The Bro Code unpacks and takes aim at the forces of masculinity that condition boys and men to fundamentally dehumanize and disrespect women. The film breaks down a range of contemporary media forms that are saturated with sexism—movies and music videos that glamorise misogyny, pornography that trades in the brutalisation and commodification of women, comedy routines that make light of sexual assault, and a slate of men’s magazines and TV shows that propagate myths of what it means to be a man in this culture: that it’s not only normal, but “cool” for boys and men to control and humiliate women. There’s nothing natural or inevitable about this mentality. And it’s extremely harmful in the real world. By setting the myths against reality, The Bro Code challenges young people to step up and fight back against this culture, to reject the fundamental idea that being a ‘real man’ means disrespecting women.
The Bro Code
This documentary is created and directed by Dr. Thomas Keith, where he analyzes how modern media influences sexism among males. He divides the documentary into four primary sections, each one articulating the steps that media indirectly uses to contribute to male sexism. Ultimately media pressures young males into a rigid belief system where only a select few hold power and privilege and the rest are belittled and ostracized. Dr. Keith urges the audience to be more aware of how sexist views are portrayed in our society and that we should strive to discourage them.
The Bro Code unpacks and takes aim at the forces of masculinity that condition boys and men to fundamentally dehumanize and disrespect women. The film breaks down a range of contemporary media forms that are saturated with sexism—movies and music videos that glamorise misogyny, pornography that trades in the brutalisation and commodification of women, comedy routines that make light of sexual assault, and a slate of men’s magazines and TV shows that propagate myths of what it means to be a man in this culture: that it’s not only normal, but “cool” for boys and men to control and humiliate women. There’s nothing natural or inevitable about this mentality. And it’s extremely harmful in the real world. By setting the myths against reality, The Bro Code challenges young people to step up and fight back against this culture, to reject the fundamental idea that being a ‘real man’ means disrespecting women.
Dr Mayer Hillman with his bike outside his home in London. Photograph: John Alex Maguire / Rex Features
“We’re doomed,” says Mayer Hillman with such a beaming smile that it takes a moment for the words to sink in. “The outcome is death, and it’s the end of most life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And very few appear to be prepared to say so.”
Hillman, an 86-year-old social scientist and senior fellow emeritus of the Policy Studies Institute, does say so. His bleak forecast of the consequence of runaway climate change, he says without fanfare, is his “last will and testament”. His last intervention in public life. “I’m not going to write anymore because there’s nothing more that can be said,” he says when I first hear him speak to a stunned audience at the University of East Anglia late last year.
From Malthus to the Millennium Bug, apocalyptic thinking has a poor track record. But when it issues from Hillman, it may be worth paying attention. Over nearly 60 years, his research has used factual data to challenge policymakers’ conventional wisdom. In 1972, he criticised out-of-town shopping centres more than 20 years before the government changed planning rules to stop their spread. In 1980, he recommended halting the closure of branch line railways – only now are some closed lines reopening. In 1984, he proposed energy ratings for houses – finally adopted as government policy in 2007. And, more than 40 years ago, he presciently challenged society’s pursuit of economic growth.
When we meet at his converted coach house in London, his classic Dawes racer still parked hopefully in the hallway (a stroke and a triple heart bypass mean he is – currently – forbidden from cycling), Hillman is anxious we are not side-tracked by his best-known research, which challenged the supremacy of the car.
“With doom ahead, making a case for cycling as the primary mode of transport is almost irrelevant,” he says. “We’ve got to stop burning fossil fuels. So many aspects of life depend on fossil fuels, except for music and love and education and happiness. These things, which hardly use fossil fuels, are what we must focus on.”
While the focus of Hillman’s thinking for the last quarter-century has been on climate change, he is best known for his work on road safety. He spotted the damaging impact of the car on the freedoms and safety of those without one – most significantly, children – decades ago. Some of his policy prescriptions have become commonplace – such as 20mph speed limits – but we’ve failed to curb the car’s crushing of children’s liberty. In 1971, 80% of British seven- and eight-year-old children went to school on their own; today it’s virtually unthinkable that a seven-year-old would walk to school without an adult. As Hillman has pointed out, we’ve removed children from danger rather than removing danger from children – and filled roads with polluting cars on school runs. He calculated that escorting children took 900m adult hours in 1990, costing the economy £20bn each year. It will be even more expensive today.
