Robert L. Allen and Paul Kivel

Boys are taught from an early age by their parents and society that fighting is an acceptable way to solve a problem, maintain Robert L. Allen and Paul Kivel in the following viewpoint. Men are also taught to treat women as sexual objects, the authors contend. So it seems natural to males, Allen and Kivel argue, to prove their masculinity or take out their frustrations by hurting someone weaker, usually a female. Allen is a board member of the Oakland Men’s Project, an organization dedicated to eradicating male violence, racism, and homophobia, and senior editor of the Black Scholar journal. Kivel is a cofounder of the Oakland Men’s Project and author of Men’s Work: How to Stop the Violence That Tears Our Lives Apart.

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