The Bystander Moment (Film & Discussion)

FILM: The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots

The #MeToo movement has shined much-needed light on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and abuse and created unprecedented demand for gender violence prevention models that actually work. The Bystander Moment tells the story of one of the most prominent and proven of these models -- the innovative bystander approach developed by pioneering activist and writer Jackson Katz and his colleagues. In a riveting analysis illustrated with archival footage and clips from news, sports, and entertainment media, Katz explores the role of bystanders -- especially friends, teammates, classmates, and co-workers—in perpetuating sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of gender violence. Katz also gives special attention to the peer culture dynamics -- in particular the male peer culture dynamics across race and ethnicity -- that help to normalize sexism and misogyny while silencing other men in the face of abuse. Along the way, The Bystander Moment stresses the crucial importance of appealing to people not as potential perpetrators or passive spectators, but as active bystanders and potential leaders who have a positive role to play in challenging and changing the sexist cultural norms that too often lead to gender violence. The result is an indispensable educational tool in the ongoing struggle to prevent sexism and misogyny and promote gender equality.

Jackson Katz, Ph.D., is internationally renowned for his pioneering scholarship and activism on issues of gender, race and violence. He has long been a major figure and thought leader in the growing global movement of men working to promote gender equality and prevent gender violence. He is co-founder of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), one of the longest-running and most widely influential gender violence prevention programs in North America, and the first major program of its kind in the sports culture and the military. MVP introduced the “bystander” approach to the sexual assault and relationship abuse fields; Katz is a key architect of this now broadly popular strategy. Since 1997 he has run MVP Strategies, which provides sexual harassment and gender violence prevention/leadership training to institutions in the public and private sectors in U.S. and around the world.

Film Trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHwBZXvLjQ

Featuring and based on the work of leading anti-violence educator and author Jackson Katz, The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots places special focus on how cultural norms – especially normative ideas about manhood across race and ethnicity – have fed a culture of silence in the face of men’s sexual violence.

“It’s been a great thrill to collaborate with MEF on this project,” said Katz, whose TedTalk on men’s violence against women went viral and has collected more than four million views to date. “There’s a real need for dynamic resources in the gender violence prevention field, especially video resources capable of inspiring young people to think critically about the social norms and peer culture dynamics that sustain abuse and create so much of the silence around these issues. MEF’s done an amazing job breaking these issues down and bringing them to life.”

Katz is one of the early architects of the bystander approach to gender violence prevention, and the founder and president of MVP Strategies, one of the leading gender violence prevention organizations in the country. Over the course of the video, which is illustrated throughout with archival footage and clips from news, sports, and entertainment media, he argues that it’s not enough to focus on how bystanders can stop acts of abuse when they see them happening in front of them. Instead, he calls for bystanders – especially men and young men – to proactively challenge the sexist and misogynistic attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that too often lead to sexual abuse and bystander silence in the first place.

At the same time, Katz stresses the crucial importance of appealing to men not as potential perpetrators or passive spectators, but as potential leaders who have a positive role to play in transforming the deep-seated cultural norms that reinforce abusive behaviors within peer groups.

“One of the many positive contributions of the #MeToo movement has been the way it’s forced us to reckon with the legions of silent bystanders who’ve allowed sexual violence to go on for so long,” said Sut Jhally, the Executive Producer of the film and the head of the Media Education Foundation, which has produced several films with Katz in the past, including the acclaimed Tough Guise series. “Jackson’s great strength is his ability to speak to the positive role that bystanders, men and young men in particular, can play in helping to challenge and change the sexist attitudes that underlie sexual harassment and abuse. That’s why we’re committed to getting this video out to as wide an audience as possible through our grassroots networks.”

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