Chocco Williams talking on 5aa about nude players on the camp, I googled Mankind Project nudity and found this.
What due diligence was performed on this group?
mankindproject.org/phearing-phallus-sexuality-and-nudity-nwta/
Phearing the Phallus – Sexuality and Nudity on the NWTA
There is some nudity on the New Warrior Training Adventure. It is about 5% of the total experience. About 2 hours out of 50. For all of this time, nudity is secondary to the primary intention, not the focus.
is never sexual. There is no sexual touching on the New Warrior Training Adventure. It has always been forbidden and this is strictly enforced. It’s one of the first rules of the weekend that men will hear on Friday.
No man will ever be asked to let another man touch his genitals or to touch another man’s genitals. The assertion that this ever happens is ridiculous and slanderous. This rumor was alleged in an article in 2007,
which we responded to. The ManKind Project will take swift action in response to any report of sexual impropriety on our training weekends.
We trust the journalistic integrity of reporters who read this story. We’re confident that reporters will represent us fairly and not report false information.
Why do we do this?
The male body, in its many forms, is beautiful, normal, ridiculous, natural. We use nudity on our training to reveal and confront shame about the male body and to challenge our negative self images. In North America, this is seen as controversial in some communities. At our trainings in Europe, this is almost never an issue. In fact, in many parts of the United States, this is not an issue. Specifics of class, religious beliefs and ethnic culture play a large role, and we respect these differences. And as we said above, nudity is not required.
We don’t pretend that our workshop is the be-all, end-all personal growth experience for men, or that it will match up with every man’s expectations of what it should be. But for a large group of guys who want to make the world a better place, we have enjoyed tremendous success over two and half decades of these weekends and we will keep on providing a place for men who want to step outside of their comfort zones and grow.
The Fear of the Phallus
Honest and affirming dialog about male sexuality is still taboo. Today’s young men are raised in a stilted, secretive culture where their expectations of the male body may be almost exclusively formed by viewing pornography. This presents a deeply warped view the male body. (And we cannot help but also notice and confront the often harmful, degrading, warped and objectified view of the female form and female sexuality.) The rest of the time we see men in the media who are either the ‘idealized’ athlete, soldier, comic book hero, or the ridiculed overweight slob. None of these are healthy or typical representations. Deeply ingrained homophobia, self-hatred, and fear of being ostracized or teased has fundamentally altered the fabric of male development. Many men carry painful memories of locker-room torment, self-consciousness and shame. As adult men, the preoccupation with sexual prowess, sexual function (E.D., penis enlargement) or sexual orientation forms a constant stream of meta information in our culture (not to mention spam!). And the message is usually that we’re not OK, not good enough, or not acceptable to society. Our intent is to create safety to reimagine a man’s relationship to his own body and to his sexuality.
Men have the opportunity to begin constructing a sexuality that will help them deepen their relationship to themselves and their wives or partners. This exercise helps men create the intimacy that they want in their lives.
Why a Phallus?
Men have penises. The penis will be a part of any candid discussion about male sexuality. Men have unrealistic expectations and fears about their bodies, and especially their penises. A phallus is a metaphorical representation of that fear and insecurity.
The fact that entire articles have been written about the ManKind Project with the focus on this symbol is evidence of just how frightening it is to many. The use of a wooden phallus as a ‘talking stick’ for a single process dealing directly with male sexuality on the NWTA has become sensationalized in some articles as if there is something unseemly or sexual going on, when in truth it is used simply as a metaphorical anchor for a very necessary discussion.
If a man is uncomfortable holding a wooden representation of the very part of his anatomy that makes him male, what does that say about his relationship to his own body, or to his manhood? What does it say about our culture that this single object comes to represent an entire training experience, when this discussion is only 2% of a much larger and carefully designed framework? By the time a man reaches 21 in American culture, it is likely that he has seen hundreds of dildos, phallic representations and actual penises (not to mention his own!). He has heard thousands of masturbation, sex, homophobic, misogynist and misandrist jokes. He has probably been teased, harassed or even assaulted about his body or his sexuality.