8 Ways We Can Combat Toxic Masculinity From The Author Of ‘Roll Red Roll’

In her 2018 Peabody-nominated documentary Roll Red Roll, award-winning filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman investigated a horrifying sexual assault case that shattered the idyllic all-American image of a football-obsessed Ohio town – and became known as the first sexual assault to go viral.

In 2012, the teenage Steubenville football team members repeatedly attacked an incapacitated 16-year-old girl, then shared the video footage on social media. Premiering at Tribeca and screened widely thereafter on Netflix, PBS and Amazon, the documentary took a powerful look at the way the crime galvanized the internet into action. It also exposed teenagers locked in an endless cycle of rape culture and what happens to a generation of young athletes steeped in social media, lauded as heroes, acting without any parental supervision or guidance.

A decade after the crime, Schwartzman has written a searing book based on her documentary. The New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection Roll Red Roll: Rape, Power, and Football in the American Heartland adds to the investigation that she began in her film. It asks us to examine the deeply-rooted toxic masculinity that pervades American culture, while exploring ways we can create tangible change for the future: reimagining sexual education, re-evaluating what rehabilitation means after sentencing, and more. Schwartzman features interviews with lawyer Gloria Allred, sportswriter David Zirin, and more as she explores systemic violence and highlights the actions people are taking to fix it.

Roll Red Roll has received a glowing review from the New York Times and a starred Publisher's Weekly review. A Kirkus Review calls the book “a scathing examination of American rape culture, promoted and abetted by athletics... A maddening, well-documented account of crime without punishment even as violence against women continues unabated.”

Schwartzman’s documentary feature debut, Roll Red Roll was nominated for a Peabody award, premiered in 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide and garnered seven best documentary awards. It streamed in 190 countries on Netflix, PBS, BBC, and now Amazon. She is releasing a Netflix original documentary feature with the Center for Investigative Reporting and Motto Pictures in early 2023, and is currently directing a women-led series for Freeform. In her past life she was a tech founder, and also created the Obama/Biden White House’s award-winning mobile app Circle of 6, designed to reduce sexual violence among America’s youth and college students.

Here, Schwartzman offers her back-to-school tips: Eight direct ways we can change our culture of toxic masculinity this school year.

1. Fight for evidence, consent and pleasure-based sexual education for students from K-12.
2. Call out the unacceptable behavior of our male friends and peers. It’s especially critical for other men to use their voices to do this. Please don’t pretend you don’t know what “unacceptable” is.
3. Increase access to birth control and abortion information on every campus.
4. Build a foundation of respect and consent into every aspect of sexual education in schools.
5. Create more accurate safety reporting on campuses—this means having more support that empowers students to report assaults. Ask your school to adopt something survivor-centered such as Callisto.
6. Make sure that the ones who occupy leadership roles act like equitable and informed leaders, and model respectful behavior and positive masculinity to the young men for whom you are a role model.
7. Enforce accountability in athletics departments. Full stop.
8. Create true “No More Excuses” policies at high schools and universities.

“Much of filmmaking is about inquiry and curiosity, and that’s always been a pull for me,” says Schwartzman about tapping into her life purpose with this career. “Even when I was a kid, I would see people and want to know: What was their home like? Who were they really? That sense of a drive for answers is what guides me in my filmmaking. With a camera, you have an acceptable excuse to ask so many questions!”

While Schwartzman notes that the rewards for a human-rights driven documentary filmmaker and author are not “excessively financial,” she loves that her work is meaningful. “When I’m doing my job right, I’m translating a complicated story into something simple and accessible, which is necessary to enacting change in the world. My goal and my reward is doing work that tries to move the needle in the direction of healing, accountability and understanding.”

The greatest challenge Schwartzman faces in her career is “definitely boundaries!” She explains, “When you’re a creative person, you will naturally put all your passion, art, energy and time into something because you absolutely care and because your name is on the final product. So, cheers to passion and collective labor.” Specifically, Schwartzman points to the importance of being a member of the Director’s Guild of America in strengthening the power of collective labor and ensure more equitable work environments for creatives.

“We live in a commodified and money-as-your-sole-value focused world,” Schwartzman says. “It is so important for young people not to dwell in this mindset. It’s so destructive to see yourself, your creative vision, and your time as solely a commodity. Invest in joy. Repair the world. What you do is inherently valuable, if it’s comedy, if it’s painting, if it’s fucking around and finding out. ”

She advises people looking to align their career with their life purpose to “invest in joy. Repair the world. Society will try to drill capitalism into you, but what you love and care about is valuable. Creation is powerful. Focus on the work that makes you feel good in the morning. The work that makes you laugh or cry is where the value of being alive lies.”