Masses of Men

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The Promise Keepers and Farrakhan are offering men a choice to gather with other men and feel their pain. This is a very rare opportunity in a culture where men are raised to compete and to withhold feelings of vulnerability, even from themselves. There are 130 million jobs in America today, 90 million of which are threatened with technological extinction in the next decade or two. Man as the breadwinner of the family is already an anachronistic anomaly -- in the majority of American households today both parents work full-time. Being tough, macho, or the strong silent type keeps the pain and confusion buttoned up. Men need to feel and express their pain, not just with a woman who's willing to offer a sympathic ear, but -- and here's the risky part -- with other men. The Promise Keepers and Farrakhan's march weren't advertised as therapy or healing, but in essence that's what the men who attended the gatherings received. Now, we might ask, where will men who are turned off by the patriarchal messages of Farrakhan and the Promise Keepers turn to safely share their fears, to find their own sense of solidarity and support?

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