“Social change is a messy process. We need more men with the guts to stand up and say abusive behaviour is abusive behaviour, and it’s not right and it doesn’t make me less of a man to point that out.” - Jackson Katz

Our Mission

To enlist men to speak up and take action against all forms of sexual & gender violence and inequality.

Our Method:

Part start-up / part social movement we respect and salute the fantastic work towards the noble goal of gender equality of those that have come before us. We reject as false both the notion that this is a women's problem and that it has been solved. We want to experiment with fresh new approaches to tackle gender inequality: deploy inspirational men with a positive message, integrate social media, iterate and improve quickly, and ultimately have a meaningful and measurable social impact across our campus and society.
MenSpeakUp designed, built and populated this social advocacy portal to inspire higher standards of gender respect and equality. The website and associated media is not only the official student and alumni group website for MenSpeakUp, formerly Harvard Men Against Rape, but also serves as a platform for Harvard community-generated public service announcement styled video clips, blogs from student and social change specialists, and pledges of support from campus leaders. The objective is to stimulate positive debate and deliver responsible and thoughtful content leadership on the web - where it has been found most wanting.  

Our Innovation:

A radical catalyst to add a new and effective voice to the gender equality movement. 

I Men who broadcast a positive, challenging, and inclusive message to change men's attitudes and actions

II A media-genic, searchable, indexed, and responsive voice where it is needed most.

III Build partnerships with those that share our views of a positive, challenging, and respectful purpose for men and constantly seek to reach new members across society to understand the issue and to act on it: to speak up.

We Educate the Youth, Challenge Ourselves, and Take Responsibility:

We want to change social norms and promote positive and responsible action by men. Reinforce role-models, on campus and on a national level, to give social permission for men to champion the cause of gender equality. We want to amplify the Good in men, and in society, and turn passive observers of injustice into active campaigners for equality and respect.

Our Team

MenSpeakUp was conceived in 2008 when recent Harvard graduate Hugo Van Vuuren approached Gordon Braxton with the idea of using the internet to challenge the dominant conceptualization of men as apathetic to the problems of gendered inequality and violence.  Over the following year, the project would pick up additional collaborators ranging from very talented filmmakers to programmers, sponsors and many men and women in the community interested in the project’s mission. The culmination of this collaboration is menspeakup.org. Today the project is headed up and managed by Seth Avakian, successor to Gordon Braxton, and Prevention Specialist at Harvard's Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response.

We hope that MenSpeakUp fulfills its promise of providing an internet home to men who are very much concerned about the levels of gendered inequality and violence in the world, whom we believe represent the majority of men despite what the media, tradition, or casual male demeanor might suggest.  Of course, there is nothing new about men lending their voices to such causes.  Men’s efforts such as this have come and gone throughout the past decades and we know that the site’s eventual success can only come about through the continued support of large segments of the Harvard community.  We have avoided the temptation to create something that only includes male input and have instead opted for the more appropriate inclusion of women, many of who have been working on gender equality issues for decades, in designing this site’s content.

Where this site might offer something different from many past men’s efforts is that it dares to feel at home on the Internet, an arena that is arguably hostile to the site’s mission.  Most casual internet users know that they are always but a few mouse clicks away from material that is misogynistic or treats violence against women casually and, many times, can find such content without even trying to do so.  However, contrary viewpoints require much more deliberate usage so we have created this site in the hopes of making them a little easier to find.  In this sense, we are applying new media to one of the world’s oldest problems. Should this site succeed within the Harvard community, it is our intention to pursue more global support and collaborate with other schools, community organizations, and hopefully male leaders from around the globe.

Thank you for supporting menspeakup.org. Please take personal responsibility in your daily actions and spread the message.