles have had in coming to terms
with deeply entrenched patriarchy. While this
work is necessarily long-term and complex, it
is important not to discredit or diminish what

Agenda 105/29.3 2015

ISSN 1013-0950 print/ISSN 2158-978X online
© 2015 Shannon Walsh
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2015.1050817 pp. 134–141

has been done, while still looking towards the
future.
In response to the question within my
social network: “Do you know of any inter-
ventions around gender-based violence
focused on men that are working / inspiring
and address patriarchy?” writer and gender
activist, Sisonke Msimang writes,
“Such a complex question. Many work to
address patriarchy even as they reinscribe
it. Definitely won't be easy to look at this
without lots of conversations. The literat-
ure on these groups says all the right
things but the politics of taking up space
is truly complicated” (Personal correspond-
ence, 2015).
This briefing can hardly tackle nor adequately
reflect the diverse discussions that exist on
how to include men and boys in interventions
to prevent sexual violence, nor the complex
ways of understanding feminism(s). Yet, we
may begin to pose some questions and
insights around a pro-feminist analysis of
sexual violence. Pro-feminist approaches to
working with men and boys attempt to
unravel structural privilege, male violence,
hegemonic masculinities and rape cultures.
In this vein, there are inspiring examples of
work that men, and women working with
men, have been doing both in South Africa
and North America that I will discuss here.
Emerging in the 1970s, the term rape culture
describes how male violence is legitimated
and normalised in society, through victim
blaming, denial of sexual violence, stigmatisa-
tion, and the sexual objectification of women
(Attenborough, 2014).
Some of the campaigns that emerged have
taken pro-feminist approaches to discussing
the impacts and damages that both women
and men experience as part of a patriarchal
and capitalist society.
The article is divided into three parts. First, I
look at various approaches and initiatives
taken with men and boys that attempt to
centre a more radical analysis of patriarchy
within the work itself. Next, I look at some of
the issues that have been identified with
projects targeting boys and men. Finally, I
offer some thoughts on the dilemmas and
potential for working with men and boys as
briefing
allies to prevent sexual violence, and ways of
thinking about pro-feminist interventions. It is
clear that successful strategies to end sexual
violence must include men and boys, but
at the same time, it seems to be very difficult
to create effective pro-feminist projects
aimed at men that do not detract funding
and attention from women’s voices and
struggles. While men working together to
unpack patriarchy can hold the possibility of
subverting a culture of male violence, it also
has the potential to reproduce patriarchal
values, once again giving men’s voices more
precedence.
Pro-feminist interventions working
with and amongst boys and men
Sexual violence education work with men and
boys has been increasing worldwide since the
early 1980s. Scholarly work in the 1980s in
the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK)
and Australia brought together diverse fields
to understand hegemonic masculinity and its
construction, from feminist research, queer
studies, political sociology, and psychology
(Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). While
much early work on these issues was largely
informal, the British Sociological Association
held a landmark session on men and gender in
1982. By1995 the Beijing Platform for Action
at the United Nations (UN) Women’s Confer-
ence explicitly called for the participation and
partnership with men (UN, 1995). Some of
the campaigns that emerged have taken pro-
feminist approaches to discussing the
impacts and damages that both women and
men experience as part of a patriarchal and
capitalist society. Recent studies have shown
that much of the work done targeting men
has been small-scale, and focused on discus-
sion and behaviour-based change (Barker, nd).
I focus here on a few specific campaigns
in South Africa, the US and Canada to draw
out pro-feminist interventions and approaches
to working with men: Sonke Gender Justice
Network, Agisanang Domestic Abuse Preven-
tion and Training (ADAPT), in South Africa,
and Philly Stands Up, Yes Means Yes, and the
White Ribbon Campaign in North America. As
my own research and activism has largely
been focused on South Africa and North
America, these are contexts I felt best able
to discuss. Additionally, both have been sites
of significant interventions led by, or focused
on, men, as we shall see.
