IQ2 Debate: Masculinity
SERIES

IQ2 Debate

DATE & TIME

23 OCTOBER 2019

6:30 – 8pm

LOCATION

SYDNEY TOWN HALL
483 George St
Sydney NSW 2000

PRICE

TICKETS
$16.88 – $51.70

 

IQ2 Debate: Masculinity - is it really so fragile?

Grow some balls. Toughen up. Be a man.

“Even if the alt-right doesn’t survive in its current form, a generation of young white men now harbour the dangerous belief that they have no future – a belief that will be that much more dangerous if it proves to be true.” – Angela Nagle

It seems guys are prodded from boyhood to meet certain gendered standards of brash confidence and stoicism. Yet they are also encouraged to protect, respect, provide, and be good guys.

We hear ‘masculinity is in crisis’. Perhaps that well known phrase is recognition the messages around masculinity can be contradictory and confusing. Maybe it’s acknowledgement of male suffering.

But which boys and men are suffering and why? Could it be society is permitting misandry? Are the jokes about privileged men fair or overlooking very real challenges?

About Intelligence Squared:

IQ2 is the Australian arm of the international debate series, Intelligence Squared, which is also held in London, New York and Hong Kong. Speakers have eight uninterrupted minutes to share their ideas – a luxury in today’s fast paced media environment of 15 second grabs and political party spin lines. Help us shape our world with ethics and intelligence.

Speakers

David Leser

is a Walkley-award winning journalist who has worked in Australia and internationally for the past 40 years. He has worked as a feature writer for the Australian, the Bulletin, the Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend and the Australian Women’s Weekly, and as a Washington, Jerusalem and Paris-based correspondent. David is the author of 8 books, including his latest, Women, Men and the Whole Damn Thing, about gender relations in the age of #MeToo.

Zac Seidler

is a psychologist, researcher and mens health advocate. He is currently a Psychologist and Research Fellow at Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health and the Director of Health Professional Training at the Movember Foundation. Zac’s focus is on treating, researching and advocating for better mental health outcomes for all men to stop men dying by suicide.

Catharine Lumby

is a Professor of Media Studies at Macquarie University and the author and co-author of seven books. Before she went into academia she was a print and television journalist working for the SMH, the ABC and the Bulletin. She is passionate about preventing violence against women and has worked for over a decade with the National Rugby League to improve their culture and off field behaviour.

Raewyn Connell 

is one of Australia’s leading social scientists, specialising in class, gender, education, global patterns in knowledge, and most prominently, masculinity. She is an author of 25 books including Masculinities (1995, 2005) and most recently The Good University, plus more than 200 academic articles. Active in the labour, peace, and gender equality movements, she formerly advised the UN gender equality and peace initiatives.

Guest host

Dr Norman Swan is an award-winning journalist and medical specialist, and host ofThe Health Report on the ABC’s Radio National, which is the world’s longest running health programme in the English-speaking world. His career spans radio and TV in Australia and the UK with broadcast reach across 27 countries, as well as academia, and consultation to the World Health Organisation.

With thanks to our media partner

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Who is it for?


  • THE ADVOCATE
  • THE COUCH COACH
  • THE IDEALIST
  • THE PROVOCATOR
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What you'll take away


  • 01CHALLENGING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING IDEAS
  • 02CONNECTIONS WITH YOUR PEERS
  • 03KEY FACTS AND TALKING POINTS OF THE MAJOR ISSUES
  • 04NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE DEBATE