According to the documentary School Violence, there is an enormous amount of physical bullying which happens and it is thrown under the rug. 77% of Ontario schools report no incident of school violence (school violence 9:10-9:13), which is ironic because it is inaccurate and false.  It is also ironic in the sense that “men who happen to have “low education and low job offers repeatedly turn to illegal activities”(“Fathers and Fathering” 184). Clearly, the kids who do the hurting, have some sort of education yet turn to bullying as an act of rebellion.

In comparison to The Code, fighting is considered a part of the game. It took awhile for the hockey players who are fathers, to realize they would not want their children in a fight. The reason behind this is because “from the earliest days of a male’s childhood, cultures bombard children with messages about how to be masculine. Meaning, they must act dominant, independent, tough, and unemotional.” (“Defining Men’s Studies 2”)

What shook me most was the story of the nine year old, who was touched and abused. I found this absolutely disgusting and the worst thing was, the institution did not take correct repercussions. Thus, “1 in 4 girls experience unwanted touching and sexual abuse and 1 in 7 girls say they were sexually assaulted by another student (school violence 11:26-11:41). This correlates with a phrase that was stated by Tony Porter in Man Enough. He said that “violence has evolved. Misogyny has evolved.” Therefore, violence is portrayed around the media as a positive thing, to fight for what you want. However, when it comes to real life, physical fighting will not do you any good. 

Aside from how violence impacts children, it also impacts a person both mentally and physically. Fighting in hockey causes concussions which eventually can cause dementia, depression as well as suicidal thoughts. We do live in a time and place where we have medication to treat many problems, but in this case, it is not reversible. The reason why fighting occurres in hockey is not only due to entertainment purposes, but also because this is the job of hockey players (The Code). 53% of workers happen to be a man according to 2010 statistics (“Men at Work” 233) . Therefore, men are considered breadwinners, for the most part. The fact that hockey players make money from playing and fighting, thrive hockey players to continue that habit. 

In conclusion, school violence and fighting in hockey occur due to numerous reasons, whether it is to be an ideal masuline figure” or to act as the breadwinner, men have little choice as to how they choose to act since, their personalities and behaviours are chosen for them. 

Works Cited 

“How to fight for safer schools.” School Violence. CBC, 24 Oct. 2019.

Kilmartin and Smiler. “Defining Men’s Studies.” The Masculine Self, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 1-7, Cornwall On Hudson, Accessed 25 Apr. 2020 

Kilmartin and Smiler. “Fathers and Fathering.” The Masculine Self, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 180-197, Cornwall On Hudson, Accessed 25 Apr. 2020 

Kilmartin and Smiler. “Men at Work: Jobs, Careers and Masculinity.” The Masculine Self, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 220-235, Accessed 25 Apr. 2020 

“The Code.” CBC, 26 Mar. 2010.

Why CBC Started Looking into Violence in Schools | CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence-editors-note-1.5331402. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020.

The CBC school violence investigation in 2019 release that 41 per cent of boys say they were physically assaulted at high school; 26 per cent of girls say they experienced unwanted sexual contact at school; and one in four students first experienced sexual harassment or assault before Grade 7. (CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence-editors-note-1.5331402 ) Depending on the data, boys are more likely to face peer-on-peer bullying, while girls seem to tend to suffer sexual violence. The school violence in Canada is rife and gender-based. 

First of all, I begin my discussion by focusing on notions behind boys’ peer-to-peer school violent behaviour. In case of Jayden(CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence-marketplace-1.5224865 ), some boys, like with full preparation, took the video of their crime while other boys brutally attacked Jayden down. As a result, Jayden was seriously injured, brain bleed, a fractured skull, the broken bone in his ear and hearing loss. Obviously, the attackers show no empathy to their peers. On the contrary, they break the school rule of non violence to flaunt their aggressiveness and show their power and superiority among peers by bullying other students in school. This conforms to stereotypes of masculinity. Masculinity is characterized by a willingness to take (physical) risks and become violent if necessary. (Kilmartin, 2019)

Then come to discuss the gender norms behind sexual abuse.  “One in four girls surveyed said they had personally faced unwanted sexual contact”  and one girl complained: “A boy exposed his penis and ejaculated on the clothing of a group of girls who were chatting during lunch hour,” said another. (CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence-marketplace-1.5224865 ) Apparently, the boys engaged in sexual violence treat girls unequally, and they even can’t realize it is criminal to touch girls’s body unceremoniously or sexually abuse girls. Impacted by stereotypes masculinity, as Kilmartin says in his book that boys’ interactions are often geared toward competition, they are barraged with messages that they should not act like girls, and they are encouraged to value girls and women only as sexual objects.( Kilmartin, 2019)

Facing with the crimes of the boys who are misled by problematic masculinity, Parents, education institutes, media and the whole society need to pay serious attention to it and take actions to keep schools safer. Parents are responsible to offer positive and healthy concept to their kids, such as equality between people, awareness of oneself and other people, etc.. In particular, the parents of boys should let them understand a real man is one who loves himself and the world, is someone who can be the best of himself and make the world better. Education institutes are responsible for reporting the school violence happening in the school to Ministry of Education, parents and students. Also education institutes should organize professional guidance counsellors to track and coach both victims and attackers in violent incidents. Media play an important role on switching problematic masculinity to healthy masculinity. Dr. Russo Johnson and Dr. Dafna Lemish reveal in their new research that amounted to nearly 600 shows on broadcasters in Canada are gender unequal. They suggest that gender balance and diversity, and a closer look at human characters should be in Kids’TV.( https://loversandfighterwinter202022photography.photo.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/9778e-thelandscapeofchildren.pdf%27s+TV.pdf)

In conclusion, school violence is rising; it has been hurting thousands of students and will very likely traumatize them as long as a whole life. Problematic masculinity is one of the most important causes to school violence. Parents, education institutes and all the society as a whole should work together to help boys to establish healthy masculinity, to help kids to learn to become the best oneself, and finally to build a safer schools.

Reference:

1. Kilmartin, Christopher, and Andrew P. Smiler. “Defining Men’s Studies.” The Masculine Self, Cornwall On Hudson, NY, Sloan Publishing, 2019, p6.

2. Christopher Kilmartin and Andrew P. Smiler. “No Man Is an Island: Men in Relationships.” The Masculine Self,Cornwall On Hudson, NY, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp.171.