With more shows being added to conglomerate television networks weekly, the exposure of messages dealing societal norms increases greatly across all ages, races and genders.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Winona State University’s Women’s and Gender Studies Department showed a documentary last Tuesday called “Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity.”
“Tough Guise,” written by Jackson Katz in 2000, discusses how masculinity, manhood and violence are portrayed in all mediums of media.
Katz, a former member of the United States Secretary of Defense’s Task Force on Domestic Violence in the military from 2000-2003, based his documentary off an ideology he calls “tough guise.”
Katz describes the notion of tough guise as males putting up a front of extreme masculinity and physicality to gain the respect of others through violence or the threat of it.
“Boys and young men learn early on that being a so-called ‘real man’ means you have to take on the ‘tough guise,’” said Katz.
“Tough Guise” showed clips of violence from all kinds of media mediums. From news reporting of the shootings at Columbine High School, hip-hop videos, promotional commercials for the U.S. Army, to images of battery between performers on the Jerry Springer Show, the idea of men putting on a tough guise was clear.
Katz, founder and former director of Mentors in Violence Program, believes that teaching anti-violence in middle schools and juvenile detention centers is a key to ending violence.
“Putting on a tough guise comes with a cost; it’s in everyone’s interest to expose what’s happening with the guise,” said Katz.
Katz mentions the portrayal of women as sexual objects in two famous shows amongst young men, The Howard Stern Show and The Man Show.
Katz believed The Howard Stern Show, a radio show that could be heard by the public until January 2006, reinforced “tired, old sexist values” that were anything but progressive.
“What Stern does is he creates a world for his largely young male audience, a world in which they can feel good about themselves by putting down and sexually degrading women,” said Katz.
Katz also discusses The Man Show, a former television show hosted by comedians Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla on Comedy Central from 1999-2004.
The Man Show, according to Katz, is a place where men sit and talk about sports and beer and “surround themselves with highly sexualized women out of some male fantasy world who are not at all threatening.”
With a growing amount of news reports blaming video games and movies as reinforcing ideologies of violence in the minds of young boys, Katz encourages people to look at the world of sports culture.
“Boys are taught that real manhood is connected to size, strength and masculinity,” said Katz. “We must turn away from thinking about it as kids imitating violence and look at how society constructs violence as a social norm and how boys become men.”
Contact Dana at DJKudelk7481@winona.edu