Men taking responsibility for other men and standing up for women's rights was one of the main themes of a presentation by Jackson Katz to a large audience in Statler Auditorium Feb. 11.
Katz's program, titled "Football, Feminism and other Contemporary Contradictions," was a part of Cornell's 18th annual Health Awareness Week and was sponsored by the Intrafraternity and Panhellenic councils, the University Health Services Clinical Volunteer Program, the Feminist Action League and SAFER peer educators.
Katz is the founder of MVP Strategies Inc., an organization that provides gender violence prevention training nationally. A former star high school football player, Katz became the first man at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to hold a minor in women's studies. He has lectured extensively around the country and on television and is the spokesman for Boston's Real Men, an anti-sexist men's organization he founded 10 years ago.
"We wanted a man to come address this topic and give a male's perspective on how both men and women can be activists towards a cause which, in the past, has only seen women," said senior Rona Yoffe, a clinical volunteer and keynote speaker chair for Health Awareness Week.
After introductions, the night's program began with Ithacan Jody Kessler singing her song "Walk Without Fear," which was written for Ithaca Rape Crisis.
Katz began his talk by asking audience members what everyday steps they take to protect themselves -- an exercise that illustrated the disparity between women's and men's fears of being attacked or violated. The men's column of protection steps, written on a chalkboard on stage, remained blank, while the women's side became filled with answers such as "holding keys as weapons," "carrying pepper spray," and "never putting down your drink at a party for fear of 'roofies,' the new date-rape drug."
"Some men in some cities take some of these precautions," Katz said, but added: "All women in all areas do these things, be it in the rural upstate or in midtown Manhattan. That women can't walk to their cars at night without the fear of being assaulted is a pretty pathetic statement."
Katz went on to suggest some of the ways our society encourages men's violence against women, citing controversial comedians, male chauvinist jokes and the very language we use, such as negative variations on terms to describe feminists, such as "femi-nazi" or "male basher."
"Women often get accused of 'male-bashing,'" he said. "When women try to speak out, saying that battering is the leading cause of injury to women in the U.S., they get called the bashers?"
Katz pointed out the ironic concern some men have of being called "gay" for supporting women's rights. He encouraged men to move beyond such narrow-mindedness and fear, and renounce the idea that being a real man means being "tough and macho."
There is a big difference between guilt and responsibility, Katz said. "Innocent" men should not feel guilty, he said, but should feel a responsibility to try to prevent abuse.
"If we are silent in the face of abusive men," he said, "then our silence is a sign of consent and complicity in that abuse. We need to create a climate among men where the abuse of women is completely, socially unacceptable."
Some of the other ways Katz suggested that men can help is by listening to women, reading women's literature and supporting rape crisis organizations. He closed his presentation with an address to the men in the audience, many of whom were members of the Greek system, saying that if they really care about the women in their lives -- mothers, sisters, girlfriends -- they should speak out and stand up to violence against women.
While leaving the auditorium at the end of the program, many people debated different points Katz had raised and discussed the value of having such a presentation at Cornell.
"It was really impressive how a man would speak out for women's rights," said freshman Cara Sterman. "A lot of guys feel strongly about these issues, but don't have the guts to speak out."
Alumnus Robert Blair '94 had a similar reaction: "He said a lot of things that a lot of men would have liked to have said."
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