Exploring Root Causes and Intersectional Responses to Addressing Toxic Masculinity, Patriarchy, and Gender-Based Violence

The #MeToo movement brought to light the pervasiveness of gender-based violence to include the nuances of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Each year more than 300,000 people are victims of rape and sexual assault. One out of every six women and one out of every 33 men experience sexual violence in their life. Forty-seven percent of transgender people experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Men represent 90% of people who perpetrate sexual violence against women, and 93% of people who perpetrate sexual violence against men. Activists and scholars involved in social movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter apply an intersectional lens to interrogate the damaging nature of patriarchy and toxic masculinity. Many continue to develop scholarship that ask the questions: What causes of toxic masculinity and patriarchy do we need to understand better? What responses to sexual and gender-based violence exist involving intervention and restoration, and do they warrant further study? How do we undo forces of domination without reinforcing mechanisms of domination? How do we address patriarchy and toxic masculinity without perpetuation of state violence and reliance on law enforcement?

This roundtable seeks to continue an ongoing dialogue rooted in the the work of scholars like Beth Richie, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Mimi Kim, Fania Davis, Mariame Kaba, and bell hooks. We focus on three distinct, interconnected conversations: (1) discuss toxic masculinity and patriarchy as causes of gender-based violence; (2) interrogate the role of men in perpetuating toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and gender-based violence in the workplace, including higher education; and (3) explore pathways and intersectional responses to addressing toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and gender-based violence that center accountability, healing, and prevention inside and outside the academy.

Presenters will focus on various topics and relevant themes: (a) one presenter will speak on the influence of white supremacy and patriarchy on racialized gun violence in an age of social media and digital surveillance; (b) the next presenter will raise questions about the ways in which shame takes place in the perpetuation of violence and its relationship to patriarchy; (c) another presenter will explore the role of trauma in people who cause violence and the relationship between trauma and oppression; and (d) the final presenter will discuss how gender violence is experienced in day-to-day interactions and spaces. As a group, we will discuss restorative and transformative justice models as emerging strategies to intervene in and prevent gender-based violence. Finally, the roundtable will consider the role of men in society and how to hold men practically accountable in preventing and intervening in patriarchy and toxic masculinity within the workplace, particularly within academia. Our goal is to stimulate reflexive and responsive conversation to further scholarship that explores patriarchy and toxic masculinity as causes of gender-based violence through an intersectional lens, while raising questions about restorative and transformative justice models as responses to gender-based violence.