TED Talk Analysis: "Violence Against Women--It's a Men's Issue"

"Violence Against Women--It's a Men's Issue" is a TED talk given by Jackson Katz, a male activist on ending gender violence. This talk was a part of the

Jackson Katz opening his TED Talk at the
FiDiWomen event

TEDxFiDiWomen event in San Francisco on November 30th, 2012. The purpose of the yearly event is to bring together leaders to share ideas and solutions regarding gender issues and women around the world. The audience, initially is a group of people attending the event, but broader, the talk is meant to spread to a larger audience online.

Katz begins his talk by discussing the concept of “gender violence issues” and by stating a very clear thesis, stating that these gender violence issues are, in fact, a men’s issue above anything else. This thesis was emphasized really well, and even received feedback from the audience in the form of applause.

He then goes on to talk about how the dominance system seems to exclude the majority or dominant group when it comes to minority issues—such as race, sexuality, or in this case, gender.

Katz’s next point uses a demonstration. He uses a large notepad and marker to illustrate sentences that take the men out of the problem when it comes to domestic violence.

Katz demonstrates a point using sentence structure using
a notepad and marker.

 Katz’s next point uses a demonstration. He uses a large notepad and marker to illustrate sentences that take the men out of the problem when it comes to domestic violence. After the first two sentences the “John” who beats “Mary” completely drops out of the sentence structure and “Mary,” or the victim, is the one blamed, instead. The idea of the demonstration is excellent; however, the implementation needs some work. Though Katz claims he is “old tech” for not using technology, it is needed. His handwriting and spacing on the notepad is messy and could be hard to read for the listeners in the back. Instead, Katz should have used a PowerPoint or some sort of display to enlarge and emphasize the sentence structures. This would make it easy to read and concise—cutting down on the time it took him to write out each sentence.

Katz puts the issue of gender violence and domestic abuse into a grander perspective, relating it to every gender or age. He emphasizes that in any situation, leaders are vital to the transformative action needed. Women leaders need to continue to speak out despite being called names such as “feminazi” and men need to stand up to begin with. Katz argues that the issue of domestic violence, and gender violence in general, affect everyone.

There is a large call to action at the end of the talk in which Katz challenges the idea of the “bystander approach.” He calls to action all genders and ages to overturn the idea of leaving these issues behind closed doors. He specifically holds adult males accountable—which is a very powerful idea. Katz uses a good strategy here: he first makes a broad statement, softening the audience before he narrows his range of focus to emphasize something that could be considered shocking. His organization of the speech is working really well, especially in ending with a powerful call to action, saying “We can do better.”

This shows that Katz really recognizes his audience. He first acknowledges those in his immediate audience, rallying their support over gender issues they are aware of (seeing as it is a gender issue event) and explaining the situation in more detail.

Katz using excellent eye-contact and hand gestures.

He then moves towards the broader audience of the internet, further challenging the audience beyond his more informed immediate audience. Overall, his eye contact and hand gestures really enraptured the audience, showing Katz’s excellent speaking skills.