When I first found Good Men Project, I was excited. Here was a website dedicated to changing the traditional views of manhood and working towards social change. This was somewhere that I could offer my own voice on being a man in the 21st Century. But I hesitated to offer submissions because I thought my articles had to be exclusively about manhood. I worried about writing things that would be on topic.
A year later, I let Lisa Blacker on Facebook. She read through my recent Facebook posts and pointed to a few that would be perfect for the site. They weren’t directly about manhood: What made them on topic was that they were about issues of importance to the sort of man that Good Men Project is designed for. My social media posts reach about a hundred people; my Good Men Project articles reach thousands.
I learned that The Good Man Project is about being men who are positive forces of change. Since that’s what shapes my perspective, much of what I write fits in. If that’s what contributes to your perspective, there’s a good chance your articles will fit in, too.
Do you write about social justice? Do you have strong opinions on confronting bigotry in any or all of its forms? My most-viewed article is on fat-shaming, and my most-shared article is on white supremacy. We love articles about social justice!
Do you enjoy sports or movies? We know how Maxim and GQ would cover these: Think about a different perspective. I have written several TV and movie reviews myself. We love articles on popular culture!
Do you have perspectives on relationships, dating, sex, or divorce? We have articles from lawyers, relationship coaches, sex-positive counselors, journalists, and just plain old regular folks. We would love to hear from you!
If you have industry-specific knowledge, think about how sharing that could be interesting to men who are seeking to be positive changers. I’m a teacher, and I’ve written articles on education. I’ve been a market researcher: How about an article on how corporations manipulate us, and how we should be mindful of their tricks?
Physical health, mental health, history, parenting…. If it helps our readers to explore what it means to be a better person and a better man, it’s part of the conversation here.
And yes, of course, there are articles about challenging the patriarchy, overcoming toxic masculine programming, ending sexism, and changing what it means to be a “man.”
If you have something to say that you think will be interesting to men outside the traditional box, write it down and submit it to us! We take short pieces, we take longer pieces, we even take poetry.
If it’s about making the world a better place, we’d love to read it.
Stop mulling, start writing!
Originally published at The Good Men Project.