When John Legend was in highschool, he cherished enjoying music and performing along with his mates. But he sensed these passions did not make him a person within the conventional sense of the phrase.

“Clearly in highschool, sports activities tradition is so dominant, and the preferred children are often the athletes, notably for males,” says Legend. “So it’s arduous to really feel as assured about your self in the event you’re not on the prime of that meals chain, in the event you’re not the most important, the quickest, the strongest.”

With a purpose to conquer that social hierarchy, some younger males is likely to be tempted to embrace poisonous masculinity—a model of manhood that has no tolerance for vulnerability. However Legend has one other concept: “encourage younger males to like themselves and love who they’re.”

“It’s arduous to really feel as assured about your self in the event you’re not on the prime of that meals chain.”

That is why the Grammy- and Oscar-winning songwriter teamed up with Axe to launch a program that helps highschool boys develop a extra inclusive and expressive definition of masculinity.

“Senior Orientation” will initially join Legend and the poet Carlos Andrés Gómez with a number of highschool seniors in Columbus, Ohio. Legend and Gómez will mentor the scholars and assist them develop inventive performances. This system will culminate in a faculty occasion this fall the place Legend, Gómez, and their mentored college students will carry out.

“It’s encouraging creativity, encouraging individuality, rejecting issues like bullying and behaviors that belittle different individuals,” Legend says, describing his imaginative and prescient for inclusive masculinity.

This system makes use of a curriculum developed by Gómez, a former trainer and social employee, to assist teen boys determine the messages they hear about masculinity and information them in creating their very own distinctive definition.

Axe, the boys’s grooming model as soon as recognized for its wildly macho advertisements, has been preaching the virtues of inclusive masculinity since launching its “Discover Your Magic” marketing campaign, with Legend’s assist, final 12 months. In Could, the model unveiled an advert reassuring its clients that they weren’t alone in secretly questioning masculine stereotypes.

When Legend thinks of poisonous masculinity, he thinks of boys and males who bully and belittle others due to their very own fears or insecurities. Whereas that phenomenon is timeless, it feels notably related nowadays as President Trump makes use of the presidential pulpit to scold and intimidate his enemies, and neo-Nazis and white supremacists arm themselves with weapons at public gatherings to defend Accomplice monuments.

“I believe [fear] is the case with loads of poisonous masculinity,” he says. “It’s worry of powerlessness, worry of being changed or displaced or not being dominant after which lashing out in a manner that’s violent … And I believe there’s some sense of grievance that you just see notably with those that are marching in Charlottesville the place they really feel like one thing’s been taken from them they usually’re attempting in probably the most heinous methods and probably the most poisonous methods to reclaim some place in society.”

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It is a great distance from attempting to dismantle poisonous masculinity in a single Ohio highschool to altering a complete tradition, however “Senior Orientation” is a pilot effort that Axe hopes to ultimately replicate at faculties throughout the nation (although Legend will not personally present up at each campus the place it is adopted).

Gómez says that as a substitute of shaming boys for conduct that could possibly be characterised as poisonous masculinity, the objective is to assist them embrace and categorical traits or qualities they really feel are stifled due to conventional stereotypes. That would imply crying in public, portray with watercolors, or carrying a pastel-colored shirt. Gómez, a self-described “emo poet,” is aware of that some boys and males are skeptical of difficult masculine norms as a result of they assume it means continuously expressing their feelings.

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“That’s the cool factor,” Gómez jokes, “You don’t must be me.”

However Gómez says his response usually raises a terrifying query for some skeptics who then marvel, “Properly, who am I speculated to be?”

That’s one thing that solely a boy or man can reply for himself, however Gómez says the purpose of dismantling poisonous masculinity in your individual life is liberating your self from the “suffocating” concept that you would be able to solely be one type of man.

“I believe so many younger individuals are determining who they need to be,” says Legend.

“The extra we encourage younger males to like themselves and love who they’re and be assured in themselves, they gained’t must bully anyone they usually gained’t must belittle different individuals to be ok with themselves.”