Final Blog: Gender-Related School Violence

Author by simonpouliot1

First day of 9th grade, Jayden 15-years-old, will be leaving school property in a critical situation. His injuries, including a fracture to the skull, a brain bleed and a fracture to the internal ear, are nothing compared to the psychological trauma caused by this event. Attacked in his blindside by one of his classmates, the 9thgrader will not be returning to the same school after his convalescence. Jayden is not the only one facing this type of situation. Throughout the country, hundreds of teens spoke up about their experience with violence and aggression in schools. Being much more common than previously imagined, the results of a survey created by Mission Research studying the subject of school violence, reveal an eye-opening issue, denouncing school-related gender-based violence at a very serious level.

Canadian teens are more familiar than most with the subject of violence in our schools. for many of them, violence has made its way into their personal, daily lives. School-related gender-based violence can be noticed from a very young age and is an issue that touches both sides of the gender spectrum. Situations similar to the one Jayden faced are not uncommon. Actually, it is 40% of boys that face violence at least once throughout their academic journey. Often put under the umbrella of bullying, these violent behaviours are, in many cases, traumatising for teens, but no one really knows how to deal with them. After all, throughout the totality of school violence victims, only a mere 50% denunciate their aggressor to adults or trusted members of the school’s staff, and from this half, only a few are left satisfied by the measures taken. For young women, this culture of violence is primarily portrayed through unwanted sexual touches and sexual assaults. Cases of sexual assault related to school, mostly occurs between 7th and 10th grade confirms CBC news. For Brook, she was only 14 when an older student from her high school brought her to a parking lot, choked and sexually assaulted her. When Brook reported the situation and tried to get help, the school did not take the measure wanted and left her, as most girls going through similar situations, unsatisfied. 3 girls out of 5 did not get help needed after an incident of sexual assault. Only 1 out of 4 girls are satisfied with the measures taken by the school. Schools are facing these violent situations every day. In Ontario, the province faces in average more than 2100 cases a year, for a total that surpasses 10 incidents a day. Considering the statistics found in the Mission Research survey, we can, without a doubt, say that schools have a part of the blame to carry in this national shame that is school violence. 

What makes violence so popular amongst teens? Tracy Vaillancourt, professor studying violence prevention, acknowledges the possibility that, in our own cultural era, the smartphones along with the media could be negatively contributing to this nation-wide issue. In the documentary the mask you live in, we are confronted with the reality that boys will likely spend, in average, more than 40 hours a week watching television and more than 15 hours a week playing video games. Most of the heroes and characters portrayed in those movies, shows and games are not, in most cases, a correct or even passable representation of what a role model should be for the targeted age of these entertainments. Often surrounding the themes of misogyny, alcohol, drugs and violence, the entertainment industry is setting awful examples for our youth, not only in Canada, but around the globe. Furthermore, the hyper-sexualised world in which we live could be partially to blame for the rising cases of sexual assault seen in teens. the average age to which teens are first exposed to pornographic content reducing more and more every year, the hyper-sexualization of our teens could be resulting in these incredibly high numbers of sexual assaults. Being an issue on everyone’s lips in the last few years, directors and producers are welcoming this opportunity to open up and denunciate these problems through movies and tv shows. In HBO’s own Euphoria, director Sam Levinson denunciate many cultural issues faced by teens, including violence in a hyper-sexualised society. A prime example of the denunciation of said subject is the characterisation of Nate Jacobs, a violent, aggressive character of his show. Nate is focused on being the ultimate portrayal of masculinity, pressured by his family and the hyper-masculine football culture in which he flourishes, he will go to all ends to violently rejects everything that ties him to femininity.

Jacob Elordi explains Nate Jacobs’ inner conflicts related to masculinity.

Portraying staples of masculinity often being not enough to be proven a real man, boys will often recreate what they see in their heroes and role models, to engage violently against one another.  

            “I was told to toughen up”. This is how the school system have helped many boys in need over the years, not with a humane and comforting response to their situation but by playing with stereotypes. Being “tough”, is found in the same list (Kilmartin 2) as being, aggressive, unemotional, physical, dominant and above all, placed on the same page of initiate sex. When schools chose to solve boys’ issues through the use of stereotypical norms that are found at the same level as the actions they strive so much to eliminate, do we really expect other results than for boys to follow those stereotypical expectations set by society? School play a crucial role in the education of our youth; they shouldn’t be encouraging such behaviors. Furthermore, school being where most interactions between children, we could say it is the part of their environment that is most pressured by societal norms. Growing up, boys surrender their freedom to follow the stereotypical guidelines of what a man should be in society. Their ability to change and to be less or more influenced by those norms or guidelines, does not only reside in their age, it depends also of their environment. And what environment is more competitive than school? The competition between boys is often what is making them act violently, and that, just for the hope of not ending up at the bottom of the social ranking. After all, “A boy who fares poorly when competing with his male peers may find himself with low (social) status among this group as a result of his poor skills. In some sense he may be failing to prove his masculinity.”(Kilmartin 165) Masculinity is an endless competition like any other, but boys will often go to the extremes to prove their worth resulting in violent acts towards each other and towards women.

            In conclusion, the societal context that pressures our children, the hyper-sexualized world in which teens grow up and the culture of mass media and entertainment all play a part in this nation-wide problem. This violence was not formed out of thin air, the stereotypes of masculinity and societal norms that we enforce upon our teens are what created the situation as we know it today. In the light of what has been discussed in this text, Tracy Vaillancourt assures that it is only by acknowledging the presence of this problem that we will be able to provide a safe, less violent future for our youth.

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Published by simonpouliot1

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