Addressing sexual violence and rape culture 135
briefing
Community, activist and educational
initiatives: Sonke Gender Justice Network
and ADAPT
In South Africa, work targeting men and boys
looks at interventions as connected to a
broader political and social field in which
men and women live. These approaches
come out of community-based struggles and
grassroots educational initiatives, although
resembling non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) more than the activist collectives I
mention later. I focus on Sonke and ADAPT,
two funded and prominent groups who have a
long history in working in communities and
who have publicly documented their work.
Sonke Gender Justice Network is a key
organisation working with men and boys to
end violence against women and for gender
equality in South Africa and Africa more
broadly. Active since 2004, they work to
bring men into the discussion of violence
and toxic masculinities, with an aim to situate
this in a broader understanding of power
structures and policy change. Their work
focuses on developing community-based acti-
vists at local levels, bringing together the idea
that violence against women is connected to
broader issues, including HIV and AIDS. They
specifically target elected officials and local
government for advancing gender transforma-
tion. Sonke uses a ‘Spectrum of Change’
model, which brings together a broad range
of strategies from the community to national
level, including training, networking, advo-
cacy and capacity building. The eighth dimen-
sion they name to complete the spectrum is
“research, monitoring, and evaluation” (Van
den Berg et al, 2013:234) which they view as
cutting across all other dimensions of
their work.
Sonke outlines their focus on strategic
activism and capacity building, and the vari-
ous gains they have made using this
approach, including at the level of policy
making. For example, Sonke has lobbied for
the inclusion of the following passages in the
‘South African 2012–2016 National Strategic
Plan for HIV, STIs and TB’, emphasising how
men’s involvement in HIV and AIDS education
projects should challenge gender norms and
economic and social inequalities (ibid.:240).
Sonke has also shown significant positive
impacts with their One Man Can project with
“50 percent of participants reported taking
action to address acts of gender-based
136 AGENDA 105/29.3 2015
violence in their community” (Colvin et al,
2009). Nonetheless, in a recent article Dean
Peacock and Gary Barker (2014:586) found
that the work has not yet had the impact
necessary for broad societal change,
“Despite this growing body of evidence
showing that gender transformative inter-
ventions can change men’s attitudes and
practices, and despite many international
commitments, the majority of the interven-
tions with men and boys have until
recently remained NGO led, small scale,
and short-term and have usually failed to
reach significant numbers of men
and boys.”
Taking a somewhat similar approach, ADAPT
based in Alexandra, was one of the first
organisations in South Africa to work with
men on issues and strategies for confronting
violence against women. ADAPT is a non-
profit organisation founded in 1994 that
focuses on ending domestic and sexual viol-
ence. Originally focused on women, they
expanded to include men, young people and
the elderly. While not explicitly feminist in
orientation, they address structural factors
that perpetuate violence against women.
ADAPT based in Alexandra, was one of the first
organisations in South Africa to work with men
on issues and strategies for confronting violence
against women.
ADAPT focuses on a community empower-
ment model, and community-based pro-
grammes that recognise that “while men are
the primary perpetrators of GBV, they need to
be central to the solution” (ADAPT, nd).
ADAPT took a multifaceted approach to deal-
ing with men, including doing outreach in
shebeens/taverns, mentoring boys, engaging
men in community development, as well as
providing trauma counselling, support ser-
vices and gender sensitivity training for men.
Based on their experience, ADAPT recom-
mended: “creating safe space where men
develop trust and can begin to take respons-
ibility for their actions”, encouraging men “to
begin to ‘own’ their violence as a problem and
as a result, begin the healing process” and to
become “active participants in preventing and
ending GBV” and to be flexible to working
with men (ibid.). As they write, “Many

women’s organizations are reluctant to begin
working with men. Our own stereotypes and
prejudices must be examined” (ibid.).
ADAPT’s work with men and boys seems
to be inactive for the last few years, though
some of the founding members continue to
create new strategies for working with men.
Mmatshilo Motsei, for example, has been
engaging men and boys on their relationships
to their fathers in developing attitudes around
GBV in Mpumalanga municipalities (Personal
communication, 2015).
