Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Exploring Masculinity And Self-Compassion, Sarelle Creesy

Community Engagement Student Work

This workshop taught self-compassion as a tool to mitigate effects of toxic masculinity on male youth. Males ages 16-26 were given a definition of toxic masculinity and reviewed how expectations of it are taught and reinforced through Harro’s Cycle of Socialization (2010). They then learned about Kristin Neff’s theory of self-compassion. Participants then reflected on one instance of toxic masculinity that they had faced before, either as a perpetrator or a victim of it, using one chosen element of self-compassion. One key finding included 100% of participants agreeing they could see themselves using self-compassion when facing pressures of masculinity. In …