Rachel Giese award-winning journalist and the editorial director of Xtra, Canada’s largest LGBTQ2 media organizations. In 2018, her book Boys: What it Means to Become a Man was one of The Globe and Mail’s 100 best books of year and one of The Walrus’s favourite reads.
Giese is a sought-after expert and speaker in the fields of gender, masculinity, sex and sexuality, LGBTQ2 rights, education, parenting and feminism. For four years, she wrote a weekly column on politics, pop culture and feminism for Chatelaine. She is regular guest host and commentator on CBC Radio shows, including Day 6, The Current, Metro Morning and The Sunday Edition. Her award-winning feature and opinion pieces have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Toronto Life and NewYorker.com. She is frequent speaker, moderator and host for organizations such as the Toronto Public Library, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Shelter Movers and the Movember Foundation.
Her critically-acclaimed Boys: What It Means to Become a Man is a vital and sweeping examination of today’s “boy crisis,” demonstrating the ways in which we raise boys into a culture of toxic masculinity and offering solutions that can liberate us all. Whether they’re being urged to “man up” or warned that “boys don’t cry,” young men are subjected to damaging messages about manliness: they must muzzle their emotions and never show weakness, dominate girls and compete with one another. But Giese provides ample evidence for a powerful counter-narrative: given space to explore their identities and a social structure that makes it safe to do, boys are happy to escape the “man box” of traditionally defined masculinity.
Speaking Topics
Giese can speak on a wide range of subjects related to gender, masculinity, feminism, sex and sexuality, including:
- How to help boys and young men break free from the “man box”
- Gender and the nature-vs-nurture debate
- Understanding and dismantling the roots of toxic masculinity
- The myths and realities of the boy crisis in education
- Beyond the birds and bees for better and more comprehensive sex education
To book Rachel Giese, contact Rob Firing at speakers@transatlanticagency.com.