Direct interventions with men and
perpetrators: Philly Stands Up and
unlearning rape
In North America, some grassroots, activist-
initiated campaigns have attempted to deal
with sexual violence and patriarchy at the local
level through interventions that work with
survivors, perpetrators and the community
that surrounds them. Philly’s Pissed and Philly
Stands Up were born out of specific events of
sexual abuse that occurred at a music festival
in Philadelphia in 2005. Sparked by the lack of
resources to deal with the sexual violence in
their own community, activists formed a col-
lective to create a model of accountability and
care with a two-pronged focus to deal with
perpetrators and empower and care for survi-
vors. Their approach focuses on harm reduc-
tion and transformative justice led by survivors
and integrated into the broader community. The
collective is committed to addressing needs
and concerns that are in its local reach. As they
describe, “each process is unique based on the
specificities of the situation” and focuses on
working using a four-phased accountability
process with the survivor, perpetrator and a
third party (Philly Stands Up, nd).
the accountability process includes the
perpetrator working regularly with a member
of Philly Stands Up
Based on a model of transformative justice,
the accountability process includes the per-
petrator working regularly with a member of
Philly Stands Up for between eight and 18
months. The collective explicitly states that
they are committed to tangible behaviour
change, and do not seek to punish perpetra-
tors, but work together on “long term goals
of ensuring that they are not a threat to
others” (Philly Stands Up, nd). Philly Stands
briefing
Up centralises consent as well as unlearning
rape culture and patriarchy, while at the same
time, creating discussion on a range of issues
that affect men and boys, such as bullying,
male violence, sexuality and body issues.
A few popular zines came out of an
activist-led pro-feminist approach, including
On the Road to Healing: A Booklet for Men
Against Sexism (1999), and Unlearning Rape
(1991). In these two zines (one of which later
was turned into the book On the Road to
Healing), men share experiences of organis-
ing, conducting and taking workshops, and
discussing their personal experiences. In a
section called, ‘Strategies that Work’ in the
Unlearning Rape zine, the authors write,
“What we are asking of ourselves is as
difficult as it is authentic: to approach as
brothers, as friends, caring and non-blame-
ful. This is difficult because we acknow-
ledge our anger at men who deny their
complicity in rape and who continue to act
from positions of privilege and dominance,
often brutally. At the same time we know
that men can be loving, sweet, silly
and gentle” (Biernbaum and Weinberg,
1991:4).
This group of men write about working with
other men to reveal the ‘set-up’ in patriarchal
society that has taught and reinforced male
entitlement, which puts men at risk for com-
mitting sexual assault. They describe this
process as awakening to the structural viol-
ence that they have become unwittingly
complicit in.
“Let’s Talk About Consent Baby”
Consent has long been a central focus of
grassroots campaigns to end sexual violence.
The conversation around consent has been
reignited on various Canadian University cam-
puses recently through When Yes Means Yes
campaigns. The campaign focuses on making
‘consent sexy’. Subverting the competitive
implication of No Means No (implying men
must actively attempt to secure a ‘yes’), Yes
Means Yes highlights communication, devel-
oping intimacy, and mutual recognition
between partners.
The idea behind Yes Means Yes has
caught on: it powerfully “subverts the domin-
ant misogynist notion of coercion as sexy, and
it lays the ground for seeking consent as a
desirable part of sex” (E Anderson, ‘Sex on
Addressing sexual violence and rape culture 137
briefing
campus: How No Means No became Yes
Means Yes’. The Globe and Mail, 14 Novem-
ber 2014). Yet as Canadian political com-
mentator and long-time migrant justice
activist Harsh Walia (2014) points out, there
are still some problematic assumptions
behind the idea that consent is sexy.
“given the disproportionate magnitude of
sexual violence against those who are
deemed inherently "undesirable" and hence
"rape-able" - Indigenous women, migrant
women, Black women, trans women, poor
women, sex workers, women with disabilit-
ies - it is potentially disastrous to sexualize
consent and link it to desirability.”
For many women of colour and migrant
women, consent is something that remains
elusive. To be able to perform consent, you
must be considered an equal, something that
is often denied to women of colour, Queer,
Indigenous, Trans and other marginalised
women.
While sexualising consent may lead down
a dangerous road, understanding consent
continues to be a critical component of
recognising the link between the disregard
for women’s voices and sexual violence.
