men and boys often feel emotionally distant from others and the emotions allowed for men to show publicly often have negative connotations for example anger engaging w ith men in transformative ways also has indirect benefits in terms of women s empowerment and participation because it is often men who oppose these changes one of the challenges in this respect is to shift discourses away from zerosum game understandings of increased gender equality towards highlighting the benefits this has for all persons however these are not the only areas of life where masculinities play a key role