Summary Of The Macho Paradox

In chapter seven of his book The Macho Paradox, Jackson Katz explains that a large role played in the continuation of violence against women is the “Bystander Approach”, where men, who are not physically participating in the violence against women, are still playing a role in it by standing by and not doing or saying anything about it. This happen more often and not and our society and how thing are “supposed to be” plays a large role in it. Jackson Katz gives the example of being “one of the guys” in society and states why it plays a large role in the bystander approach. From birth we all especially men, want to fit in, and want to be accepted by our peers, we do not want to be outcast and/or different from the rest of the group, because in turn
Men learn this by watching other men as they grow up, their fathers, older brothers, uncles, celebrity men, and many other men they come into contact with every day. Activities such as sports, Boy Scouts, hard work with father figures, also play large roles in what it means to be a man in today’s society. The problem with this is not only how our society tells young boys to do this, but tells these boys how to see women, and in turn how to treat them. “Over the last decade, the rise of “lad” magazines like Maxim, Stuff, and FHM…can be understood as instructional manuals for a certain type of upwardly mobile white, middle, and upper-class manhood” (Katz, 2006, 120). Television, radio, the internet, and all other forms of media play a large role in how men are “supposed” to see women, and young boys listen and follow what they hear and see because they do not want to be an outcast from other young boys and they do not want to be mad fun of and even be determined by “gay”, “queer”, “fag”, and other terms that people use to describe someone who is not like “one of the