Creative Approaches
Creative approaches such as poetry and
zines, participatory video, art making, photo
voice and community theatre can offer excit-
ing possibilities for dealing with sexual viol-
ence, and have been used by some of the
groups mentioned above. Antonio Lyons
recently produced the play We Are Here
which uses drama and performance to work
with boys and men on issues of male violence
in South Africa. The play itself acts as an
intervention; a process on stage and in the
discussion that follows, which shows how
men also battle with sexual abuse and face
situations in which perpetrators are their
peers. As South African LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) activist,
Noma Pakade writes,
“the play was refreshing in its diversity of
how black men process the shame of viol-
ence, the knowing of perpetrators and vic-
tims while they maintain a willingness/need
to change things by not being silent any
longer” (Personal correspondence, 2015)
138 AGENDA 105/29.3 2015
The play demonstrates the potential for
artistic initiatives to reach out to men and
boys on emotional levels, and ways that the
gender order also oppresses men who deviate
from the heteronormative model of
masculinity.
The cultural reproduction of
patriarchy: Issues around leadership
and funding
In the 1990s, the idea of male allies working to
end sexual violence against women was still
very new in the mainstream women’s move-
ment. In 1991, the International White Ribbon
Campaign was started by men in Canada to
work together to end violence against women
(White Ribbon Campaign, 1991). The cam-
paign spread to many parts of the world as
the idea took hold that men could, and should,
be part of the struggle to end violence against
women. By 2004 a global alliance of NGOs
called Men Engage was created, including the
White Ribbon Campaign, and Sonke Gender
Justice (South Africa), amongst others.
men also battle with sexual abuse and face
situations in which perpetrators are their peers
The goals of the White Ribbon campaign are
laudable and have been widely successful in
bringing men on board. Even among critics at
the time, it seemed that bringing male allies
into the movement could only be of benefit.
Yet, it also meant men taking (back) the lead.
Michael Kaufman, one of the core founders of
the White Ribbon Campaign is explicit in his
writing about male leadership in the violence
against women movement. Explaining the
approach in the White Ribbon Campaign
Kaufman (2012:150) writes,
“We said that while men’s violence against
women was, indeed a women’s issues, the
word at the beginning of that phrase -
men’s - shows very clearly that this also
needs to be an issue for men. As a men’s
issue, it was critical that men join women
not only as a well-meaning and enthusi-
astic auxiliary, but as leaders.”
Kaufman continues his argument for male
leadership,
 “Because of sexism, men’s voices are
given more credence. For us, this didn’t
mean to throw up our hands and say that
it’s sexist for men to become leaders;
rather we said it gave us a particular
responsibility to be leaders (as well as
particular challenges to do so in a way
that did not take away women’s voices or
leadership)” (ibid.:150) [emphasis mine].
While Kaufman is right to say men hold power
and many will trust and believe men more,
this solution delinks violence with its struc-
tural root in patriarchy – violence that comes
from modes of entitlement, privilege and
power. This approach is mimicked in other
campaigns such as Real Men and Man Up,
which problematise traditional masculinities
at the same time that they promote an idea of
men taking care of vulnerable women. Even
though Kaufman explicitly says this was not
their intention, and calls the work pro-femin-
ist, it is difficult not to see the problematic
tone. This slippage points to the complexity in
teasing out what pro-feminist projects could
look like when deeply entrenched and com-
plex power structures organise so much of
how the world is experienced by both men
and women.
there is real potential for education campaigns
focused on consent to broaden what men and
boys understand rape to mean
Contrast this approach to men’s writing in
On the Road to Healing (Men’s Centre, 1999)
which acknowledges up front the dangers of
falling in the trap of taking over once again,
and attempts to foreground the need to
encourage men to listen and believe women’s
voices. As Shamim Meer laments in her report
‘Struggles for Gender Equality: Reflection on
the place of men and men’s organisations’
(Meer, 2011:4): “Men are once more in charge
- only this time they’re in charge of women’s
liberation struggles.” The idea that men are in
charge, and necessary as caretakers of wo-
men is often reproduced in the kinds of
projects that get funded and publicised.