Our society’s failure to comprehend the true cost of cars has informed Hillman’s view on the difficulty of combatting climate change. But he insists that I must not present his thinking on climate change as “an opinion”. The data is clear; the climate is warming exponentially. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that the world on its current course will warm by 3C by 2100. Recent revised climate modelling suggested a best estimate of 2.8Cbut scientists struggle to predict the full impact of the feedbacks from future events such as methane being released by the melting of the permafrost.
Hillman believes society has failed to challenge the supremacy of the car. Photograph: Lenscap / Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Stock Photo
Hillman is amazed that our thinking rarely stretches beyond 2100. “This is what I find so extraordinary when scientists warn that the temperature could rise to 5C or 8C. What, and stop there? What legacies are we leaving for future generations? In the early 21st century, we did as good as nothing in response to climate change. Our children and grandchildren are going to be extraordinarily critical.”
Global emissions were static in 2016 but the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was confirmed as beyond 400 parts per million, the highest level for at least three million years (when sea levels were up to 20m higher than now). Concentrations can only drop if we emit no carbon dioxide whatsoever, says Hillman. “Even if the world went zero-carbon today that would not save us because we’ve gone past the point of no return.”
Although Hillman has not flown for more than 20 years as part of a personal commitment to reducing carbon emissions, he is now scornful of individual action which he describes as “as good as futile”. By the same logic, says Hillman, national action is also irrelevant “because Britain’s contribution is minute. Even if the government were to go to zero carbon it would make almost no difference.”
Instead, says Hillman, the world’s population must globally move to zero emissions across agriculture, air travel, shipping, heating homes – every aspect of our economy – and reduce our human population too. Can it be done without a collapse of civilisation? “I don’t think so,” says Hillman. “Can you see everyone in a democracy volunteering to give up flying? Can you see the majority of the population becoming vegan? Can you see the majority agreeing to restrict the size of their families?”
Hillman doubts that human ingenuity can find a fix and says there is no evidence that greenhouse gases can be safely buried. But if we adapt to a future with less – focusing on Hillman’s love and music – it might be good for us. “And who is ‘we’?” asks Hillman with a typically impish smile. “Wealthy people will be better able to adapt but the world’s population will head to regions of the planet such as northern Europe which will be temporarily spared the extreme effects of climate change. How are these regions going to respond? We see it now. Migrants will be prevented from arriving. We will let them drown.”
A small band of artists and writers, such as Paul Kingsnorth’s Dark Mountain project, have embraced the idea that “civilisation” will soon end in environmental catastrophe but only a few scientists – usually working beyond the patronage of funding bodies, and nearing the end of their own lives – have suggested as much. Is Hillman’s view a consequence of old age, and ill health? “I was saying these sorts of things 30 years ago when I was hale and hearty,” he says.
Hillman accuses all kinds of leaders – from religious leaders to scientists to politicians – of failing to honestly discuss what we must do to move to zero-carbon emissions. “I don’t think they can because society isn’t organised to enable them to do so. Political parties’ focus is on jobs and GDP, depending on the burning of fossil fuels.”
Without hope, goes the truism, we will give up. And yet optimism about the future is wishful thinking, says Hillman. He believes that accepting that our civilisation is doomed could make humanity rather like an individual who recognises he is terminally ill. Such people rarely go on a disastrous binge; instead, they do all they can to prolong their lives.
Can civilisation prolong its life until the end of this century? “It depends on what we are prepared to do.” He fears it will be a long time before we take proportionate action to stop climatic calamity. “Standing in the way is capitalism. Can you imagine the global airline industry being dismantled when hundreds of new runways are being built right now all over the world? It’s almost as if we’re deliberately attempting to defy nature. We’re doing the reverse of what we should be doing, with everybody’s silent acquiescence, and nobody’s batting an eyelid.”
Female power is a dominant theme in the Colombian-born Canadian musician Lido Pimienta's latest album "La Papessa" ("The High Priestess"), which covers issues including single motherhood, feminism and migration.
A radiant mix of traditional Latin American influences and electronic synth-pop, "La Papessa" was Pimienta's 2016 self-released breakthrough project. The album went on to win Canada's top music honour, the Polaris Music Prize, and was the first such win for a Spanish-language album in Canada.
The Stream speaks to Lido Pimienta about the forces that drive her music.
The last time we heard of Farris was when he was playing live with Katy Perry.. he had, had some success in Hollywood including the use of his song on American Idol (7) Interesting back story: a Jordanian born, American, out singer brought up in Southern California, lives in Hollywood. pals with Adam Lambert .... etc etc etc
... but he seemed to have disappeared... and now this popped up... a powerful new song and video released in January with a promise of a new album...
welcome back Ferras.
