Larry Eustachy, CSU Basketball, and Emotionality

Getty Images

Flying slightly under the radar here at Colorado State University is the investigation and resignation of Men's Basketball head coach Larry Eustachy. His public story begins at Iowa State University where he is fired for drinking with college students at house parties.

A variety of thoughts: USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University

Source: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

From left: Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Lauren Hernandez, Madison Kocian and Alexandra Raisman

Something that gives me the heeby jeebies is watching the interaction between gymnasts who are women and their coaches who always seem to be men after a routine. If you lean on your empathetic observations, you'll see varying levels of comfort from the women, and often times I feel like there's waaaaaay more touching than necessary for a professional relationship. And there are times where there's visible discomfort from the women. This is a glimpse into the world of US Gymnastics and Michigan State University, where the dynamic of men in power combined with the silence and shaming of survivors of sexual violence produces one of the most terrifying sexual predators of my lifetime.

Feels About Football

Photo Cred - Gerry Melendez

I love watching football. I do. Both the NFL and Division I in college. The simplicity of the game itself makes way for incredibly complex interpretations of how to win the game and that results in a beautiful mosaic of playing styles, talent leverage, competition, and an annual sense of hope that things this year will be different for "our" team (unless you're the Browns...). Simple and complex.

I love the conversations around football. Something this popular also, simply put, holds a mirror to "our" society. Recent NFL seasons have exposed what we are willing to be complicit about in order to maintain "our" entertainment that is the sport of football. That list of what we're complicit about is incredibly long. Sports can challenge our understandings of masculinities, race, gender violence, sexual orientation, socioeconomic disparities, mental health, military, and all of those at once even if at times they feel like separate topics. It's one of the simplest ways to engage in important societal issues, and you can do this by simply asking, "Hey, what do you think about Kaepernick and what he stands for?" Simple and complex.

The topics above have been hashed out, re-hashed, and revisited as new information comes out. I'm not here to make a stance (although I have one). I'm here to explore something a little deeper that keeps surfacing for me year after year during football season. What I want to explore is the question: Is football something I actually enjoy or something that I learned to enjoy?

Man Spreading: What is it and what’s the big deal?

When we use the phrase Rape Supportive Culture, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly what this means and what it looks like. Sometimes, men will get defensive because it implicates us as part of the problem (and we are part of the problem in a lot of ways and are trying to work against this. Either way, men benefit from Rape Supportive Culture. But that’s a discussion for another day…). Sometimes we can feel helpless when we gain a better understanding of Rape Supportive Culture. Because it’s a lot. And it can be difficult to know where to start. Ultimately, if we want to reduce rates of rape and sexual assault in our culture, particularly against women, children and trans-identified people,

New Year's Resolutions for Men in the Movement

Find meaningful ways to impact campus
We resolve to get more involved on campus. For us, this means challenging ourselves to attend open events to increase our perspectives, to bring feminist philosophies into current student organizations we're involved in, and seek opportunities (employment and volunteer) where we can align our perspectives with others to help foster positive change.

Strive for growth
There are many different ways to grow. For us, we resolve to continue our education about gender, intersectionality, and social justice as a whole as a focus for self growth. We resolve to actively engage in conversations about masculinity and gender with our peers. We resolve to keep noticing oppression around us and hold ourselves accountable for our own oppressive actions. Through this self and community growth, we hope to increase participation in Men in the Movement overall.

Practice, practice, practice
In Men in the Movement, we talk a lot about expressing empathy, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, and holding each other and ourselves accountable to our actions. We think that doing these things will bring us closer together as a community. We also want to honor that empathy, vulnerability, and accountability can be hard. So we resolve to practice being empathetic, practice being vulnerable, and practice being accountable, and support each other in these actions.

Let us know what you think! We invite feedback because feedback is love.

And here is some Calvin and Hobbes! Let's resolve to not take on his attitude...

UPDATE: Check out our Upcoming Events page for more recent information on our open events!

Tonight is the second session of Men in the Movement's Men in Media Series! This interactive, discussion based workshop is open to students, staff, and faculty of all genders. We'll be examining two very popular TV series, "How I Met Your Mother" and "Big Bang Theory". Not only will you pick up some skills in critically consuming media, we'll have facilitated discussion about the messages we receive about masculinity from these shows. We will be in Clark C146 from 7-8PM tonight, Thursday, October 2nd. Can't wait to see you there!