Become an ally
If you’d like to volunteer your time or skills and support us in challenging male violence, sexism and misogyny, get in touch!
About MACS
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MACS (Male Allies Challenging Sexism) aims to build a pro-feminist men’s movement to stand alongside the established radical feminist movement to work for an end to the oppression of women and girls and increase men’s awareness and activism around feminist issues.
MACS stands against all forms of male violence against women and girls, including sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, coercion, financial abuse, sexual harassment and the sexual exploitation industries (pornography, prostitution etc).
We support the rights of women and girls to safe legal abortion, single-sex spaces, fair treatment by the police and justice systems, equal pay, fairness in sports and a world without male violence.
We also recognise the need for effective child safeguarding, support gay and lesbian rights and question the current focus on and prioritisation of people’s gender identities over sex-based rights.
Our aim is to move men forward, from caring enough to talk about these issues, to taking action on these issues.
We recognise that men are socialised to adopt and excuse discriminatory, harmful and violent behaviours and beliefs towards women and girls and acknowledge the devastating effect this has on them. We also acknowledge that cultural stereotypes and expectations about what men should be and act like can be damaging to men and society as a whole.
Our aim is to support men in becoming better, more empathic human beings and to engage them in education, consciousness raising and activism to counteract sexism and misogyny in particular.
To achieve this aim, we organise actions such as pickets, protests and vigils, an annual conference and a discussion club. The aim of our actions and events is to challenge sexism and misogyny, to challenge ourselves and other men.
MACS also answers requests for support from groups and organisations focussing on women’s rights, children’s rights and lesbian and gay rights.
Brief History
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Male Allies Challenging Sexism (MACS) is a pro-feminist men’s organisation came to existence following a meeting of a group of likeminded men in early 2021, who went on to organise the Engage Conference in November 2021.
The Engage Conference was an online pro-feminist event which took place over 3 days from 19–21 November 2021. From the start the organisers were clear that the conference should be not-for-profit and that all profits from the conference should be donated to women’s charities. Due to the kindness of the speakers and participants who donated their time and the generosity of the attendees, the Engage Conference was able to raise over hundreds of pounds for Women’s Aid and Women for Afghan Women.
The Engage Conference in 2021 deliberately started International Men’s Day, a day that has often been hijacked by men’s rights activists. Because of this we felt it was important to organise to do something positive for women and men on that day and as a result staged simultaneous protests in London and Manchester against male violence against women and girls and the lack of justice for women. We also hoped that the Engage Conference, which took part just prior to the 16 days of activism to challenge men’s violence against women and girls, would galvanise more men into supporting us, our events and actions.
The success of the Engage Conference allowed our group to grow and enabled us to formally incorporate Male Allies Challenging Sexism as a CIC in 2022. MACS is made up of men from various backgrounds who live across the UK and have been involved in the pro-feminist movement in various ways. Our committee includes includes men who wrote for the Anti-Porn Men Project and delivered men’s workshops at Feminism in London (now FiLiA), the Founder of White Ribbon UK and in the past, the Anti Sexist Men’s Newsletter and Achilles Heel magazine.
Some of us are active campaigners challenging Sex Encounter Venues. We run a monthly Feminist Book Club in which we discuss feminist books past and present. We stand in solidarity with and support feminist organisations including FiLiA, Nordic Model Now, Object, Sex Matters, Southall Black Sisters and the Women’s Rights Network as well as the LGB Alliance and countless other organisations and individuals.
