Some great excerpts from an article I read today (LINK)

"As a culture, Americans first must take the step in acknowledging that violence against women is not a women's issue, but a men's issue," Katz said.

"The first problem I have with labeling gender issues as women's issues is that it gives men an excuse to not pay attention. This is also the problem with calling them gender issues, because the majority of the people in the status quo see gender issues as women's issues."

"In the United States, when we hear the word `race,' people generally think of African Americans," Katz said. "When people hear `sexual orientation,' they tend to think that means homosexual, gay, or lesbian. When people hear `gender,' they think of women." Katz used race and gender to illustrate how, over time, language has helped perpetuate and maintain the dominant culture's dominance.

"In each, the dominate culture is left out of the equation. This is one way that dominant systems maintain themselves in that they are rarely challenged to think about their own dominance," Katz said. "This is one of the key characteristics of power and privilege and why the dominant culture has ability to go unexamined and remain invisible." "I know women have made great historical strides in recent history, but when we talk about the dominant group in our society, we are talking about men."

"Take rape for example," said Katz. "Over 99 percent of rape is perpetrated by men, but it's a women's issue?"

If a woman has done everything in her power to reduce her risk, then a man who has the proclivity for abuse or need for power will just move on to another woman or target," Katz added. "It's about the guy and his need to assert his power. And it's not just individual men, it's a cultural problem. Our culture is producing violent men, and violence against women has become institutionalized. We need to take a step back and examine the institutionalized polices drafted by men that perpetuate the problem."

"It is estimated that 18 million women, children, and men have been sexually abused in the U.S.," Katz said. "Think about all the men who love these people and have been personally and profoundly affected by knowing that their loved ones have been a victim of sexual violence. So don't tell me these are not men's issues."

"I come from a social justice perspective that if you are a member of the dominant group and you don't speak up in the face of others in your group when they are abusive, your silence is a form of consent and complicity."

"On the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, the coverage of the event was pathetic, not to mention the commentary was ridiculously superficial," Katz said. "There was not one mention of men, masculinity, or violence in their coverage, yet all of these school shootings have been perpetrated by young men. The first thing we should be talking about is the gender of the perpetrators, not gun control, school security, and the school's responsibility."

"Michael Moore's documentary about the Columbine shootings won several awards, including an Oscar for Best Documentary," Katz said. "He makes a two-hour film about gun violence; however, he doesn't once mention the single most important factor leading to the shooting: gender."

Katz points out a pattern that has evolved regarding how the media uses passive voice and sentences when reporting gender violence. Using a board in the front of the room, Katz helped make his point by providing the audience with a concrete exercise to illustrate the power of passive voice (see below).

John beat Mary. (active)

Mary was beaten by John. (passive)

Mary was beaten. (passive)

Mary was battered. (passive)

Mary is a battered woman. (active)

"John has left the conversation long ago, while Mary evolves into the active victim," Katz said. "This evolution of victim-blaming is very pervasive in our society, because this is how our whole power structure is set up. We start asking why Mary put herself into a position to be beaten by John."

"If we really want to work on prevention, we need to start asking questions about John, not Mary," Katz said. "We won't get anything done until we start treating these issues as men's issues and shift the paradigm at the cultural level."

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