The Caring Labor of Engaging Men in Sexual Violence Prevention

Abstract: What possibilities are generated when the work of sexual violence prevention is conceptualized through a critical feminist analysis of the politics of care? I explore this question by drawing on my research on engaging male students in anti-violence efforts at Canadian universities. Expanding upon existing literature on caring masculinities, I complicate the emphasis on simply getting men to care, which pervades contemporary anti-violence efforts. I argue that caring about sexual violence must translate into practices of care that dismantle its roots in uneven power arrangements, including gendered inequities and associated masculine norms. The transformative potential of these anti-violence efforts hinges on the caring labor that their facilitation requires and on the structural and institutional conditions that render this labor (im)possible. I conclude that rethinking anti-violence work through the lens of care challenges not only the devaluation and invisibilization of this labor, but also its persistent depoliticization.