By Sarah Morland
MEXICO CITY, April 17 (Reuters) – A masculinity summit featuring controversial speakers such as writer Jordan Peterson is set to go ahead on Friday in Mexico’s Jalisco state, among the most violent for women, despite outcry over alleged public funding for the for-profit event.
A local committee approved 400,000 pesos (around $23,170) as a subsidy for speakers’ fees, lodging and advertising for the event, local media reported last week, citing an internal report and unnamed sources.
The event, “Fearless Masculinity,” charges up to $430 per ticket.
Local government entities, whose logos were initially featured on the event’s sponsor list before vanishing, later said they were not funding the event, which emphasizes Catholic ideals.
Mexico is a secular state and its constitution restricts sponsorship of religious events. President Claudia Sheinbaum told a press conference last week the state governor should explain himself.
Mexico has long struggled with high rates of gender-based killings, or femicides. In just the first two months of this year, 756 women were violently killed in Mexico, most ruled accidental; some 2,812 were raped and over 162,000 calls related to gender and domestic violence were made to emergency services, according to government data.
Luz Leon, a representative for rights group Balance, told Reuters that Balance and 35 other associations had filed a formal complaint urging authorities to explain what happened regarding the funding and investigate the officials involved.
“It is often said there is no money to assist victims in Guadalajara and Jalisco, a state with very high rates of violence and youth disappearances,” Leon said. “It is deeply concerning that instead of directing resources to address these issues, they are being used for this.”
“They are promoting gender violence and narratives that perpetuate discrimination based on prejudice and stereotypes,” she added, referring to the event promoting itself as an answer to “the attack on masculinity.”
Speakers include Peterson and Mexican actor and right-wing activist Eduardo Verastegui, both of whom have promoted traditional gender roles for women.
Other speakers include former FC Barcelona soccer captain Carles Puyol and ex-Brazilian midfielder Ricardo Kaka – still to be confirmed – as well as several Catholic religious figures.
An April 8 screenshot of the event’s sponsor list from Balance showed logos for the local governments of Jalisco, Guadalajara and Zapopan, as well as the prestigious private Catholic Anahuac University Network and Tajin, which makes Mexico’s hugely popular chile-lime seasoning.
A week later, these logos were all missing. Neither Fearless Masculinity nor any of the other organizations immediately responded to requests for comment. In a local outlet, the event’s director was quoted as saying the event was about improving society, not mistreating others.
The three-day event in Guadalajara – which is hosting several World Cup matches in June – bills itself as Latin America’s largest masculinity congress.
($1 = 17.2665 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Sarah Morland, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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