Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity
The question that really comes out of this is: Why are boys behaving in this way? Why is 90% of violence committed by boys and men?
That's a point that a lot of people don't want to hear, but if you look at the culture these kids are immersed in, violence is a normal, natural part, not just of the world, but of being masculine or being a male person in the world.
It's not just in these few places (like video games or movies) but it's in what passes for normal culture. It is part of the normal training and conditioning and socialization of boys and men.
In this innovative and wide-ranging analysis, Jackson Katz argues that widespread violence in American society, including the tragic school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and elsewhere, needs to be understood as part of an ongoing crisis in masculinity.
This exciting new media literacy tool - utilizing racially diverse subject matter and examples - will enlighten and provoke students (both males and females) to evaluate their own participation in the culture of contemporary masculinity.
Jason KAtz was chased home from school and now he hold a grudge against anyone with a more testosterone than him.
Male Masculinity comes down to evolutionary biology. You have testosterone in heaps in your teens 20s and part of your 30s then you calm down. Guys like Jason Katz are born without weiners. He has a rubber weiner he keeps in his boyfrinds anus
As a masculist I wonder how child abuse enablers like Jackson Katz can sleep at night. The violence he and his feminist C.I.A. girlfriends conveniently omit is maternal violence against children, the most prolific and sadistic kind. Rapists are not born but made from traumatic childhood experiences that are statistically most often inflicted by their mothers, and C.I.A. feminist shill Jacko knows that.
Want to stop rape Jacko? You and your fascist girlfriends know the reality; show me a child that's been burned with cigarettes, starved, chained to a bed, pimped, trafficked... and I'll show you a woman in the house.
If men were the perpetrators we'd never hear the end of it from sicophantic "allies" like you.
"Feminist ally" + "child abuse enabler."
Violence has nothing to do with American culture, or with any race or class, for that matter. It has been a part of life in all parts of the world, and all throughout history, from primitive tribes to advanced civilizations. Look at characters such as Hannibal or Genghis Khan. As for the violent movie industry, it wouldn't be that way if people didn't enjoy watching it. I have seen many parents teach their children nothing but peaceful ways, but they still hit each other with stones or sticks. It sounds politically incorrect but we are wired for it. Truth is not always what we want to believe. Look at our closest relatives, the Chimpanzees, and the horrible gang murders they commit. That said, they also have the capacity for kindness and empathy, and it is the same with humans. This is how you can tell that society is not the cause of it: some kids are incredibly kind and sensitive, while others are bullies, enjoying beating others up. Sometimes two boys raised in the same family are totally different. One enjoys violent movies and the other one doesn't. This happens all the time and everywhere.
i think this is a really good topic , however i do not think this low budget film gives it the attention that it deserves, ie the talking head from beginning to end, of course the main stream media will not touch it as the industry as it exists would be dead. the topic is 10 stars , the presentation is only 3 stars , long way to go on this subject , right ?
Some of the statistics used in this documentary are not really explained well. Part of the high statistics for male violence have to do not with any inherent difference, but social views. It's slapstick comedy when a woman strikes a man; it isn't taken seriously. So it doesn't show up in the statistics. But some studies taking this into account have demonstrated women are equally prone to use physical violence. Because they are physically smaller, it is less likely to result in serious injury, but the use of it is no less frequent.
Natural tendencies associated with the genders can be observed in other mammals. There are differences between the genders, but they are very subtle and low-key compared to the exaggerated differences human culture imposes.
I don't think there is a crisis in masculinity so much as a crisis in gender identities. The notion of separate cultures for the genders isn't working anymore yet no alternative has been provided, so people are trying to squeeze themselves into these increasingly impossible roles, whose raison d'etre has vanished and which are increasingly maladapted to the present environment. No doubt the culture will adapt in time, and is likely in the early stages of that process now, but with fundamental institutions that have existed since civilization began it is going to take quite some time. At least a century, I would imagine.
