Jackson Katz
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Jackson Katz
Jackson Katz (Ed.M., Harvard) is a former all-star football player who was the first man at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to earn a minor in women's studies. He is the founder and director of MVP Strategies, an organization that provides gender violence prevention training to colleges, high schools, professional and college sports teams, community groups, corporations, and the U.S. Military (including the first world-wide program in the history of the Marine Corps). He has lectured at hundreds of schools and colleges across the nation. [1]
In his film, "Tough Guise," Jackson Katz uses an important image from another film: actor Frank Morgan as the Great Oz, being discovered at the controls of his larger than life wizardly image. Far from the great and powerful wizard he claimed to be, Morgan's character is an average man who found himself transported to a strange and fantastical land, and felt pressured to meet the expectations of its inhabitants. Such is the case for boys growing up in America The pressure to meet stereotypical images of manhood can be a precursor to negative behavior, said Katz. Power is a common component of male identity, but often it is misunderstood and misused.
"Violent masculinity is a cultural ill in the U.S.," he said. "How do we change the climate? Men need to stand up and speak up."
In the language we use, the images we see and the belief systems we hold, we conclude that female victims of violence should be the focus of prevention programs, Katz said. While women do deserve support and assistance, it is men who should be at the center of violence prevention education.
His Mentors in Violence Prevention program addresses ways in which young men in high school and college can change their thinking by personalizing "female" issues surrounding violence and holding peers accountable for their behavior. The program in used in classroom and college/professional sports sessions across the country.
Katz believes men have the power and responsibility to change society's views about what it is to be a man.
"It is important for us to pull back the curtain and take a sober look — both at the images of masculinity and what's behind them." He said.
