About us

Introduction and overview
Principles
Funding
Volunteering your support
Who
History

Introduction and overview

XY is a website focused on men, masculinities, and gender politics. XY is a space for the exploration of issues of gender and sexuality, the daily issues of men’s and women’s lives, and practical discussion of personal and social change.

XY is:

  • A forum for debate and discussion, including commentary on contemporary and emerging issues in gender and sexual politics;
  • A resource library or clearinghouse for key reports, manuals, and articles;
  • A toolkit for activism, personal transformation and social change.

XY features 100s of articles on key ‘men’s issues’, from fathering and men’s health to the relationships between masculinity, class, race and sexuality, to domestic violence. XY makes available key national and international guides and manuals to working with men and boys and engaging men and boys in projects of building gender equality, ending violence against women, and striving for social justice. XY also includes personal stories, book reviews, and links to related websites.

XY is intended to be comprehensive, cutting-edge, and global. XY represents one of the most substantial resources on men and gender issues on the internet. And it is one of the most well-known, and linked-to, profeminist sites in the world.

I hope that you will support and contribute to XY:

  • Send in your writing, reports, guides, and images
  • Become a regular or guest blogger
  • Add a link to XY on your own site or blog
  • Spread the word
  • Volunteer to help
  • Make a donation

Principles

XY is a pro-feminist website. It is guided above all by a commitment to feminism. XY is intended to advance feminist goals of gender equality and gender justice. XY is intended therefore to encourage men to involve themselves in personal and social change towards gender equality. It inspires men to develop respectful, trusting, and egalitarian relations with women, to promote equitable and liberatory ways of living and being, and to join with women in projects of gender equality and social justice.

XY is guided by two further principles: a commitment to enhancing men’s lives, and a recognition of diversities among men.

XY supports men’s efforts at positive change and affirms positive and health-promoting formations of masculinity and selfhood. XY recognises both commonalties and diversities in the lives of men, shaped by such factors as class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and disability. It promotes inclusive frameworks and practices for engaging in work regarding men and gender, and encourages alliances between pro-feminist and other social justice movements.

Funding

XY is run entirely by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis. XY has no ties to any institution, funding agency, or government. XY gratefully accepts offers of financial and other support.

XY does not accept advertising from for-profit bodies with no link to men and gender issues.

XY does accept occasional advertising from institutions and services with principles similar to its own, on a case-by-case basis.

Volunteering your support

XY is delighted to accept the help of volunteers. We need people to do all sorts of things, such as:

  • Writing and blogging
  • Maintaining the XY links page
  • Promoting the site in other networks, forums, lists, and sites
  • Soliciting new content
  • Finding existing content to reprint on the site
  • Soliciting advertising from appropriate organisations and bodies

You can find a detailed outline of how you can contribute to XY, here. Please contact us if you would like to get involved.

Who

XY is coordinated by Michael Flood, with occasional assistance from a pool of volunteers.

Dr Michael Flood is an Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology. His research focuses on the primary prevention of violence against women, while he also researches men and gender, male heterosexuality, fathering, and sexual and reproductive health. He has published on best practice in primary prevention, how to engage men in violence prevention, factors shaping violence-supportive attitudes, young people’s experiences of violence in their relationships and families, youth and pornography, anti-feminist backlash, and other issues. Dr Flood also is an activist, educator and trainer with a long involvement in community advocacy and education work focused on men’s violence against women.

Michael also runs the Men's Bibliography, an online resource of references on men and masculinities, and Profem, a profeminist e-mail list.

You can contact Michael via XY's contact form, his direct e-mail address on his university staff page, Facebook, or Skype.

History

XY began life as a printed magazine, published in Canberra (Australia) four times a year from 1990 to 1998. The magazine was titled XY: Men, Sex, Politics, with an editorial collective coordinated by Michael Flood. We published 397 feature articles in 26 editions of the magazine. Click here to read more on XY's history.

The XY website contains over 60 of the best articles from the original printed magazine, but has also moved far beyond this as its content and reach have expanded.

Site design and programming