A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity

In 2019, traditional masculinity is both rewarded and sanctioned. Men grow up being told that boys don’t cry and dolls are for girls. They learn they must hide their feelings and anxieties, that their masculinity must constantly be proven. They must be the breadwinners, they must be the romantic pursuers. This hasn’t been good for the culture at large: 99% of school shooters are male; men in fraternities are 300% more likely to commit rape; a woman serving in uniform has a higher likelihood of being assaulted by a fellow soldier than to be killed by enemy fire.

So what are we going to do about men? Author, activist and journalist Liz Plank has an answer. In her latest book, For the Love of Men, Liz offers a smart, insightful, and deeply-researched guide for what we're all going to do about toxic masculinity. She offers insight for women looking to guide the men in their lives as well as for men who want to do better and just don’t know how. Liz is a leader in the ongoing discussions about men's issues in a society where so much is changing, but gender roles have remained strangely stagnant.

Join Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Sarwang Parikh for a conversation with Liz about the future of gender roles, and explore how finding a new way forward for men has the possibility to change the world.

Copies of Liz Plank’s book, For the Love of Men, will be available for sale at this event.

Liz Plank is an award-winning journalist and the Executive Producer and Host of Vox Media's Consider It. She was also the executive producer of Vox.com’s Shorty Award-winning series about the 2016 presidential election called 2016ish, in which she interviewed key figures like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Michael Moore, Tony Goldwyn, Joss Whedon, and Hope Solo. Liz was also named Mediaite's 2016 Most Influential in News Media, has presented a Tedx Talk about modern masculinity called “How to be a man, a woman’s guide,” and was named one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Media.

Sarwang Parikh is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has been working therapeutically with young people, adults and groups in various clinical and community settings for over 15 years. He currently works primarily with men of color. He is an alumnus of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Integral Counseling Program (ICP) program and currently lives and works out of the East Bay, California.

Sarwang has been dedicated to men's work since co-founding his first men's group with other CIIS men nearly 12 years ago, and they have been meeting regularly ever since. Sarwang is also involved in several local men's movement projects centering men of color in the exploration of intersectional identities.

Sarwang is a Clinical Director of School Based services for Bay Area non-profit, Seeds of Awareness and is a community teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. He teaches mindfulness within clinical trainings, schools, organizations; focusing on social-emotional wellness and trauma-informed approaches for more sustainability of front-line folks. Sarwang is passionately committed towards healing justice, invested in social change and personal healing through mindfulness and psychospiritual practices.