Men Challenging Sexism Conference 2025 in BRIGHTON

Men Challenging Sexism Conference 2025

Welcome to the Men Challenging Sexism Conference 2025. It is our aim to bring men and boys together to have conversations, promote awareness, and inspire men to take action against sexism and misogyny.

This in-person event will consist of talks and workshops, focussed on anti-sexism and pro-feminist issues. We invite men to take action to create a better world, where men are more respectful, responsible, empathetic and safe.

We will speak about what we can do individually with regards to personal growth and what actions men & boys can take individually and collectively to support women’s liberation / the radical feminist movement.

EVENT DETAILS:

The 2025 Men Challenging Sexism conference will take place over the course of 2 days, on Saturday 11 October and Sunday 12 October in Brighton (venue to be confirmed).

The conference will start at 9:00am and finish at 5pm on both days.

As in previous years, our pro-feminist conference for men & boys is organised in solidarity and consultation with FiLiA, whose 2025 conference is taking place in the same location. For more info about MACS check out our website here.

TICKETS:

Concession tickets:

Available for students, pensioners and those struggling financially.

Under 18 tickets:

Under 18s receive a concession. If you are under 18 or are buying a ticket for someone under 18, please buy a separate ticket for this age category.

Please only order a concession ticket if you fall into this category.

SCHEDULE:

Saturday 11 October: 9am–5pm.

SATURDAY 11 OCTOBER

9-9:15am arrival / registration

9:15-10:30am – Chris Green: Scenes from 50 years of anti-sexist involvement: Developing mass involvement of men to challenge men's violence against women & girls

10:45-12:00am Vaishnavi Sundar: Decoding the Brazen Mindset of Men Committing Public Sexual Terrorism in India

12-12:45 – lunch break (BYO / not provided)

12:45-2 – Jo Bartosch & Rob Jessel: Pornocracy & challenging pornography

2:15-3:30 – A conversation with James Roberts of HumanGayMale

3:45-5pm – Open discussion / reflection session (men only)

SUNDAY 12 OCTOBER

9-9:15 – arrival / registration

9:15-10:30 – Clarice Saadi: Impact of transgender ideology on women & girls in Brazil

10:45-12:00 – Melinda Tankard Reist: TikTok as Digital Pimp: The TT to OF pipeline and Caitlin Roper: A tool to sexually exploit women and children: Why AI will not prevent abuse

12-12:45 lunch break (BYO / not provided)

12:45-2 – Michael Conroy: Constructive Dialogues with boys & young men WORKSHOP

2:15-3:30 – Jon Pike: Fairness and sexism in sport

3:45-5pm – Open discussion / reflection session (men only)

VENUE DETAILS:

Brighton (venue to be confirmed).

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

Decoding the Brazen Mindset of Men Committing Public Sexual Terrorism in India

In her talk filmmaker Vaishnavi Sundar, exposes chilling extent of public sexual violence in India. The talk reveals the societal factors enabling such acts and the punishment these men often evade.

Vaishnavi Sundar is a writer and filmmaker from Chennai, India.

Vaishnavi made headlines across the world when she released her 4-part documentary series Dysphoric in 2021. The series recorded the rise of gender identity ideology and its its effects on women and girls – especially in developing countries

Vaishnavi released her latest film, Behind the Looking Glass in 2024. This feature-length documentar is a film about the lives of women whose partners have or want to ‘transition’. The film will be the first of its kind in collecting these experiences of women from around the world.

Together these two films have amassed over half a million views on YouTube. You can learn more and keep up-to-date with Vaishnavi's work on X / Twitter @vaishax.

Michael's workshop will be an exploration of practical approaches to constructive dialogues with boys and young men about the messages and influences shaping how they think about and behave towards themselves, other males and women and girls.

Michael is the founder of Men At Work, is a training company for professionals working with boys and young men and the creator of the 'Foundations: 12 Dialogues’ resource package.

