Malechallengemedia's Blog

The following links are to people I trained with or worked with in my peace promotion and violence prevention/masculinity work. They are globally reconised as top people in their field.

Jackson Katz “Tough Guise”

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI

While the social construction of femininity has been widely examined, the dominant role of masculinity has until recently remained largely invisible. Tough Guise is the first educational video geared toward college and high school students to systematically examine the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the dawn of the 21st century.

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.

Jackson Katz “Tough Guise” Opening Montage

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmy2IHYq_y8&feature=related

Music by Pearl Jam

Song: “Better Man”

Jackson Katz ‘Wrestling with Manhood’

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ikDXcfzA848&feature=related

George Gerbner – The Killing Screens

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2PHxTr-59hE&feature=related

Addressing specifically the question of violence and the media, The Killing Screens urges us to think about the effects of the media in new and complex ways. In contrast to the relatively simplistic behaviourist model that media violence causes real-world violence, Gerbner encourages us to think about the psychological, political, social and developmental impacts of growing up and living within a cultural environment of pervasive, ritualized violent images.

Kai Brand Jacobsen – The Roots of Violence http://www.bigpicture.tv/videos/watch/14bfa6bb1

Brand-Jacobsen talks about how violence is built in to the fabric of our present social, economic and political systems. He talks about three levels of violence that pervade society – direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence. He explains how structural and cultural violence manifest themselves in numerous subtle ways and gives examples of both cases. He goes on to suggest how together they often lead to acts of direct violence such as war and terrorism.

Johan Galtung – (Often called the father of world peace studies)

http://www.bigpicture.tv/videos/watch/6c4b761a2

Professor Galtung lists his chief concerns in the world today.. It starts with the dangers posed by ‘global hyper-capitalism’ and the ‘structural violence’ it inflicts on people. He expresses profound concern for the developing relationship between Christians and Muslims, pointing out that the Christian dominated European Union could soon face an Islamic Union “stretching from Casablanca to Mindanao.” He stresses that this must be seen as an opportunity for a cooperative partnership, rather than a threat. Finally, Galtung highlights the encircling of Russia, China and India by American bases. This poses a major threat to stability and reflects the ambitions and military might of the United States. Galtung lists violence against women as a global problem with huge and lasting consequences.

Misogyny in Media and Culture – Trailer

A film by Thomas Keith, PH.D – http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lEd2ZGLsUew

Despite the achievements of the women’s movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important documentary, Thomas Keith, professor of philosophy at California State University-Long Beach, looks specifically at misogyny and sexism in mainstream American media, exploring how negative definitions of femininity and hateful attitudes toward women get constructed and perpetuated at the very heart of our popular culture.

The film tracks the destructive dynamics of misogyny across a broad and disturbing range of media phenomena: including the hyper-sexualization of commercial products aimed at girls, the explosion of violence in video games aimed at boys, the near-hysterical sexist rants of hip-hop artists and talk radio shock jocks, and the harsh, patronizing caricatures of femininity and feminism that reverberate throughout the mainstream of American popular culture.

Along the way, Generation M forces us to confront the dangerous real-life consequences of misogyny in all its forms – making a compelling case that when we devalue more than half the population based on gender, we harm boys and men as well as women and girls.

Featuring interviews with gender violence prevention educators Byron Hurt, Jackson Katz, and Jean Kilbourne.