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.
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 