Supporting Boys in Today’s Cultural Climate: A Conversation with Ruth Whippman
Please note: This webinar is not eligible for continuing education (CE) credit due to its informal, conversational format. Participants who attend the full live session will, however, receive a Certificate of Attendance.
This webinar is primarily for professionals who work with or are concerned about the development and wellbeing of adolescents and emerging adults. This includes psychologists, counselors, social workers, educators, and law enforcement or child welfare personnel.
Ruth Whippman’s BoyMom offers an engaging examination of the manosphere and contemporary understandings of masculinity. Both accessible and informative, it provides valuable insights for parents and professionals working to support boys in developing into healthy, ethical men.
While many authors have addressed this topic, Whippman brings a unique perspective. As a mother of three boys, grappling with fundamental questions: How can one hold feminist values while raising boys in the current cultural moment? What should we understand when boys—particularly those with vulnerabilities such as autism spectrum conditions—are exposed to online environments that may shape their development in powerful ways?
In this webinar, Whippman shares insights from her exploration of online manosphere communities and their potential impact on boys and young men. Her presentation is both humorous and deeply moving, outlining a constructive path forward to support boys in realizing their full potential. Topics include:
- Contemporary online influences on boys and young men
- Empathy as a core element of male socialization
- Politicization processes shaping masculinity
- Conflicting pressures boys and young men face in forming their identities
Who's Presenting
Ruth Whippman
Ruth Whippman is an author, essayist and cultural critic from London living in the United States. Her writing appears in the New York Times, Time magazine and The Guardian, amongst other places. Her best-known essays, including Enough Leaning In, Now it’s Time for Men to Lean Out, Can we Really Love our Children Unconditionally, Everything is for Sale Now, Even Us, and What We are Not Teaching Boys about Being Human, have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. Ms. Whippman also writes the Substack, I Blame Society. She is the author of the Boymom, Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity and America the Anxious, How Our Pursuit of Happiness is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks. Fortune Magazine described Ruth as one of the “sharpest minds” of the decade and selected her work as one of “25 ideas to shape the 2020s..