Justin Baldoni Redefines Masculinity in TED Talk and New Show ‘We Are Man Enough’
Known as Rafael, the baby daddy from Jane the Virgin, the real-life daddy takes to TED in a talk on masculinity and what it means to be a man at the TEDWomen 2017 conference this past October.
His 18-minute talk “Why I’m done trying to be ‘man enough’ is full of past experiences and future hopes. Here, he parallels the masculinity portrayed via his scripts, and the masculinity he portrays in his life while addressing his conflicts in navigating real masculinity.
Baldoni says, “ I’m just a guy that woke up after 30 years and realized that I was living in a state of conflict, conflict with who I feel I am in my core and conflict with who the world tells me as a man I should be. But I don’t have a desire to fit into the current broken definition of masculinity because I don’t just want to be a good man. I want to be a good human.”
He wrestles with the gender roles and grabs patriarchal ideas by the horns, such as conformity and machismo. He reflects on the “scripts” from the Baldoni before him, d dives into much more. Yet, he doesn’t stop there.
Following his successful talk which brought in over 1.2 million views, he unveiled his new show “We Are Man Enough” one episode at a time with familiar faces including Dancing with the Stars pro Derek Hough and Orange is the New Black’s Matt McGorry. The show tackles expectations linked to masculinity online, issues surrounding gender norms, and much more.
