Jennifer Siebel-Newsom ventured into San Quentin State Prison on Aug. 11 to premier her new documentary, The Mask We Live In, to an audience of about 150 inmates and her husband Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The documentary is a cautionary tale about the dangers of hyper-masculinity that’s rooted in American culture.
Siebel-Newsom said after learning about the disparity boys show, in comparison with girls, regarding behavioral problems and violence, she was inspired to bring awareness to the public through the documentary.
The Mask We Live In is a collaboration between Siebel-Newsom, Insight Prison Project (IPP) and Kid CAT.
IPP, launched in 1997, created and supports a number of programs. According to its website, it bridges the long period between punishment and parole with “a 52+week curriculum designed to allow prisoner participants a place to unearth and explore root causes of harm and understand the impact of the harm they have endured and that they have caused, which leads to the choice of not to harm again.”
Kid CAT (Creating Awareness Together) is a group comprising men who committed their crimes as children. Together the group, along with the support of San Quentin Prison staff, sponsors more than 30 community volunteers. Kid CAT aims to restore the communities the men harmed by the poor choices they made in life, its program brochure reads.
“The men in blue here are in programs that have helped them,” Executive Director of IPP Billie Mizell said. “They have a strong desire to give back. Their hard work is creating positive change.”
“The documentary showed real people,” inmate Azraal Ford said. “We’ve used some of the IPP curriculum that allows the mask to be taken off and to show the man who is and who he wants to be.”
Ford added, “I’m a great example of showing what a man looks like when the mask comes off. Inside here, there are men who are valuable. The boys out there are valuable. When the circle process is used, we talk and when we do that, we move forward as human beings.”
The documentary began with a voice-over of an older person talking about his childhood and how his father belittled him. The man reflected on how he sought his father’s love by being hyper-masculine.
The Mask We Live In interviews sociologists, psychologists, teachers and sports figures about the flaws and incorrect perceptions of being a man in today’s America and encourages fathers to un-teach their boys about these flawed perceptions.
The false perceptions were attributed to young boys spending significant time watching sports, playing violent video games and unfettered internet access. These activities were tied to increased anger, the need to destroy, a misinterpretation of what it means to be a man and a false sense of women.
A thread through the documentary shows many of the younger men saying they never felt good enough, which altered how they thought about who they really were.
Michael Nelson, one of the founders of Kid CAT, talked about how he was raised and how childhood trauma made him feel suicidal.
“I didn’t value my own life so I couldn’t value the life of another human being,” he said referring to a 1988 murder he committed at age 15.
“Masculinity is not organic; it is a rejection of everything feminine,” was said in the documentary while it also highlighted key points, such as: schools are training grounds to teach masculinity, gender is socially constructed, and there is a 90 percent similarity in the psychological makeup of boys and girls.
The documentary suggests transforming public schools into safe places where boys could talk about maturing, about their feelings and what it takes to be a man.
