Rocio Lorenzo: The Impact of Diversity on Innovation
June 21, 2023
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In the TED Talk titled “3 Things Men Can Do to Promote Gender Equity,” Jimmie Briggs, a journalist, essayist, and co-founder of the Man Up Campaign, calls for a gender reckoning. He emphasizes the need for men to confront their own toxic behavior and recognize the debt owed to women and girls due to the consequences of male toxicity. This debt has created a gender wealth gap that affects those who care for their families and act as primary income generators.
Briggs believes that a true gender reckoning must be at the center of any transformative movement for social justice and equity. He discusses how reproductive justice endangers the lives and rights of women in regards to their bodily, sexual, and gender autonomy, impacting the most disenfranchised community in society.
Violence against women in all its forms still represents an existential challenge, and certain types of masculinity can harm women, girls, nonbinary people, and men through violence, dominating power, and control. Briggs reflects on how societal expectations of masculinity led him to ignore his health and put himself in danger. He argues that there is no one way to be a man and that men must be consistent in supporting women, especially women of color who face systemic oppression.
Briggs questions how many men stand with women in the fight for equality. He discusses the need for men to take accountability for acts of violence against women and to actively work towards disrupting the narrative of male toxicity. He provides examples of men who are actively working towards this goal but emphasizes that more men need to take action.
Briggs ends his talk with a call to action for men to break free from the pack and work towards building equity and safety for women. Equity, justice, inclusivity, and safety for women, girls, and nonbinary people benefit everyone, while broken masculinity harms societies. Recognizing this truth will help us find our shared humanity. Men and women standing together on equal footing with mutual respect in safe environments is the greatest gender reckoning we can create.
Shared humanity is that beautiful place where purpose, passion, and possibility fluidly coexist.
Jimmie Briggs
Journalist & Advocate for Racial @ Gender Justice
Shared humanity is that beautiful place where purpose, passion, and possibility fluidly coexist.
Jimmie Briggs
Journalist & Advocate for Racial @ Gender Justice
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