Violence against women—it's a men's issue
Jackson Katz
"When we act as if white people don't have some sort of racial identity…as if heterosexual people don't have a sexual orientation, as if men don't have a gender, [then] the dominant group is rarely challenged to even think about its dominance."
Filmed Nov 2012, Posted May 2013
TED Talk transcript is also available
TED SITE -VIDEOYOUTube VERSION
In his work in leadership development, Jackson seeks to help people move from seeing things in terms of binaries [e.g. a man abusing a woman] to
considering it as part of the broader social context in which it really is embedded. From this viewpoint, though we may not be a perpetrator or directly involved in the of dyad abuse, we still should ask ourselves, "What do am I doing?" or "How do I not remain silent in a situation of abuse?" in order to proactively help to create a peer culture where abusive behaviours are considered to be unacceptable.
The Bystander Approach: as Jackson describes it "is trying to give people tools to interrupt that process, to speak up, and to create a peer culture climate where the abusive behavior will be seen as unacceptable, not just because it's illegal, but because it's wrong and unacceptable in the peer culture."
This was a very inspirational talk and my thinking immediately made a connection to how this bystander approach - that challenges all of us to make more proactive choices - could empower us to help change cultural paradigms on so many levels - abuse, racism, homophobia, agism...
Jackson's point is well taken in his reference to Martin Luther King's powerful statement, "In the end, what will hurt the most is not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."
No comments:
Post a Comment