“This moment is medieval”: Jackson Katz on misogyny, the manosphere, and why men must oppose Trumpism
Longtime MEF friend and collaborator Jackson Katz, a leading figure in the gender-violence prevention field, was the subject of a lengthy interview in The Guardian last week.¹ In the interview, Katz discussed his new book Every Man: Why Violence Against Women is a Men’s Issue and blasted the accelerating right-wing backlash against women’s autonomy and women’s rights.
“This isn’t a normal moment — it’s medieval and a huge rollback of progress,” Katz said in the interview. “We’re witnessing a global backlash against women’s progress, since the past 50 years have seen unbelievable challenges to patriarchal norms. Trumpism and rightwing populism isn’t a revolt against the ‘elites’; it’s a reaction to men being de-centered and a backlash against feminism.”
Katz, a key architect of the influential bystander approach to gender violence prevention, co-produced and is featured in our bestselling film The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at Its Roots, which serves as a kind of video companion piece to his new book. In the film, Katz offers fascinating insights into how cultural norms, especially normative ideas about gender and manhood, help perpetuate sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of gender violence. At the same time, he mobilizes powerful examples from news, sports, entertainment media, and politics — including media coverage of Donald Trump’s rise to political prominence — to show how male peer-culture dynamics across race and ethnicity help normalize sexism and misogyny while feeding a climate of men’s silence in the face of other men’s abuse.
The Bystander Moment is a powerful educational tool, ideal for classroom use and campus programming, and is now available to purchase in a variety of formats. For Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) through the end of April, we’re offering 15% off all formats of The Bystander Moment with the code SAAM2025.
In keeping with his main line of argument in both The Bystander Moment and his new book, Katz told The Guardian that more men’s leadership is needed to push back against the normalization of misogyny, to call out the so-called “manosphere,” and to challenge myths of manhood that equate bullying and disrespect for women with toughness and strength.
“Challenge your peer groups,” Katz said in the interview. “Educate each other and make sure your voice is louder than those spreading abusive norms. It takes courage, but it will only cause more tragedy if we don’t show it.”
Every Man: Why Violence Against Women is a Men’s Issue was published last month by Penguin Random House UK.² It will be available in the U.S. from a different publisher in September.
1. “‘This moment is medieval’: Jackson Katz on misogyny, the manosphere – and why men must oppose Trumpism,” by Ammar Kalia, The Guardian, Feb. 28, 2025.
2. Every Man: Why Violence Against Women is a Men’s Issue, Penguin Random House UK.
Praise for The Bystander Moment
“The Bystander Moment is a must-see documentary. I’ve screened it in my class at Harvard Law, and intend to show it every semester moving forward!”
— Diane L. Rosenfeld, JD, LLM | Director, Gender Violence Program at Harvard Law School
“A great documentary film that builds on the momentum of the #MeToo movement and sheds light on what is needed to prevent gender-based violence.”
— Alisha Somji, MPH | Associate Program Manager at the Prevention Institute
“The advocates and educators we work with will benefit immensely from this resource.”
— Amanda Grady Sexton | Director of Public Affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
“The Bystander Moment is a wise and passionate beacon for engaged activism in colleges, sports, the military and workplaces.”
— Michael A. Messner, Ph.D. | Co-author, Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women
“I’m so thankful this movie exists. Jackson Katz delivers a convincing case for a small fix that could fundamentally change our society in more ways than we can imagine.”
— Liz Plank | Journalist & Executive Producer, Divided States of Women