Beyonce does not need the NY TIMES to spread the word that Queen Bey has embraced rather than move beyond her blackness and black history. Her fans already knew that she was in a teaching mode for some time as she bounced and flounced and sashayed across the stage and with attitude and song put black first in her identity as an American and they jumped for joy!
Black musicians in particular have long been told how they should look and perform to sustain their success and be marketable to a larger audience. That often meant that black artists distanced themselves from the things associated with black culture, especially the things that might be coded as not-respectable.
Whitney Houston famously struggled under this weight. At the urging of her mentor Clive Davis and others, she wore glamorous clothes, sang pop-driven songs instead of R&B and obeyed other unwritten social norms that circumscribed how she could live her life and express herself.
Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama have all been accused of staying aloof from black culture to gain more power and be more relatable to a wider, whiter audience. It is a common belief among black people that the more successful we become, the more we should keep away from black culture — especially when white people are looking. And especially at work.
All black people should follow her lead and refuse to shrink blackness. Black people often negotiate how much of ourselves we should show to make others comfortable. Black people often feel the need to edit parts of our culture and upbringing for the sake of appearing respectable — that is, of course, until our music and style are appropriated by the very people we were attempting to not alienate.
He is not only the funniest guy on television .. but when I was his guest I realized he is also the nicest guy on television.. this is insightful (as expected) and Hilarious
Dear Friends and Comrades Let me share with you memories of the struggle for change and how my generation of activists stopped the Vietnam war and what can be learned from that time as we confront the growth of fascism at home and the world today Meet my comrade, Tom Hayden and listen to his closing remarks at the end of the Final Gathering of the '60's Anti-War Tribe: The Power of Protest. the gathering brought together women and men who were young in the 60's and stopped the war in Vietnam, Tom Hayden was a founder of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS), He was a spokesperson for the Anti-War movement in the late 60's early 70's. He became a celebrity when he married Jane Fonda. Later he was elected to the California Legislature. Like many of his generation, he crossed the line of substance pleasure into abuse. Tom found recovery in a 12 program. He never stopped thinking about how to make the change to more equitable society. I have always looked to Tom for a path to change. This was the last time I heard Tom speak. Less than a year later, Tom was dead. He opened his remarks by acknowledging our generation was losing people as they age. He said it was important to feel proud of stopping the war and bringing soldiers home alive. Tom then began to share what he had learned from his/our fight to end the war in Vietnam. I identified and sometimes disagreed (friends and comrades can ) ..but this day I simply listened and identified. If you are too young to have lived through the 60's or the anti-War movement or the Nixon or Reagan years, I hope you will take the time to listen ... I look with pride and hope at all the younger people engaged in the struggle for justice, peace, and building a better world, From Black Lives Matter to the Parkland generation, Collectively you are our children and grandchildren. Generationally we have or are passing the baton of struggle to you. We love you. If you ever want to chat ..please let's have coffee.
Tom Hayden's closing remarks at the end of the Final Gathering of the '60's Anti-War Tribe: The Power of Protest
Listen to Amy Goodman talk about Tom on Democracy Now memorializing his life and politics
Listen to Jon Weiner, Historian and author talk with Tom Hayden about his new book and his life
And yes there were powerful voices of women represented at Vietnam: The Power of Protest... here is Margret Prescod speaking when we marched to the Martin Luther King monument May 2nd, 2015
As part of the East Village History project concentrating on PS122's rich history and community involvement in the artist's world in resident in the East Village for over 30 years,, the new state-of-the-art Performance Space on the site of the old PS122 is bringing back
Penny Arcade's Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! 5 performances only, May 11-19. Penny Arcade in her indelible performance piece is back where she originally hatched it before Penny toured the world with it. Can't wait and I suspect it will become as relevant today .. and perhaps, even more, give the dark days of religious censorship of what many of us think is pleasure ..As I said, I CAN'T WAIT. I suggest you book now as this will, trust me, will sell out and not be held over. This clip is from when Penny moved the show to the Village Gate, One-night Marriane Faithful showed up with Mark Ribot and David Mansfield asked if she could join the show that night.
Penny's is recasting this revival .. and who knows who will show up. I remember seeing it at PS122 with legendary actress and former consort of Mr.Robert Zimmerman, Sylvia Miles.