After working in Secondary education for 16 years, he has focused since 2021 on training (over 3000) educators, youth workers and social workers in facilitating constructive dialogues with young males on envisaging positive, abuse-free futures for themselves and others - and how to realise them.

Naturally, this work demands a realistic and appropriately frank approach to the challenges and obstacles to those futures, which includes exploring a range of themes like misogyny, peer-pressure, objectification, status-seeking, unrealistic expectations and diminished empathy. In addition to training, Michael often speaks in the press and media on a wide variety of issues relating to the safe development of boys and young men and their role in ending Male Violence Against Women and Girls.

This includes, to date: BBC Newsnight, Today, Woman's Hour and Politics Live programmes, Westminster Parliamentary Select Committee on Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces and APPG session on Sex Education, Holyrood APPG event on Commercial Sexual Exploitation and interviews/features in The New York Times, The Guardian, Observer, Le Monde and The Times. His core message for adults is to 'Show Up' (as positive, curious, reliable adults in the lives of boys and young men) and 'Find Out' (what is going on in their lives, emerging beliefs and values). Showing up informs finding out – and vice versa.

We suggest you check out Michael's Twitter @MenAtWor_MC where he is very active.

Followed by Q&A.

Clarice, director of women's group MATRIA, will talk about how transgender ideology hits countries like Brazil, where misogyny and violence against women are especially high, even harder.

Clarice will expose the way this ideology imported from the global north enhances threats to women’s and girls' sex-based rights in Brazil.

To find out more about the work of MATRIA, check out their X / Twitter and Instagram @matria.oficial.

Followed by Q&A.

Chris Green, OBE

Scenes from 50 years of anti-sexist involvement: Developing mass involvement of men to challenge men's violence against women & girls

Chris will draw on his experience spanning 50 years, showing that it is possible to mobilise large numbers of men to challenge sexism. Chris will speak about how his passion and enjoyment of anti-sexist work has kept him doing stuff for 5 decades.

Most recently Chris co-founded MACS and founded White Ribbon UK. Chris will speak about his work in these organisations. Chris will also speak about how his involvement in anti-sexist work started 50 years ago through campaigns including creches against sexism, vasectomies against sexism, the men's conferences of the 1980’s, the anti-sexist men’s newsletter and Achilles Heel Magazine.

Followed by Q&A.

Josephine Bartosch & Robert Jessel's talk aims to make you feel empowered, so that you can make a difference in the fight against pornography, and impel you to take personal responsibility...and action.

Jo and Rob will be presenting on their upcoming book Pornocracy, and discussing how men can make a meaningful difference to the fight against sexism by challenging the influence of pornography.

Jo will talk about Pornocracy chapter 5 'Pulled Apart by Porn', which examines how pornography drives a wedge between the sexes and fuels the modern epidemic of misogyny. She will argue that the panic around boys' sexism, the influence of Andrew Tate, and the issues raised in e.g. Netflix's Adolescence is too often focused on peripheral issues rather than the root cause: pornography.

Rob's contribution will be based on Pornocracy Chapter 4, on pornography's influence on children and the porn lobby's capture of schools. Rob will argue that this is where ordinary people can make a difference: to put pressure on teachers, heads of year, safeguarding and pastoral leads, governors, etc. to engage honestly & transparently with parents. To do this effectively, parents & guardians need to make the strongest possible argument, beyond the traditional, moralistic 'porn is bad'.

For Jo Bartosch's writing, please look at The Critic and Unherd.

Followed by Q&A.

Melinda Tankard Reist is an author and the co-founder and movement director of the grassroots campaigning movement, Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation.

Talk: TikTok as Digital Pimp: The TT to OF pipeline.

The platform economy has normalised, mainstreamed and embedded the sex industry in new ways. The porn/prostitution enterprise has become infused on platforms, selling potential new recruits the idea that becoming an OF 'content creator' is an act of female entrepreneurship destined to result in wealth, fame and popularity.

