About 50 people gathered in Collis Common Ground last night to hear former all-state football player Jackson Katz discuss the importance of dispelling social constructs that encourage men to perpetrate violence against women.
"Our society is producing millions of men who grow up and assault women," he said. "We must go back to the social construction of masculinity to resolve this phenomenon."
The speech, titled "Football, Feminism and other Contemporary Contradictions," was part of Sexual Abuse Awareness Week.
Katz is the founder of Real Men, an anti-sexist men's organization whose purpose is to encourage men to speak out against sexism.
Katz, who is the first man to graduate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a women's degree minor, said the connection between men and violence is a deeply ingrained social construct.
"The symbol for man is Mars," he said. "Mars is the god of war. From antiquity, men have been equated with violence."
Katz began the speech by asking the male and female members of the audience to write on a blackboard the precautions they take to prevent themselves from being sexually assaulted.
While the measures women took to prevent sexual assault filled the blackboard, the section of the board allotted to men remained empty.
"It is pathetic that women should have to live like this," Katz said. "We as men can do something about this. We should feel responsible for the power we have."
Katz said a woman is nine times more likely to be assaulted in her own home by a man she knows than be sexually assaulted by a stranger.
The best statistical advice that one can give to a woman is to be careful about who you date and who you chose to be intimate with, he said.
Katz also discussed the prevalence of wife-battering in American culture.
Battering is the single leading cause of injury to women in the United States, he said. No country comes close to the U.S. in terms of number of rapes either, he added.
Katz said the mass media is "incredibly influential" in promoting male violence.
"We live in a culture that produces rapists," Katz concluded.
Katz offered eight "concrete solutions" to combat the rise of violent acts against women.
Men should listen to women, use gender-inclusive language, support rape crisis and battled women's centers, train college males to work with boys as adult role models and be held accountable for their behavior, he said.
Men should also support political candidates who are most likely to respect and support women's equality, start anti-sexist men's organizations and support women who are already doing work on these issues.
