Men in our culture have been conditioned to believe that showing emotion is a sign of weakness therefore many feel pressure to suppress feelings and put on a façade of toughness. Our latest project aims to encourage emotional expression positively to help young men at a formative stage improve their ability to share their feelings. We held our inaugural event with students from Ferndown Upper School and Bourne Academy on May 21st. Nine boys had written pieces about immigration, asylum seekers and refugees; they then read out the work and were questioned by a panel of judges. Every piece had merit and the judges found it difficult to decide who the top three were, in fact they choose four with a joint third place. We were well supported in this endeavour: Aref Dahwan, an asylum seeker who now has refugee status, spoke to us and added considerable insight into the scenario, Bournemouth University provided us with the space, Kevin Forres, a local business man, provided resource for prizes and refreshments, the teachers at both schools helped to identify interested students and parents/ family came to support the boys while sharing their words. We would also like to thank Future Men for allowing us to use their seven characteristics that contribute to positive masculinity as criteria for the work. It was an interesting and thought-provoking evening; we hope it becomes part of our annual calendar of club events.
If you are interested in this and would like to come along to a Soroptimist International Bournemouth meeting to find out more, please email us at sigbibournemouth@hotmail.co.uk.