TikTok has close to 10 million users – around 200,000 are in the early teen cohort. While many parents think their daughter is merely having fun with lip syncing and dancing, her body, and the bodies of thousands of girls, are being mined for the sex trade. Whilst Tik Tok prohibits sexual solicitation it is at the same time as facilitating the digital sexual advance.

The sex industry has undergone a spectacular rebrand, with porn 'content creators' calling themselves Bops and Mattress Actresses. Through the OF content creation 'Bop House', whose young sex industry 'influencers' have a combined following of close to 40 million, girls are offered a life selling sexual labour as aspirational and desirable.

Melinda is an author, speaker, media commentator, and advocate for women and girls. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women. Melinda is author/editor of seven books (no. 8 on boundary-setting for girls forthcoming 2026). She is an Ambassador for World Vision Australia, Compassion Australia, Hagar NZ and the youth mentoring body the Raise Foundation. Melinda is also Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Culture and Ethics, Notre Dame University, Sydney and named in the Who's Who of Australian Women and the World Who's Who of Women. In 2024 she was the recipient of the 'Global Impact Award' presented at the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation [CESE] international summit in Washington DC.

Jon Pike is Professor of Philosophy at the Open University and an expert on the ethics of sport.

Jon will be talking about fairness and sexism in sport, and about the ongoing argument about securing the integrity of women's sport. He will provide an update on how the policy terrain is shifting both nationally and internationally.

Jon will argue that 'discrimination on the basis of sex' - that is, separate provision for women form which men are excluded - is obligatory in sport - and that any adequate understanding of discrimination and sexism must be built on this understanding.

We thoroughly recommend you have a look at Jon's X / Twitter account, to find out more about him and his work.

Followed by Q&A.

A conversation with James Roberts about the HumanGayMale initiative, including the current priorities for gay men, the impacts of gender identity ideology, and how gay men are working to build communities and take action.

HumanGayMale is an organisation for gay men who reject gender identity ideology. They hold monthly events in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and other UK cities, but have members worldwide. In August 2025 they had their booking in a Brighton pub cancelled because of their 'gender critical views' and they are now taking the venue to court for illegal discrimination.

James is the Managing Director at HumanGayMale and has a professional background in the membership and charity sectors, as well as a range of gay rights roles as a volunteer. He has been engaged in the push back against gender identity, and it's impact on gay people, women in general, and children, for the last five years.

For more about HumanGayMale and their London conference in January 2026, check out their X / Twitter.

Followed by Q&A.

Caitlin Roper is an activist, author and Campaigns Manager at Collective Shout.

Talk: A tool to sexually exploit women and children: Why AI will not prevent abuse.

Over the last few years, AI has increasingly become a part of our daily lives. Some claim AI could be a solution to sexual exploitation by allowing users to generate pornographic content without limitations, without using – and harming – real people.

This could not be further from the truth. Men and boys are already using AI as a tool to sexually exploit women and children and create pornography of them where none previously existed. Rather than preventing or decreasing sexual exploitation, AI facilitates new ways to exploit and harm women and children.

From 'deepfake' and 'nudifying' apps to virtual AI 'girlfriends', Caitlin will unpack how AI fuels the sexualised abuse and exploitation of women and girls, and what we can do about it.

Besides her work as Collective Shout's campaign Campaigns Manager, Caitlin is also a founding member of Adopt Nordic WA to fight sex trafficking and has been an organiser and speaker for Reclaim the Night Perth. Caitlin's writing has been featured in the Guardian, Huffington Post, ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, Mamamia, The Ethics Centre and Arena magazine, and she has been interviewed on The Project, ABC's Lateline and Triple J Hack. Her book Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating: The Case for Resistance was published in August 2022 by Spinifex Press. Caitlin has also contributed chapters to Prostitution Narratives: Stories of Survival in the Sex Trade (Spinifex Press, 2016) and Man-Made Women: The Sexual Politics of Sex Dolls and Sex Robots (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022)