As a writer of male issues, I find myself facing a paradox when I come across individuals that are showing a genuine concern for men’s issues, but after further review, find their ideology behind the work is suspect, and/or their methods to address the problems appear to exaserbate the problem rather than offer a quality solution.

This came up again after I read and watched some material by Jackson Katz. Jackson is a male anti-sexist crusader that focuses on the violence perpetuated by men and boys. He uses research and experience to draw relationships to the causes of this violence. His biggest offender is the distortions of masculinity through the modern media which he says portrays and influences men and boys - and society in general - that violence and masculinty is a normal symbiotic relationship.

I had previously heard about Jackson Katz, and when I recently came across his name again I decided to look at what his thoughts are with respect to men, women, and domestic violence. What I found was a mixture of truth wrapped in traditional domestic violence hyperbole and mythology. What is even more troubling is that Mr. Katz seems like he truly means well, and truly wants to help men, but his ideological position is based in feminist mythology - which he openly admits. This creates a natural contradiction that cannot be overcome.
Feminists and their ideology is focused on compassion and understanding for women’s issues only. When it comes to the male gender and their issues, most feminist have repeatedly shown they would rather devalue, disparage, and use any methods possible to inhibit men from receiving the necessary attention or resources needed to address their problems. They will consider men’s issues only if men are willing to accept only THEIR concept of “cause and effect” concerning the genders, which is historically entrenched in the belief that women are martyrs, men are monsters.
This is why I cannot accept Jackson Katz as a true ground-breaker in addressing men, women, and domestic violence. His problems and solutions are based in rehashing the same mythology and hyperbole of the feminist. Instead of being an independent male voice in a sea of females and establishing a greater diversity and equality within domestic violence circles, he chooses to align with them and preach to the choir.

I’ll admit I have not read any of Mr. Katz’s books. Instead I chose to “look before I leap” in purchasing his work. This is what I found from various resources on the internet. I’ve put his position in bold letters, and my own counter-points in italics.

There is a “pandemic” of violence in this country with the majority of it committed by men and boys.

Fact: Serious violent crime in this country has been decreasing rapidly in this country for the last fifteen years. Actual violent crime fell by 56% from 1993 to 2005 - one of the the lowest levels ever. Serious violent crimes include rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and homicide. Fact: For young adults between the ages of 12-17 who have committed serious violent crimes, between 1993 and 2005 the numbers show a decrease of 57% by these young offenders. For young adults (over 18 years of age), there was a decline of 58%.

Fact: Between 1993 and 2005, the rate at which individuals were victims of violent offenses using a firearm decreased 61%.

Fact: Rapes in this country have fallen by 57% between 1993 and 2005, and the combination of rapes and sexual assaults fell 35% between 1994 and 2005.

Fact: Intimate non-fatal violence fell from 1993-2005 by 60%, and female victims of iintimate partner homicide fell by 24%.

(All statistics come from the Bureau of Justice)

So as one can see, I’m already suspect about the message Mr. Katz delivers. If there is a pandemic of violence in this country, I would like to know how he derived this “crisis” from our nation’s crime statistics.

But what is more interesting is how he draws the relationships together. He claims the media is influencing men and boys with destructive masculine images which promotes violence upon women and males themselves. The usual culprits in this belief are rap music, violent video games, violent movies, professional wrestling, pornography, etc. However, this argument never seems to hold up to reality. If we are to believe that the media and its proliferation of violence and sexuality, coupled with overt or subtle gender conditioning is responsible for the violence perpetrated by men and boys, then the statistics I mentioned above would be trending in the opposite direction.
For example, the rise in violent video games over the last ten years should have resulted in a rise of violent crime - but it is trending downward. The influence of rap music over the last twenty years and it’s degradation of women as bitches, whores, and sex objects should have resulted in a higher rate of sexual assaults and rapes of women. Couple this with the easy access to numerous forms of pornography on the internet, and in accordance to this “cause and effect” ideology, crimes against women should be reaching all-time highs. But it’s not - it’s in reverse.

Using deception and hyperbole to attract attention to their cause is not an unusual behavior for the feminist-based domestic violence prevention advocates. Some of the most notorious examples of feminist deception and hyperbole have been:

• In the 1990’s, the president of the National Organization of Women proclaimed a March of Dimes study that reported battering during pregnancy as the leading cause of birth defects and infant mortality. The March of Dimes said no such study existed. NOW offered no apology.
• A number of domestic violence studies presented to the public have claimed to be representative of the general population of women. However, further research into how some D.V. studies were conducted has shown some of the researchers conducted their studies using women housed in battered women shelters, thereby infusing an egregious bias into the research, which in turn, distorts the numbers by delivering excessively high results.
• In 1993, it was reported by numerous domestic violence advocates that Superbowl Sunday is responsible for a surge in domestic violence for women. After investigating the claims, it was found no such research existed.

In his videos, Mr. Katz is perplexed as to why the media doesn’t use more feminist voices when covering stories about men and violence. Maybe it isn’t because they lie, maybe it’s because feminist are just too damn honest.

Here are some quotes from famous feminist thinkers:

Andrea Dworkin: A commitment to sexual equality with males is a commitment to becoming the rich instead of the poor, the rapist instead of the raped, the murderer instead of the murdered.

Marilyn French: All men are rapists, that’s all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes.

Germaine Greer: Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.

Maybe I’m too pragmatic, but I feel it doesn’t take a PhD in rocket science to begin drawing some conclusions as to why the media avoids these people. And considering Jackson Katz holds these people in adulation, I will continue to hold his sincere commitment to men and boys in question.

In the next article, “Domestic Violence Prevention - More Hyperbole Than Truth: Part 2“, I’ll dig deeper into some of Jackson Katz’s other statistics and claims, and use my own personal experience working with men to debate his beliefs.

Contact:

soltys.joe@gmail.com

Photo Courtesy of: Morguefile

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