Book Review by Carlton Rounds on:Toxic Masculinity: Curing the Virus: making men smarter, healthier, safer

Toxic Masculinity: Curing the Virus: making men smarter, healthier, safer

Written by Stephen Whitehead

And Reviewed by Carlton Rounds

This book could not be more timely or relevant. When toxic masculinity pours forth from the highest political offices in the land, the urgency to understand the challenges and the opportunities poised at the intersection of power, justice and gender hints at outcomes and predicts the potential future of humankind. I loved this book. It called me out, it reassured me, and it rekindled my curiosity.

The book is accessible and well structured allowing individuals with different levels of gender awareness to follow the observations and narrative. The book explores and defines intersecting zones of masculine identity and behavior making specific, well explained and targeted points. The helpful lists of behaviors and questions could literally be applied as a rough diagnostic tool, or to really get a group going during a facilitated discussion. The author’s approach is neither cajoling nor condescending. His feminist platform is not submerged, and his commitment to the term renews its “spirit” making feminist identity seem more expansive and engaging than what it has become, it feels to me, flattened academic dogma.

It is clear the author would like to see men and women evolve into progressive gender expression, and he calls out both sexes for perpetuating toxicity. In the author’s world, everyone is part of a constellation of behaviors that pollute the integrity of our world. As a progressive masculine man myself, this book helped me recognize issues I need to work on, and due to Stephen’s writing, I have new concepts and language I can drop into discussions I am determined to spark.

I am particularly inspired by the “futurist” scenarios used to show trajectories of change over time. As a historian, this stylistic technique is very compelling. It stretches my perspective and my sociological imagination by requiring continuous growth and evolution not just about gender but about what is possible in human society. My woke style in the year 2019 might be the unenlightened cave of thought by 2050. Finally, Stephen brings not just a lifetime of experience and self reflection to his findings, but an Asian cultural awareness making his work not just a western anchored exploration, but a conversation with a global cadence.

Having met Stephen in person, his warmth and emotional intelligence are much like you would imagine. His role at 70 as gender journeyman is not just fitting, but reassuring. He is helping define what a mature progressive masculinity looks like, not leaving the work and the responsibility to the emerging younger generation. In addition, for those of us who never had the benefit of non toxic Dads or Grandpas, Stephen’s desire for a more deeply connected experience feels personal, validating and healing.

In service,

Carlton Rounds

Invitation as Key Note Speaker for Charles University's Event Sponsored by the US State Department for Cultural Diplomacy

Dear Mr. Rounds – and To Whom It May Concern,

This letter is to serve as official invitation and confirmation that Mr. Carlton Rounds has been awarded a Small Grant for Democracy by the United States Department of State through its US Embassy to the Czech Republic to visit the Department of American Studies of Charles University in Prague to be a keynote speaker and trainer at the Allen Ginsberg Memorial Freedom Festival, to take place in Prague, the Czech Republic on April 29 through May 7, 2015.

Click Here for Information on the Historic Visit of Allen Ginsberg to Prague 50 Years Ago

Mr. Rounds’ participation is key to the success of the Festival, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of out gay Beat poet and activist Allen Ginsberg’s 1965 visit to Prague, in then Communist Czechoslovakia. The Festival presents to Czech university students and faculty, the general public and activist audiences the history and current state of US artistic freedom of expression, democratic dissent, civil rights and LGBT and HIV/AIDS activism, and trains them in cross-cultural coalition building for social justice. Mr. Rounds’ extensive experience and strong record of leadership in these fields make him a highly desirable citizen diplomat for this cultural exchange program.

Professional Enhancement Webinar: Cultural Competency vs Humility, Emotional Intelligence & Leveraged Vulnerability, & Global Health Practice with Carlton Rounds

Professional Enhancement Webinar:

Cultural Competency vs Humility, Emotional Intelligence & Leveraged Vulnerability, & Global Health Practice with Carlton Rounds

Monday, June 13, 2016

8:00pm-9:00pm EST

Join us for an enlightening discussion addressing emotional intelligence, cultural competency, relationships and vulnerability in the public health workplace. Specifically, as these areas pertain to public health service abroad. This webinar is an opportunity to apply the knowledge and theories you have learned in the classroom to real world situations. Mr. Rounds will also discuss the opportunities to partake in public health work abroad with his organization Cross Cultural Solutions.

Presenter: Carlton Rounds, Director of Campus Engagement and Public Health for Cross-Cultural Solutions

Carlton Rounds is the Director of Campus Engagement and Public Health for Cross-Cultural Solutions the leading international volunteer service organization in the USA. Carlton has been working in the fields of international education, volunteer service, public health, social work, and proactive social inclusion and diversity for nearly 30 years. He has traveled, served, and taught all over the world in areas of democratic transition with the intention of expanding the rights of marginalized people and communities. Carlton is an international education professional having led study abroad offices both public and private, admission offices, and financial aid centers, and in the role of selector and mentor for high level merit scholarship programs.

