The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women

At night, when a woman walks down the street by herself, pay attention to the way she walks, the way she clutches her purse to her side, and the way her eyes dart back and forth, prepared to flee in case someone comes near. Compare that to the way a man confidently strides with a smirk plastered across his face, occasionally cat-calling a reluctant victim. In Jackson Katz’s book the Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help, the author argues that the violence and harassment made against women is indeed, a men’s issue. Within the first few chapters, Katz offers various scenarios, and a myriad of statistics. However, “in a 500 page book on gender violence, this author does not mention once that woman can and are abusive toward men” (Smith, Aaron). Contrary to this critique, the author does bring in data branching from both sexes, but the amount is quite limited. Some say this makes Katz’s argument one-sided as this restriction elicits the logical fallacy of card-stacking. It wouldn’t make sense to talk about abusive women when the purpose of the book is …show more content…
The conversation will switch once “How many women were raped in 2015?” is rephrased to, “How many men raped women in 2015?” By putting in the word “men,” the light will shift off of the victims and onto the perpetrators. Once we go from “violence against women” to “men’s violence against women” we will then catch the attention of both sexes, instead of having the female and some, but very few, male feminists on one side, and the willingly ignorant males on the other. Even so, as a society often described as a “man’s world” is it possible to take the proper precautions in terms striving for a place of safety for all sexes? Or will this strive for progressivism result in an unrecoverable