“Calling gender violence a ‘women’s issue’ is part of the problem.”
Jackson Katz, an anti-sexist activist who works extensively with the military and university sports culture, gave a TED Talk in February about men’s role in what has largely been built as a “women’s movement.” He asks, “Why do so many men abuse, physically, emotionally, verbally and other ways the women and girls and the men and boys that they claim to love? What’s going on with men?”
Using linguistics and logic, Katz directly challenges anti-feminist mentality and reframes gender violence prevention as a men’s issue. His “bystander approach” aims to create a culture in which gender violence is categorically unacceptable in the peer culture, among men and women alike. That includes violence of all kinds perpetrated by men against women, men against children, women against men, and men against one another.
“This isn’t about individual perpetrators. That’s a very naive way to understand what is a much deeper and more systematic social problem…How can we change the socialization of boys and the definitions of manhood that lead to these current outcomes?”
His conclusion is powerful and inspirational:
“We owe it to women, there’s no question about it, but we also owe it to our sons. We also owe it to young men who are growing up all over the world in situations where they didn’t make the choice to be a man in a culture that tells them that manhood is a certain way. They didn’t make the choice. We that have a choice have an opportunity and a responsibility to them.”
Watch the whole video below:
Sarah says: May 16, 2013 at 10:23 am Hi Yohan, Can you post some of these many studies that show that women are at least as violent as men? I’m genuinely interested in reading them. —— Yes, there are plenty of articles and studies available which will prove that women are as violent as men, but violence from men against females is taken very seriously, while violence from females against men is ignored, even considered as funny. Please read for a beginning this article, link below and these 2 studies. Thank you. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/30/a-hidden-crime-domestic-violence-against-men-is-a-growing-probl/ Widely Ignored Problem And yet, more than… Read more »
I am not a native English speaker, but I got the impression that feminist Jackson Katz in his speech is blaming men for most violent incidents between men and women and is asking ALL men to feel guilty about it – I did not hear much from him about violent women however. Something is missing here and his speech is strongly biased – men bad, women good – and all men should feel responsible for that – sorry but I – as a straight man – I am not responsible for violent people unknown to me who have nothing with… Read more »
“..they(men) think that gender issues is synonymous with women’s issues…” . I agree with the speaker here but perhaps not for the same reasons. The so called “confusion” he was alluding to is not men’s fault as he was implying but rather the blame can be squarely laid at the door of gender feminism. The sort of thing like VAWA for example where terms like “combating gender violence” is used a lot but invariably means in practice acknowledging and providing service for violence perpetrated by men against women but not the other way around. Genuine pioneers in the field of… Read more »
This is more of the sort of information that sexist men like Katz and the mainstream chose to remain blind to. “The misandric myth that female violence is always defensive – primarily as the result of “oppression” of males – is challenged by such cases as these. Here is a selection of female serial killers who specialized in murdering women. Many of these psychopaths objectified other women in the form of exploiting and murdering them in partnership with males, yet there are just as many of these harpies who objectified other women with the assistance of only their own sick… Read more »
That link is impressive Orchid, thanks for posting.
You’re very welcome 🙂
Sorry, 38 female serial killers since the 11th century bears no relevance to the ongoing systemic abuse and murder of women and children. Next piece of “evidence.”
“Sorry, 38 female serial killers since the 11th century bears no relevance to the ongoing systemic abuse and murder of women and children. Next piece of “evidence.”
There is no systemic abuse of women and children. But there are a systemic abuse of people of all ages, race and gender.
But wait a minute I thought the goal was to combat all violence?
Combat all violence or only the violence that happens the most often (even though we are currently operating under conditions where we aren’t even sure how often each type of violence happens much less which happens the most)?
If there is systemic abuse of children, its by women as the main caregiver is also the main child abuser. This is the sort of thing that feminism and sexist men like Katz are covering up with their sexist stereotyping, erasure of female agency and demonization of men. As for systemic abuse of women, you can see how DV breaks down in 32 nations here. Example “The results in the first part of this paper show that almost a third of the female as well as male students physically assaulted a dating partner in the 12 month study period, and… Read more »
I can relate to some of what he says; however, it seems as though I’m hearing more and more about abusive women in relationships.
