Kavanaugh uproar creates an unprecedented teachable moment
Use these MEF films to open up discussion and debate about toxic masculinity & rape culture
As the furor surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court continues to grow, we want to remind you that MEF offers a range of classroom videos designed explicitly to help students think critically about rape culture, toxic masculinity, and the increasingly angry white male backlash against women’s autonomy and power.
Below, you’ll find videos that explore how traditional gender norms have too often rendered women silent in the face of sexual abuse; how cultural codes of manhood have glamorized excessive drinking, glorified male sexual conquest, and short-circuited men’s empathy for women; how masculine entitlement and white male resentment have been fueling a reactionary political backlash for decades; and how bystanders can play a positive, proactive role in challenging and changing the deeply gendered peer culture dynamics and social norms that contribute to sexism, misogyny, and sexual violence.
Please take a minute to browse these video clips below, and use them in your classroom. (You can also check whether the full film is available for you to stream for free right now through your university library!)
The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots
Renowned anti-violence activist Jackson Katz, one of the early architects of the bystander approach to gender violence prevention, explores how gender norms – especially normative ideas about manhood – have fed a culture of silence in the face of men’s sexual violence. This film is due out this month and available for pre-order now.
Rape Myths on Trial: Naming the Unnamed Conspirator
Anne Munch, a career prosecutor, examines how the outcomes of rape cases often turn on the involvement of an “unnamed co-conspirator” — the complex of cultural myths and stories we tell ourselves as a culture about sex, gender, power, and responsibility.
Spin the Bottle: Sex, Lies & Alcohol
Cultural critics Jean Kilbourne and Jackson Katz explore media messages that glamorize excessive drinking (especially within male peer cultures) and set them against the less-glamorous realities of sexual violence on college campuses.
The Purity Myth: A Film about the Conservative War on Women
Author and columnist Jessica Valenti takes a devastating look at the relationship between women’s sexuality, women’s autonomy, and an increasingly angry right-wing political movement that’s been organizing for decades to undermine both.
Tough Guise 2: Violence, Manhood & American Culture
Anti-violence educator Jackson Katz provides a stunning look at the hypermasculine, sexist, and homophobic messages young men get from the culture, and explores how they relate to the upsurge of white male resentment and anger in the face of women’s equality.
The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men
Filmmaker Thomas Keith takes a deep dive into “bro culture,” examining how it reinforces attitudes that contribute to misogyny and sexual violence in high schools and on college campuses.
Flirting with Danger: Power & Choice in Heterosexual Relationships
Drawing on the voices of young women, author Lynn Phillips explores the mixed messages young women get from the culture about sex and sexuality and clarifies the line between consent and coercion.
The Line: Where is Your Line of Consent?
Filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman chronicles her decision to confront the man who raped her in this uncompromising and illuminating examination of the line between consent and coercion.
War Zone: Violence Against Women on the Streets
Filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh-West uses a hidden camera to capture the experience of being catcalled and harassed on the streets, then confronts her male abusers point-blank.
Asking for It: The Ethics & Erotics of Sexual Consent
The late Harry Brod, a leader in the pro-feminist men’s movement, challenges young people to envision a new model of sexual interaction that’s most erotic precisely when it’s most thoughtful and empathetic.
Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video
Media scholar Sut Jhally uncovers a pattern of regressive gender representations in music video going back to the 1980s and shows how they’ve glamorized a deeply sexist worldview in the face of the women’s movement and the fight for women’s rights.
The Codes of Gender: Identity & Performance in Popular Culture
MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally offers crucial insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.
The Empathy Gap: Masculinity & the Courage to Change
Filmmaker Thomas Keith explores how traditional cultural messages about manhood short-circuit men’s ability to empathize with women, respect them as equals, and take feminism seriously.
