TAMING THE MACHO MAN
KARLA JACKSON kkjackson@tampatrib.com

TAMPA - If you believe what you see in movies and on television, a “real man” should have the muscles of Jose Canseco, the humility of Terrell Owens, the patience of Russell Crowe and the self-control of Danny Bonaduce.

Never mind that Canseco’s muscles were the result of steroids; that Owens’ ego has cost him more than $750,000 this season; that Crowe could have gone to prison for assaulting a hotel clerk; and that Bonaduce got drunk, threw temper tantrums and slashed his wrist during the filming of his “Breaking Bonaduce” reality show.

That’s just what guys do, according to popular culture.

“Violent masculinity is a cultural norm in the United States. It’s not aberrational behavior,” says Jackson Katz, a feminist activist, educational video maker and author of “The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help” (Sourcebooks: $16.95).

Katz, 45, has been working since college to put an end to the cultural damage he believes is caused by the stereotype of the uber-macho male so prevalent in movies, television, music, video games and other forms of mass media.

He will be in Tampa on Feb. 2 to give a multimedia presentation on his theories at a benefit dinner for The Ophelia Project, a girls advocacy group.

Of course, most men don’t advocate the dangerous hyper-masculinity so common in pop culture, Katz says. But too many of them dismiss its damaging effects or feel powerless to object to it, he says.

“If you say anything, you’re accused of being a censor, or that you don’t have a good sense of humor,” he says. “But there are an awful lot of men out there who … don’t feel represented by this stuff, and those men don’t have a voice.”

Katz takes issue with people who say, “I watched violent movies and I don’t kill people. I listen to Eminem and I don’t cut up people and put them in my trunk.”

They are missing the point, he says.

“It’s not about imitation,” says Katz, who, in 1982, was the first man to graduate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a minor in women’s studies.

“The larger problem is that boys and men are growing up with innumerable images of men acting out in violent and abusive ways. It has the effect of normalizing the behavior. The more violence you see, the more normal it becomes, and the more desensitized you become.”

He points to the rampant popularity of professional wrestling and celebrities such as Howard Stern as examples of how violence and misogyny have become acceptable to the public at large.

“Wrestling is like a cartoon world, where men are big brutes and women and girls are two-dimensional caricatures of human beings,” says Katz, who produced an educational video, “Wrestling With Manhood: Boys, Bullying & Battering” in 2002.

He’ll show examples of what he’s talking about during his Tampa appearance.

“The level of domestic and sexual violence in professional wrestling is out of control,” he says. “They’ll claim it’s all scripted and acting, but that’s what makes it normative.”

‘Sexual Sadism’

One clip he’ll show depicts the Bay area’s Hulk Hogan holding a woman by the hair and making a fist as if he’s going to punch her in the face.

“He’s motioning to the audience as if asking them, ‘Should I do it?’ And they’re cheering him on,” Katz says.

Another clip shows Vince McMahon, founder and chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, forcing a woman to strip down to her undergarments in order to earn his forgiveness for a perceived slight.

“It’s like a forced strip show while the audience is cheering him on,” Katz says. “Then he makes her bark like a dog. It’s a form of sexual sadism, and this is on mainstream TV.”

Wrestling fans argue that it’s Katz who doesn’t get it.

“I think the critics don’t really understand [professional wrestling] and don’t view it as the fans do,” says Gary Davis, a spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment. “It’s a combination of soap opera, variety show, grand adventure and theater all rolled into one.”

Fans “have an affinity with the stars, but that does not carry over into trying to play out the stories they watch on television in real life.”

He dismisses Katz’s assertion that televised wrestling makes violence and abuse seem like a normal part of everyday life.

“I think it’s the total opposite,” he says. “What probably has a greater bearing on how you treat women and how you look at violence is the environment you live in.

“The type of things we do in wrestling don’t translate into what people are doing in real life. I don’t see anybody being arrested for homicide by folding chair.”

From Bogey To Arnold

On television and in the movies, Katz points out, the stereotypical “tough guy” image has become more threatening over time. He compares Humphrey Bogart and the small pistol he used in many movies to Arnold Schwarzenegger and the submachine gun he carries in the “Terminator” movies.

“Visually, they are ratcheting up what it takes to be menacing,” Katz says. “Would young guys today be intimidated by Bogey with his little .38? I doubt it.”

The fact that it takes more firepower and gore to get a reaction from kids is proof of what he’s talking about, Katz says.

“Should [a boy] be able to walk into a movie theater and see people being killed in all kinds of brutal ways and not flinch or be squeamish? A lot of young guys will brag about being able to watch that stuff,” says Katz, who has a 4-year-old son.

“What they’re bragging about is the damage that has already been done to their psyche.”

Those boys grow into men who don’t feel empathy or compassion, and the cycle of violence escalates, he says.

Breaking the cycle will take decades of effort by men who aren’t afraid to be called sissies because they speak out against violence.

“Social change is a messy process,” Katz says. “We need more men with the guts to stand up and say abusive behavior is abusive behavior, and it’s not right, and it doesn’t make me less of a man to point that out.”