The Man in the Making airs on Finnish TV, April 2018

It is finally time for the TV premiere of our three part TV series The Man in the Making! The films can be viewed abroad at Yle Arenan. Hopefully in time we will also have English subtitles for you that do not understand Swedish or Finnish!

The women’s liberation movement has since the 1970’s worked to expand our definition of what’s feminine, hence much of what used to be considered male territory is now available to women. In 2017 it’s time to ask ourselves whether the opposite is true: is the female sphere opening up to men? How do men feel about women’s close primary relation to the children, resulting in what could be construed as woman’s automatic emotional power position within the family? More and more men in Finland choose some form of paternity leave – do they feel there is parental equality? Or are women hanging on to their power position with regard to the children? And isn’t it a tired cliché to claim that men wouldn’t care as much about such things (or feelings in general)?

In our three-part program series 8 men, between the ages 26 and 82, will share how they feel about the male role and how it is changing (or how it isn’t). Nico is the editor of Finland’s first feministic male magazine “Samu”, Mats spends a lot of time at home with his three kids and documents their doll house play by taking photos of the doll world, adding creative captures to the pictures. Per-Erik hasn’t seen the rise of soft values among his grand children, noting that traditional male ideals which glorify achievement and physical power still dominate. Björn works with teenagers who suffer from psychosocial difficulties and finds that whereas it seems to be okay for women to define both themselves and men, men don’t seem to be free to say what they think of either. This male muteness rises, according to him, from men’s collective sense of guilt. Men have a long history of oppressing women and are therefore balancing gingerly in modern times, fearful of offending.

Mats with his daughter Milja.

Nico Vehmas and Kari Turunen.

Berndt Arell, Pata Degerman, Mats Holmqvist, Jukka Korkeila, Per-Erik Lönnfors, Kari Turunen, Nico Vehmas and Björn Ågren take part in the series.

Directed by Emma Fogelholm and Janna Thorström. Cinematography Ville Tanttu. Editing Klaus Grabber. Music Ville Tanttu. Graphic Design Rikard Lassenius. Produced by Emma Fogelholm and Janna Thorström. Pink Orbit Production, 2018.

View the films on Yle Arenan.