I honestly thought scrolling down to the comments I would see some really well thought-out responses to this documentary. Sadly, I was mistaken. Many of you appear to have never watched the documentary, be too stuck in your misogynist ways, or take this documentary to be the absolute truth. This documentary needs to be watched in conjunction with other research, and watched objectively; while he makes some really good points, his hypodermic needle approach to media theory lacks depth and does not account for peoples' intelligence and ability to ignore media messages, or use media critically (a la a critical media theory approach) for their own means. Should be read in conjunction with Hegemonic Masculinity theory, and critical approaches to the Columbine shootings which focus on masculinity and popular culture influences. This documentary is not an attack on men, but an exploration of the violent ideals society places on men.
dont missunderstand me but you act out from what you been through, guess thats why we all hear with one ear and missunderstand so often in this big topic(s)
Great great great documentary ^^
Its truly a eye-opener if we listen and try take in what he is saying and showing here, without fallin in the trap he exactly talk about ^^
now i should stop writing, just opened so much apinions and new way of looking on things where i judges quicker :)
should i end with saying ironicaly, as i often heard:
im talking alot -- but im a woman you know
peace ^^
I got raped when i was 14. im 20 now.
i got alot of help and lucky enough im getting rid of the "men are bad, evil and will do you harm"
listen when you get traumatized as example, you connect some from it to learn not get into that again, defense mechanism. after it i was scared of my dad, or nervous, couldnt really sit in same room.
I got a friend (boy) who got abused by his mom, he have another view there, he was scared of woman long time, saw them as the bad people here. very interesting talks we got about how you react after what you have been into.
is it totally out in the woods trying to go over to the experiment Pavlovs dogs. Give dogs dinner, ring with a bell each time, then begin to ring the bell without giving food and the dogs connect the sound with the food (read about it if i dont explain good enough here ^^)
a little same direction i would say that fear/hate for men i had was only because of what i sadly got into. Too learn from mistakes you try sort out with yourself what did go wrong, as 14 years old i connected men with violence and rape, my friend opposite.
Another thing with men is stronger, in someway i would think if woman was build stronger than men, the history would also have looked the same and maybe woman would be more violence than me :)
Too see both side of a story is important :)
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As a female highschool teacher, and the head of a genderstudies department I find this documentary educational and eye opening. I put it in the same catgory as "MissRepresentation" in that it talks about what all of us see in society but are unable to understand why we let it be so acceptable. Those of you that see it as a attack on masculinity are looking at it from the wrong perspective.
this movie is bullsh***. boys have never been less tough.
in order to understand behaviors one must unerstand "conditioning". Violence can be condtioned out of an entire species just as easily as it is to condition violence into them. If one disagrees with this statment then im asking them to research the history of dogs and the recent study on White Foxes that took place a few years ago; these scientist proved that animals can change their violent behavior through changing its environment, in the end the white foxes began to look like dogs because of the change in behavior. It is a myth in our modern culture that humans are violent, no questiions asked, but im sorry you must question everything in order to find truth
the men endorsing this video are losers, arguing for a more pussified society to try and level the playing field. if they were alpha, they'd have no desire to change the status quo. i'm not endorsing violence or intolerance, i'm endorsing competition. i think james caan was spot on... the man who is 'not to be trifled with' has equipped himself with the brains and brawn necessary to imbue genuine self-confidence. And self-confidence, friends is the definition of alpha. A man who can impose his will upon his environment through logical persuasion, and defend his establishment through force if necessary against undeserving usurpers, is king. The rest of you nitpicking from the sidelines to have the rules of the game changed will be phased out by natural selection. Arm yourself by cultivating the gifts God gave you, of intelligence and strength, or else pick up a pompom and play your position.
I happen to have met the Jackson Katz, the man many people are talking badly about on here. He is an extremely intelligent and thoughtful individual. I also watched this movie in a class I took and found it to be incredibly insightful. I am currently a high school teacher and have classes of mainly high school boys, and I see a lot of what this documentary discusses. I enjoyed this documentary so much then, I've checked out his other work and am watching this again!
turn this off after 15 minutes. couldnt listen to that id**t any longer
Who ever was involved with making this documentary should have their a55 beat!
Jackson is very much on it and clear with it. Dangerously close to preachy/proselytising but on account of the content it never goes overboard.
