By Jackson Katz and Rob Okun
Citing Donald Trump’s well-documented history of misogyny and sexual abuse of women—including being adjudicated as a rapist—some of the country’s leading male figures working to prevent men’s violence against women have signed a statement supporting Kamala Harris for president.
Written as an open letter to men, the statement says that men who vote for Trump—especially this time around—are in effect minimizing the seriousness of his misogynous behavior, which should instead disqualify the former president from holding any public office.
The violence-prevention educators point out that Trump has a long history of making demeaning comments to and about women. More than two dozen women have credibly alleged Trump sexually harassed or assaulted them. In addition, last year a Manhattan jury found that Trump sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay her $5 million in damages. All of this is in the public record.
There is no sugarcoating the implications. Trump’s election would be a catastrophic setback for the decades-long struggle against all forms of gender-based violence. Returning him to the White House would send an unmistakable message to men—including impressionable younger men—that society does not take men’s violence against women seriously. That a lifetime of abusing and denigrating women is not enough to disqualify someone from ascending to the highest office in the land.
It would undermine years of gender violence prevention work with young men, who are constantly flooded with a torrent of damaging messages from the misogynous manosphere and porn culture about the callous and cruel ways that “real men” are supposed to treat women.
Re-electing Trump would also send a powerful message to men who physically and sexually abuse women. It would signal tacit approval—if not outright support—for their misogynous attitudes and behaviors. Men, especially those who might be planning to vote for Trump: is that a message you want to send?
Reelecting Trump Would Normalize Misogyny
One of the central goals of gender violence-prevention education is to transform the social norms that underlie abuse. The aim is to make it socially unacceptable for any man or boy to act abusively, not only because it’s illegal, but also because they’ll lose support and status in their peer cultures.
For more than 30 years, gender violence-prevention educators have taught young people to speak out when they see friends, classmates, teammates, co-workers and others engaging in misogynous behavior, from casual sexist comments to gang rape. It doesn’t matter if they privately disapprove, bystanders remaining silent is a form of consent.
Trump’s behavior—which includes his reflexive defense of domestic abusers and sexual harassers, including a former White House aide and the disgraced head of Fox News, the late Roger Ailes—has long made the job of prevention educators much more difficult.
One of the key things these educators teach young men is that misogynous violence—or any kind of abuse—is socially unacceptable and comes with consequences. Yet young people get the exact opposite message from the fact that millions of people brush all this off and continue to support Trump.
Sadly, the message that gets through is that if you’re popular, charismatic, or serve the right political interests, you can escape the consequences of your misogynous behavior. It’s a variation of the corrosive “boys will be boys” excuse, only this time applied to a man at the highest level of cultural and political influence.
The gender gap in this election is enormous. Kamala Harris is way ahead in the polls with women voters, while Trump has a lesser, but substantial lead among men. There are many reasons why so many women are turned off by Trump, from his pivotal role in overturning Roe v. Wade, to the way he demeans women—especially those who stand up for themselves and refuse to be treated as sexual objects and second-class citizens.
Men, it’s our responsibility to speak out about Trump’s misogyny. We feel especially responsible to set an example for the young men who look to us for guidance, including our sons and grandsons, younger brothers, nephews, students we teach, young men whom we mentor, athletes we coach.
We need to state clearly and unequivocally that disrespect and abuse toward women disqualifies a man from positions of leadership. For those men who have not yet made up their minds about who to vote for, or who have never before considered Donald Trump’s treatment of women as part of their deliberations, this is your moment.
Vote for Kamala Harris for president. Do it for the women and girls you care about; but that’s not all. One day your sons, grandsons, brothers and nephews will also thank you for doing so.
Jackson Katz, Ph.D., is an educator, author, TEDx presenter, and a longtime leader in the field of gender violence prevention. He is the creator of The Man Card documentary and the forthcoming book, Every Man: Why Violence Against Women is a Men’s Issue.
Rob Okun, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is editor emeritus of Voice Male magazine, chronicling the antisexist men’s movement for more than 30 years and is editor of the anthology, Voice Male: The Untold Story of the Profeminist Men’s Movement.