The potential for depoliticising sexual and
gender-based violence in order to bring men
into leadership roles is a real concern. This is
exacerbated in South Africa where resource
drain is a significant issue, and there has been
increasing discussion about how much of the
briefing
donor funding is being funnelled to male
focused initiatives. In South Africa:
“Gender stripped of notions of power and
taken to mean ‘women and men’ has
resulted in greater attention to men as
key actors working for gender equality.
This in turn has resulted in an increasing
shift in donor funding to men and boys,
most notably in HIV and AIDS and health
programmes, further threatening women’s
movements, and seeming to represent the
handing over of the reins of gender equality
struggles to men” (Meer, 2013:30).
There is a real danger when men are targeted
for initiatives (often through donor emphasis
and funding) it is in ways that both co-opt
funding from frontline women’s issues, and
reinvent patriarchal ideas about what needs
to be done to end gender based violence. A
quantitative study showing where, and to
whom, money flows in relation to GBV issues
is urgently needed.
Conclusions: Diversity of
approaches, consent, and analysis
It is important to recognise that the sexualisa-
tion of coercion and socialisation runs very
deep, as evidenced in a new study in the US
that found almost one third of male university
student respondents claimed they would rape
a woman if there were no consequences
(Edwards et al, 2014). Central to their findings
was the significant difference in positive
responses between respondents who claimed
they would use coercion to have sexual rela-
tions (31.7%), and those who would use the
label ‘rape’ (13.6%). This indicates that there
is real potential for education campaigns
focused on consent to broaden what men
and boys understand rape to mean. That said,
the study also found that men most likely to
say they would rape (using that terminology)
also held antagonistic and deep-seated negat-
ive feelings about women. Their findings have
significant implications for programmes tar-
geting men, and they specifically reject a one-
size-fits all approach, stating:
“If men who sexually assault harbour dif-
ferent motivations to varying degrees,
identifying them ahead of time and target-
ing interventions toward groups of men
with similar motivations, or better even,
Addressing sexual violence and rape culture 139
briefing
providing personalized prevention pro-
grams, may be more successful. Men
who are primarily motivated by negative,
hostile affect toward women and who
conceptualize their own intentions and
behaviours as rape are unlikely to benefit
from the large group primary prevention
efforts done as part of college outreach
efforts” (Edwards et al, 2014:192).
While small-scale work has been criticised for
being difficult to scale up (Barker, nd), the
above study, along with the funding drain
exerted by large donors and governments,
may in fact point to the need for more small
projects that work closely with men and boys,
as well as male perpetrators.
Pro-feminist interventions with boys and
men that distinguish the structural elements
of patriarchy will be better positioned to
subvert cultures of violence. Such an
approach would keep central education on
structural privilege, gender hierarchies, hege-
monic masculinities, and the meaning of rape
culture. Interventions with boys and men that
do not look at the structural underpinnings of
sexual violence in patriarchy will be vulner-
able to some of the issues noted above. While
small-scale and individual work should con-
tinue, it is clear that a plethora of approaches
are needed, as the large scale political, dis-
cursive and social representations of violent
masculinities must also be addressed. These
approaches may at times contradict each
other, and perhaps that need not be a prob-
lem. Further investigation is warranted into
how indigenous approaches, or other com-
munity-led strategies that are not pro-feminist
may also be effective. Nonetheless, a world in
which men feel entitled to women’s bodies
and women’s labour will continue to be a
world where violence against women exists.
We must recognise the work of building
strong initiatives targeting men and boys is
not easy, and yet this work is essential for any
real end to violence against women, and the
damages of patriarchy for both men and
women.
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SHANNON WALSH is a filmmaker, writer and Assistant Professor at the School

of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Her films have played in
festivals and cinemas around the world, and she publishes in a range of areas
from urban studies, ethnography, and participatory methodologies, largely
focused on South Africa. Walsh received a PhD from McGill University in
2010, and a post-doc at the South African Research Chair in Social Change at
the University of Johannesburg in 2013. Her first book, The Ties that Bind:
Race and the Politics of Friendship in South Africa, edited with Jon Soske, is
due to be released in 2016. Email: shannondawnwalsh@gmail.com

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