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Multi-platinum recording artist Ellie Goulding is highlighting the gender violence prevention work of educator, author, and longtime MEF collaborator Jackson Katz in the latest edition of her social media activist campaign #PassTheMic.
The campaign, which launched in March on Instagram, includes a hard-hitting conversation between Goulding and Katz about the critical need for a dramatic increase in the level of male involvement in the struggle to end men’s violence against women. The initiative comes just weeks after the abduction and murder of 33-year-old London resident Sarah Everard sent shockwaves through Great Britain and galvanized a growing protest movement in the UK led by young women.
“Following recent events and the outpouring of grief and anger and exchange of lived experiences I wanted to talk about the threat of violence, injury and death that women, girls and marginalised genders live with on a daily basis,’’ said Goulding, whose previous #PassTheMic campaigns have featured Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors on racial injustice and former Vice President Al Gore on climate and indigenous rights. “‘Pass the Mic is where I get to share my platform with someone who has dedicated themselves to working out what real change looks like. My hope is that it galvanises my followers to care about these issues.”
Over the span of more than two decades, MEF has collaborated with Katz on multiple films that explore the nexus between cultural norms of manhood and gender violence, including our recent release The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at Its Roots. We're streaming The Bystander Moment for free through the end of this month to coincide with Goulding’s #PassTheMic campaign.
In the film, Katz details the work he’s been doing with men on these issues for decades, and explores the gender norms, media narratives, and peer-culture dynamics that have created a culture of silence around sexual violence.
“I’m very impressed with the work Ellie Goulding is doing to raise awareness about men’s violence against women and other pressing issues like racial justice and climate change,” Katz said today. “This is exactly the kind of leadership we need from people with a broad cultural platform and influence. Now we just need more men to step up in the same way."
The Bystander Moment has been earning widespread praise from educators, activists, and experts in the field. If you’re interested in including the film in your classes or events during Sexual Assault Awareness Month next month, it’s also available through universities and public libraries on the Kanopy streaming platform, on DVD, and via streaming subscription through MEF. Click here to see if your university subscribes to Kanopy.
You’ll find all of our titles featuring Katz – along with more than two dozen others that explore the cultural roots of misogyny, violent masculinity, and gender violence – in our Gender Violence Prevention Collection. To mark Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we’re offering 15% off all the films in this collection through the end of April with the code SAAM2021.
