Macho Paradox Jackson Katz\'s Book

¶ … Macho Paradox

Jackson Katz's book "A Macho Paradox" is an innovative approach to the violence against women in society (generally, in the American society, although the lessons in this book could be applied to any similar society) and to the fundamental reasons and motifs that lead to these acts of violence. In his opinion, violence against women is not solely a women's issue and it is also not something that occurs out of the blue. The causes are deeply rooted in the male culture of Western civilizations, in the lack of reactions of the authorities to some of the underlying causes of the violence against women and, in fact, of an overall macho culture that promotes such factors that influence the violence against women: sexism, pornography, prostitution and simply a "boys will be boys" attitude.

Split over 13 chapters that cover most of the areas where the macho approach is promoted and where this encourages a sexist attitude and, as a consequence, a potential factor of violence against women, the author ranges in his presentation of apparently neutral and inoffensive facts and actions that, in fact, become the underlying triggering events of such manifestation.

The author's intentions are clearly specified from the preface of the book as he wants to move away from the "take it as it is" approach, one in which women and society in general simply accept the fact that they can be potential targets of violent behavior and prepare for it ("the women recount safety precautions they take as part of their daily routine (…)The exercise can go on for almost half an hour. Invariably the board fills up on the women's side. This is true, with slight variations, in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Many women say the list is like an unconscious mental checklist"

), and towards a perspective where the factors and causes are identified and eliminated.

This would mean essentially that violence against women stops being an action that concerns women because they are the victims, but an action where men assume full responsibility for perpetrating such acts and start taking the right steps in order to eliminating the deeper causes of these mistakes. More so, the book shows from the first chapter that its focus will also be the society as a producer of the mentioned factors and causes that need to be eradicated: "Isn't it about time we had a national conversation about the male causes of this violence, instead of endlessly lingering on its consequences in the lives of women?

Resuming the review so far, the author aims to point towards the values of a male society that promote underlying factors, which, in turn, turn into causes of violence against women. One such example is amply described in chapter 10, referring to "Guilty pleasures: pornography, prostitution and stripping." As throughout the book, the theoretical discussion is keenly doubled by lots of breathtaking examples of acts of violence.

The chapter starts in this manner with the case of a young woman gang raped and filmed while she was unconscious. The case reveals on several different levels how the underlying factors and a misogynist society are in fact the deeply rooted causes of such an event. First, there is the level of the young men who committed the crime: their acts are closely related to a culture where pornography dominates, especially at that age, the lives and, as could be seen with that case, the sexual expressions of the male individual.

However, the second level is in fact much more worrying, because it comes from the young men's lawyers and, as such, can be perceived as coming from an entity of authority. Their defense in court was, in fact, built almost entirely on a misogynistic platform. The victim was presented as "a "slut" and a "whore," who loved giving "blow jobs" and enjoyed "doggy-style" sex"

. One can reasonably ask how that would justify her being gang raped? The only explanation is that such arguments become viable in a misogynistic society and are accepted as such.