An expert in his field, Carlton has been honored with numerous awards for his diversity work and was recognized for being one of the top 100 innovators for 2011 through POZ Magazine, and was a first place national award winner that same year with Diversity Abroad Network. Carlton is also a member of the Building Bridges Coalition, and a certified Community Health Worker who focuses on communities affected by HIV both domestically and abroad.

RSVP for Monday, June 13 8-9pm 

Kelley Vargo, MPH, MS, CISSN

Practicum Coordinator |  Academic Advisor |  Part-Time Faculty |  MPH@GW

Milken Institute School of Public Health | The George Washington University 

950 New Hampshire Ave. NW |  2nd floor

Washington, DC 20052

p:202.994.0867 | f:202.994.1850 | kmvfit@gwu.edu

Twitter | Facebook

HIV Story Project - Carlton Rounds - HIV and Moments of Levity

Founded in 2009, The HIV Story Project is a San Francisco based non-profit organization focused on bridging HIV/AIDS with film, media and storytelling to fight the spread of the pandemic and the global stigma associated with it. We create our own film and media projects in addition to offering production services and digital media consultation & training to HIV/AIDS nonprofits in San Francisco and beyond.

MISSION
The HIV Story Project uses multi-platform media and personal stories to advance HIV/AIDS education and awareness, support HIV/AIDS nonprofit organizations, fight the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, and give a voice to the HIV positive community.

VISION
The HIV Story Project envisions acceptance, support, and empowerment of people living with HIV/AIDS; a reduction in HIV/AIDS health inequalities; and a reduction in new HIV/AIDS infections with the ultimate aim of halting the pandemic.

VALUES
The HIV Story Project believes in the transformational capacity of personal stories, especially to empower those living with HIV/AIDS and enlighten others about the impact of the pandemic.

The HIV Story Project seeks to support underserved communities and those disproportionately affected by the pandemic, including LGBT people, communities of color, women, and youth.

The HIV Story Project fosters collaboration between those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, media artists, community advocates, health care providers and public health professionals, funders, and other concerned stakeholders.

The HIV Story Project provides affordable and high-quality media services for HIV/AIDS nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as nationally and globally.

The HIV Story Project is committed to the professional development of emerging media artists, filmmakers, and storytellers, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

NON-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT
The HIV Story Project supports and celebrates diversity in all of its forms and does not discriminate based on sex, gender identity, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, religious creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental ability.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The HIV Story Project on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/HIVStoryProject.
The HIV Story Project on Twitter:https://twitter.com/HIVStoryProject.

Racism in Performance - A Holiday Reflection in Portland

This past Saturday night I went as I usually do to see the Portland Gay Men's Chorus Holiday Concert. Escorted by my partner and my friends we settled in for a night of feeling safe, included, sentimental, humorous, and hopefully lifted up. Having been part of the gay chorus movement myself, I have always valued the contributions gay choruses have made not just to the quality of my life, but to my political and social awareness. I have people dear to me in the Portland chorus and I am proud of them and their artistry. I also know them to be some of the most progressive and amazing people in the community today. Walking to the PCPA for the show Saturday night, there were reports of protesters on the Burnside Bridge, and surely for the many days and weeks before the concert, images of unjust killings of black people were broadcast all over the media. For many people, the depth of pain being felt due to the injustice of a maligned and marginalized group, has deeply impacted most communities I know. Portland had huge rallies expressing outrage. This is why I was not expecting to be hurt and dismayed and angry in a place where those who have been historically targeted gather, a gay chorus concert.

Sexual Diversity in College - SUNY New Paltz responds to Tyler Clementi Death

OCTOBER 21, 2011

New Paltz is fortunate to be a diverse community—a campus where diversity along the lines of class, race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability and religion is understood as the mark of a vibrant, democratic institution of higher learning.  Celebration of and respect for diversity are among our core values and in our interactions with colleagues and students, we honor and act upon these values.

South African Travel Writing

South Africa Piece

What does a gay white man pack when he goes to Africa the first time? I asked myself this preparing for my first trip to South Africa. What I knew about South Africa was limited to what I suppose many Americans know, Mandela, Apartheid, wildness, animals, and black people. I had talked with some of my South African students at the college since I managed their special program, and was aware of the unique and blunt way they confronted racial issues. I remember being excited yet a bit unsure of what to expect and how to handle what I might experience as a visitor to such a distant place. How would I communicate? Would I be understood? Would people know I was American? What might that mean to them? I knew they would know I was white.