intention

The Archive is a community generated platform that digitally archives physical experiences about masculinities. The intention of the Archive is to make suppressed ideas, experiences and feelings about masculinity visible and to collectively unfold an authentic story about masculinities. A narrative that does not come from the unambiguous view of masculinity through patriarchy, but which is felt by people themselves, of all genders.

The archive consists of four sub-archives, each with their own approach:

In the 'mapping' archive you will find a community generated map in which physical experiences with masculinities are located. You can discover global experiences and you can add your own. Stories are told about remembering a dear man, fatherhood, love between two men, the struggle of a young boy growing up, the tragedy of femicide, and everything that people think belongs to masculinities. In this cartographic archive, national boundaries blur and the construction of masculinity is decentralized, making way for deeply felt real experiences about masculinities.

In the 'exploring' archive you will find numerous sources of films, documentaries, books, interviews, articles, poems, texts, plays that tell and embody an intersectional view of masculinities. It creates a great resource that is continuously updated by people from all over the world with the expressions of the diverse culture that concerns masculinities.

The 'sharing' archive contains numerous personal interviews and texts with various people about their views and experiences about masculinities. In the interviews, people are asked about their personal experience with masculinities: from their youth, to role models, to their own self-exploration into masculinity.

They are asked for an object that symbolizes masculinities for them. Work is being done to recontexualize and revisualize masculinities in new symbols that move away from stereotypes but seek authentic symbolization of personal experiences.

The Archive is a constantly changing database of stories and experiences about masculinities. The fact that masculinities are written in plural is exactly what this archive is intended for. It is the retrieval, conversion, organization and sharing of stories and personal experiences with masculinities. These experiences and stories cannot be captured in a single meaning, as presented by patriarchy. The intention is to provide an open and versatile image that both celebrates and questions masculinities.

This Archiving is necessary because masculinities is under pressure. Masculinity is often seen as a toxic anti-equality approach. In a world where machoism, heteronormativity and capitalism prevail, this is certainly true and men and others are very influenced by male power.

At the same time, we need in-depth research into masculinity, because only that can provide preventive and remedial education about masculinity. A society that is less concerned with gender connotations would help with this, but gender and being a man are an important part of life and our society. Boys growing up still ask questions about who they are, gay men are still figuring out how they want to relate to men, women dealing with toxic masculinity and so everyone is involved and benefits from a healthy view of masculinity.

This archive offers an intersectional and queer way of archiving. As a tool in this gray area to reflect, open up and share stories.