This is the fifth in a series of columns previewing the presenters at the Imagine – Learn/Inspire/Act Conference being held on Saturday, May 6 at the Almonte Civitan Hall. The What Now Lanark County Committee is pleased to share the biography of Alex Manley whose talk will be The New Masculinity: Debunking the Man Myths We Grew Up With.
Though masculinity has come a long way in terms of detoxifying itself in recent decades, there remains much work to be done. Alex will expose a handful of the most common and harmful myths lingering on about how men should act today. Listen to someone who’s written for a men’s website for almost a decade walk you through some of the most pernicious myths that men still encounter and reveal how casting aside those myths can transform lives.
Biography
Alex Manley is a Montreal-based non-binary editor, translator and award-winning writer who has worked for the men’s lifestyle website AskMen since 2013. Their writing has been published by Hazlitt, The Walrus, Vulture, Catapult, Electric Literature, Maisonneuve Magazine and THIS Magazine among others. Alex has also written a book soon to be released by ECW Press that will be available at the conference. The New Masculinity: A Roadmap for a 21st-Century Definition of Manhood is a guide for escaping the shackles of toxic masculinity, unlearning what it means to be a man, and pushing back against the various ways masculinity teaches people to hurt rather than help, and to harm rather than heal. It charts a course for a wholly new future of the self that’s neither particularly manly nor particularly masculine, but responsive, invested and caring.
Through their years of writing and editing at AskMen, Alex has seen up close how angry, scared and lonely men are, how entrenched in a culture war they feel, and their need for a guide to unlearning the habits that perpetuate that harm. There are an infinite number of ways to be a person, but to access them fully, men need to break from the restrictions of modern gender roles and the ways society has taught them to shave parts of themselves off until their masculinity comes before their humanity.
The What Now Lanark County Committee is very pleased to have Alex come to Almonte to give a presentation that is sure to enlighten and inspire both men and women. We are also pleased that ECW Press is making The New Masculinity available for purchase ahead of its official launch date. Conference tickets are $40 (includes lunch and snacks) and are available at ticketsplease.ca. Tickets are also available at Baker Bob’s, 75 Little Bridge Street in Almonte. For more information contact whatnowlanarkcounty@gmail.com.
Fern Martin