I think part of the problem with the framing is that even with his attempt to correct the framing he still seems to miss a part of the point. There is not only a problem with framing violence as a “women’s issue” but I think there is also a problem with the framing of gender violence as something that “men do to others”. I see he brings up the idea that the dominant group doesn’t feel the need to act and how that interfers with said dominant group getting involved with the issue at hand. How exactly does that reconcile… Read more »
Hi Danny – Thanks for your comment. I do see and agree with some of your points here, especially that leaning on a gender binary of “it’s a women’s issue” VS. “men need to act up” is problematic. I think what Katz is calling for here is for men and women to work together to reduce violence in society. No, male privilege doesn’t explain every instance of gender violence in society. And if there are folks out there who are discounting male survivors’ stories, shame on them. I think Katz would feel the same. But when speaking of male privilege… Read more »
But brushing off the subject of male violent behavior entirely is not going to help that cause. Who said anything about brushing off the subject of male violence entirely? That wouldn’t do any good either. But I do think that there is a bit of a problem with the seeming inability to acknowledge violence that is not male against female (even Katz hesitated to say female perpetrators in that vid clip). Even recently in the Jodi Aras murder trial where she seriously tried to claim that she shoot her ex over a dozen times (and I believe he was also… Read more »
How can you expect to confront all violence by only talking about one type of violence? Yes it is the most common but… No buts. That’s precisely the point. If you were going to fight a flu epidemic, you wouldn’t start by treating the most obscure strain that is killing the fewest people. You would start by fighting the strain that is most prominent and hurts the most people. Violence against men is less reported, yes, so it’s hard to argue that men do all the violence. But what’s the hurt in starting there? So bringing up female against male… Read more »
Sarah: Violence by men against women is more common than vice versa…
Sorry, but this is not correct,
American Public Health Association
In nonreciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70% of the cases
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2005.079020
No buts. That’s precisely the point. If you were going to fight a flu epidemic, you wouldn’t start by treating the most obscure strain that is killing the fewest people. You would start by fighting the strain that is most prominent and hurts the most people. Violence against men is less reported, yes, so it’s hard to argue that men do all the violence. But what’s the hurt in starting there? I find it odd that you start off declaring no buts and then end with a but, all while not addressing what I said. Yes you START with the… Read more »
Nice quote selections here. 🙂
Very misleading.
Main caregivers commit most child abuse and therefore influence most adult violence and studies on frequency of domestic abuse show that women are more likely to initiate it. Women tend to lead non physical domestic abuse too. Studies that ask men and women similar questions about men’s experiences of forced sex show that’s not particularly gendered either. It looks to me like there is a mass false accusation against men and cover up of female agency to commit violence happening in that talk.. Sign of the times.
Even worse than this, if a father is absent from a boy’s life then he is still blamed for the boy growing up to be violent, instead blaming the person who actually raised him. If the child is violent, it must be the dad’s fault whether he’s there or not.
Yep, more of the same from Oprah type, new Dr PHIL PUBLIC speaker spreading the narrative about how men can stop raping & generally abusing everybody else, it seems like a new spin on the old white ribbon Campaign, the more I listen to these claims, the more I think of getting a sex change, fat chance though.
I liked Katz’s conclusion, that men’s leadership is the solution, not more sensitivity training. At least someone is waking up to that fact.
However, his bias is the primary reason that it will take men’s leadership in gender issues…it needs balance. He perpetuated the myth that violence is something men should control, because there’s a pandemic of violent men…shame on men. He is close, but still missed the mark.
He bearly suggested that women verbally or physically abuse others, throw things, or go unchallenged with offensive male jokes. Violence is violence.
….he also holds men singularly accountable for promoting a violent understanding of masculinity. It appears that the guidance of mothers and the selective preference of wives/girlfriends has absolutely no responsibility in encouraging a predilection of violence among boys and young men. I don’t get these people…women have power and agency, they’ll insist, until someone needs to bear responsibility for some social malfeasance.
Society is a creation of men and women. The good and the bad are created by men and women. Maybe not in equal amounts, but they’re both somewhat responsible for the values in a society. It’s extremely unlikely that something so widespread as a culture of violence would be the creation only of one sex. Rosie the Riveter wasn’t making refrigerators. She was building weapons systems that would be used to kill people on a massive scale.
Joan, I understand where you are coming from, but I’m not 100% certain that the point about “Women also do bad things,” is necessary. I personally believe that the lives of young men will improve if they can be taught to commit fewer acts of violence, EVEN IF some women still continue to do despicable things to men. How often do we hear the familiar tale “I only joined the gang because they would beat me if I didn’t,”? Wouldn’t men in that situation benefit if gang members broke with their violent lifestyles? Even if women were completely taken out… Read more »
There is a pandemic of violent men, in America and throughout the world. The fact that there is such an irrational reaction to a simple observation of fact demonstrates how bad the problem is. We are so afraid to speak about how destructive and violent men are, people like you and the other commenters here immediately have to get defensive and say “BUT WOMEN DO IT TOO, LOOK WE DID A STUDY, THEY ALWAYS START IT!” or “WE’RE NOT ALL BAD! I’VE NEVER RAPED A WOMAN!” If standards for male behavior are so low, that is indicative of a major… Read more »
@Jennifer Smith To point out that women are AT LEAST as violent as men in Western countries is not irrational. It is the truth and confirmed by many studies, but this argument is ignored and nowhere supported as it is considered ‘not to be politically correct’. I can confirm that out of my own sad experience as a child and as a young man. It is plainly wrong to brush female violence under the carpet. Why should it not be possible to mention female violence within this GMP without being immediately attacked with remarks that ‘male violence is an enormous… Read more »
Hi Yohan, Can you post some of these many studies that show that women are at least as violent as men? I’m genuinely interested in reading them. I don’t disbelieve you, but I’m a “follow the source” kind of girl. ‘Male violence is an enormous problem’ is not an attack, it’s a fact. It doesn’t mean that women aren’t also violent, and it’s not meant to discount your experience as a child and a young man. You should not have been subject to violence from a woman, or anyone. But the two are not mutually exclusive. ‘Male violence is an… Read more »
Whoops; forgot to actually reference the article!
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/porterepaper.pdf
Please do read it. As it points out, there is SO much misrepresentation of this issue by feminists and by the media. People need to see the evidence if we’re ever going to have a sane discussion about this; I.e. one where men are not blamed (massively) disproportionately, as is typically the case.