Katz: ‘Gender violence is not only a women’s issue’

Internationally recognized gender violence speaker, Jackson Katz, spoke to Chadron State College students, faculty, staff, and Chadron community members at 11 a.m., Tuesday in the Student Center.

Katz is an anti-sexist, male activist. He is an educator, author, filmmaker, and cultural theorist who has been recognized for his work in the field of gender violence prevention education.

He is also the co-founder of the Mentors In Violence Prevention program, which is known more widely as MVP.

MVP is the leading gender violence prevention initiative in professional and college athletics. Katz is also the director of the first worldwide domestic and sexual violence prevention program for the United States Marine Corps.

During his presentation, Katz enlightened members of the audience on many issues involving gender violence and gender violence prevention.

One aspect that drove the presentation was that gender violence is not only a women’s issue. The issue of gender violence is also a men’s issue that includes men of all backgrounds.

He encouraged men to not only to be aware of what is going on around them concerning gender violence and not contribute to it themselves. If they see anything that makes them uncomfortable, they should not remain silent.

They should stand up for women, and become a leader in how they handle uncomfortable situations.

Katz stated that leaders are made through actions that involve courage.

He also urged the men in the audience to recognize and speak out against bashing women, LGBTQ individuals, or any other minority.

“We need a lot more than just awareness, we need action and we need a lot more people men and women, who are willing to say that we have to do things differently. The status quo is not working and your generation is in the position to lead this work” Katz said.

Spurred by a question from the audience as to what parents can do to help their sons be more aware of gender violence and knowing what to do in a situation that deals with violence against women, Katz delved into the importance of mentoring and teaching young boys about how to be men in ways that do not include degrading or abusing girls or women. Parents were urged to lead by example.

The last section of the discussion informed the audience about the role the media has on what people see as violence.

He showed a few video clips depicting the changes that violence in the media has seen over the past 100 years.

He advised the audience to refrain from viewing and protest any media that shows extreme violence and/or sexism.

Katz offers a TED talk on his website that covers more about gender violence and violence against women. This can be found at http://www.jacksonkatz.com/.

His writings for the Huffington Post can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/searchS/?q=jackson%20katz.