"The source of the problem is not women's and girls' behavior, its men's behavior. True prevention means going into male culture," said Katz, who founded the Mentors in Violence Prevention Program at Northeastern University.
Katz was careful not to accuse men of perpetrating sexual abuse and domestic violence, but instead emphasized the importance of having good men stand up.
"Just saying I'm not a rapist, just saying I don't beat my girlfriend, is not particularly impressive to me. We need so much more from men then what we've been getting on these issues," Katz said.
The mostly male audience was comprised largely of Dartmouth football players who were encouraged by Head Coach Buddy Teevens '79 to attend the event. Football player Julian Collins '08 appreciated Katz's assessment of the problem and suggestions to help.
"Instead of just teaching women what to do, he wants men to have an active role in it as well. It's a really good message," Collins said.
Katz began by exploring the root of the problem: the pressure on males to comply with misogynist behavior and the risks a man takes if he stands up for a woman when male friends express violent behavior. He asked the audience for the names that men use to describe other men who stand up for women's rights. Many of the terms listed threatened a man's masculinity or sexuality, which Katz looked at more closely to reveal the irony of the pattern.
"The implication here is that because we care about women, and girls -- our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our wives, our girlfriends and other women -- because we care about women, we must want to have sex with men," Katz said. "If a man must be gay to care about women, that means that heterosexual men must not care about women. Isn't that disturbing when you draw it out logically?"
Towards the end of the discussion, Katz showed video clips to emphasize how the media perpetuates the male-culture society, which he believes is at the base of male violence, including one which showed the increasing size of the male body through time. As male bodies grew more powerful, the ideal woman's body has become more frail, he said. Katz attributed this change to male overcompensation for the threat women pose in professional society.
"It's pretty true to show how manhood is evolving," Collins said. "[It makes you ask] where's it going to go...I thought it was really eye-opening."
Katz also spoke about using civic and personal responsibility as a way of preventing sexual violence.