He says men (and much of women) are going to have to change. It's natural that we should look at life as a binary thing -- male/female forever --- it's all we've ever known, from amoeba upwards. But it's not about changing male behaviour -- because that ain't going to happen. Tthe future long longterm is unigender, not female ---- men having served their purpose (to excess) and gotten extincted --- but human and of a single gender. And then what happens to good old evolution you ask. Just have to wait and see.
The OTT sociopathy/criminality of men we witness currently as a last backlash of the macho uh, 'tail' will be phased out as more women take more power over time. Technology (brains) is always gonna win, however your 6-pack 'n biceps and women are filling the brainy professions as men drop out into porn and vid games and beer (all part of the plan guys if you think about it) (hey i'm just the messenger spare your ammunition). Life doesn't give a fk about gender, as it were --- but which ok, has served its purpose up until now, but faces along with men, total redundancy.
Since that old binary fission system currently threatens to do us all in something has to change, and it will, and radical. It's not about a cull as such, of males but selective breeding (with no need for infanticide -- as per females in China). Sounds bizarre today well, but tomorrow i guess we'll see. If it sounds like a drag to anybody addicted to his cock (urs truly included..) go check out the alternative --- another millenium of this? Of war? Abuse of resources? Hollywood action/rape/misogyny movies? Football and wrestling? Gangstas/Rap? .. Too fkn boring, face it, so do us a favour someone? Test-tube this way, but don't let's worry guys, sex will still happen, but it'll be the real thing, not the reel thing and it might look a bit different. Some bright guy once said 'good satisfying sex without violence is impossible', and maybe that's the ultimate challenge of this looming new reality --- can life be any good without muscle 'n beer 'n steroids 'n guns. I guess we're just going to have to find out.
It's a fairly good film for raising awareness of the real dangers of bullying.
But the film's narrative contains an unfortunate (but blatant) racist/classist subtext: the narrator is of a particular social class (he calls himself an "anti-violence educator." ie. doesn't have to work for a living) and he is ranting on about how scary and violent black and working class white males are. They're a pretty easy target for someone who has all day to think about how to attack other men (with words instead of fists). And if his story is just a fig leaf for his own animal-vs-animal competition for prey (audience), then it isn't really useful as a educational tool, is it?
He never mentions the role that economic violence/predation plays in creating physical desperation that degenerates into physical brutality. Like a lot of pseudo-documentarians, he examines just enough symptoms of a larger phenomenon to build a story that elevates the sub-culture making/watching the video. This is a self-empowering video that works to disempower blacks, working class males, and other people who have to carry the weight of an obscenely wealthy banker-driven culture of hyperconsumption and slavery.
Perhaps the film's producers are inadvertently working towards their own self interest, but whether it's self conscious or not, the subjectively skewed choice of symptoms they examine distorts most of the positive message that could be gained with a more objective narrative voice. The absence of any mention of economic predation turns this "issue" story into propaganda against economically-disadvantaged groups - something we'd expect from commercial media.
Rather than attacking that primary abuse of power and resource allocation, the film seems to go after the victims of exploitation themselves by calling them violent: why not call these lower social-ranking males "repulsive" like the elites of olde?
You're really on the side of the Lord, and it's about time someone spilled the volatile fuel that so many are content with however many people that it hurts. Thank you for this enriching experience.
I have to admit, I thought this was going to be some lame Marxist propaganda, but he makes some really salient and cogent points. I believe he really touches on a hyper-macho revolution that started in the 1960s (notice the HUGE increase in rape that began then) and has been really damaging American culture in so many ways ever since. It is most obvious in the misogyny and mindless hyper-macho gangster behavior in US urban culture that has gone so far in completely ruining American culture. God help all of the young boys growing up now who are exposed to this stupidity. 5-star documentary.
The moment you think you know everything, you stop learning. Er something like that cant remember it exactly, good quote.
Im sure the theme in the movie was dont be a "wussy" and let yourself be controlled, by what other people think or do.
Unless they have a gun pointed at you! HAHAHa!
Still wont affect me, personally. Even as a sensitive male, docile and all that 'I WILL DIE FOR WHAT I BELIEVE IN!'.
Its a principle of mine, like RESPECT!
This was obviously made by feminists and cultural marxists, obvious propaganda /indoctrination is obvious.