Voices: 'My Masculinity Helps' takes an unflinching look at race, gender roles

My Masculinity Helps, a 30-minute documentary focusing on the prevention of sexual violence — especially within the male African American community — was screened at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) this week. The film was made by Marc A. Grimmett, an Associate Professor of Counselor Education at North Carolina State University and David Hambridge, a North Carolina filmmaker.

Grimmett was in attendance and led a short discussion of the film after the screening.

The film’s website says the work “serves as a counter-narrative to often inaccurate and misleading portrayals of African American masculinity.”

Gimmett has made a film that has graphic moments — as sharing stores of sexual abuse can often be — but the message is strong, with many different dynamic layers throughout the film.

At its core My Masculinity Helps does a good job defining terms that form the foundation of the key messages: sexual assault, rape and consent.

These words are often censored from mainstream media, but they are clearly spelled out here. This is necessary for education and facilitating communication among anyone, especially men and boys who are sometimes left out of the general discussion around these issues.

Not only did the film and discussion feature stories of assault, but it went on to highlight what happened afterward. Grimmett did an excellent job reminding us that sexual assault doesn’t stop after the story is told. People who have experienced this trauma have to live with it forever.

A fascinating aspect is how others, especially close friends, react to their stories. Those reactions can often have the largest and most important impact.

The film emphasizes that being supportive, believing in the survivor and leading them to get the help they need is the best thing anyone can do.

The film — besides presenting stories by survivors of assault — features primarily African American men in situations of power, including professors or preachers that use their male privilege within that community for good.

Given recent events like the Mike Brown and Eric Garner cases, it seemed especially important to feature black men as mentors and instructors.

The scenes in My Masculinity Helps are not scripted interviews, but real life conversations in churches and in barbershops that highlight African American men that actively want to prevent sexual violence against women.

At just 30 minutes, the film touches on many other issues that get at the root causes of sexual assault and touches on gender roles, racism, violence, communication — and how they prevent sexual assault.

A screening of this film — which brings to light so many relevant, simmering issues – is an excellent way to facilitate discussion on the topic at any academic level.

For more on the film, the director, screenings and how to bring the film to your campus, visit the film’s website.