In Pursuit of Equity and Sustainability: Men Building Intimate Partner Relationships

This exhibition features participant-submitted photographs and narratives from the SSHRC funded Men Building Intimate Partner Relationships (MBIPR) project, led by Dr. John Oliffe through the Men’s Health Research program at the University of British Columbia. Using a strength-based approach, the MBIPR project chronicles the connections between masculinities and men’s intimate partner relationships with an emphasis on equitable and sustainable partnerships.

The research team recruited 110 men (19-44 years-old) worldwide with diverse ethnocultural backgrounds and sexual orientations to submit and narrate 5-10 photographs that illustrate their relationship experiences and perspectives. Featured among the 714 photographs we received were men’s learnings and strategies in navigating domestic work, intimacy, communication, activities and relationship values.

These findings question stereotypes depicting men as inept in, or ambivalent about, intimate partnerships, and map young men’s diverse practices across the continuum of neo-traditionalist, egalitarian and progressive masculinities in building and sustaining intimate partner relationships. As you walk through the photographs and captions, we encourage you to reflect on some concepts that are central to the MBIPR project: gender equality, gender equity, intimacy, vulnerability, and emotionality.

Research Team: Dr. John Oliffe, Dr. John Ogrodniczuk, Dr. Francine Darroch, Dr. Simon Rice, Dr. Sarah McKenzie, Dr. David Kealy, Dr. Jennifer Mootz, Dr. Zac Seidler, Dr. Nina Gao, Mary Kelly, Calvin Fernandez, Matt Sha, Hooman Salavati