Violence is a prevailing problem in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools throughout Canada. According to the research made by CBC 41% of boys say they were physically assaulted, 26% of girls say they experienced unwanted sexual contact at school and one in four students first experienced sexual harassment or assault before Grade 7. Fights and verbal harassment can be found at most schools and most of the time boys are the ones involved with these problems. The question here is: Why is violence so prevailing and why are boys more likely to cause violence?
Willingness to fight, desire to fight.
First, whenever a boy is challenged or being picked on everyone expects them to fight. This aggressiveness is one of the main characteristics of masculinity. Indeed, boys are taught that they should engage in the fight and win in order to be recognized. “Give them hell.” was one of the expressions used by Kimmel on the intro to men’s studies it represents how boys will be often confronted. On top of that, wanting to pick fights and win is almost glorified in a certain way, especially during teenage years. This explains how easy it is to begin fights at school or other places like the school bus.
Relationships and Status
Second, boys are taught that status is important, so competition is also involved with this phenomenon. They want to prove they are better and stronger and that they are not weak. In a lot of cases, they also want to make up for a lack of self-esteem. In addition, another cause of school violence is that friends and peers put pressure on boys. For example, friends can push boys to get involved in fights. It also is common for a group of boys to bully other people together. Boys that disagree with violence will not speak up or report what happened because they are afraid to get rejected since one of the rules of “Bro Code” is no snitching.
Anti-femininity
Third, another of the main characteristics of masculinity is antifemininity this consists on avoiding emotions. This prevents them from being empathetic. The emotions will often accumulate and boil up and will get out eventually, this can take the form of physical aggression.
Sexism
Sexual assault is directly linked to sexism. This is because men tend to think they are superior than women and they consider them as objects. This way of thinking has been taught to them by interactions, the people that surround them, social media, advertisements and the portrayal of men and women in films and TV. They will consider those acts as conquests and as a way to feel superior.
How can we prevent physical assault/fights?
Schools have to raise awareness of how hurtful bullying and school violence is. We as a society can also stop this by changing the idea that boys need to fight and be tough so that physical assault isn’t normalized. Other ways to prevent this kind of violence is to teach the children the importance of emotions and how to handle them as well as giving them resources so that they can seek help if they are experiencing problems in their household or in their life. Lessons on self esteem could also be helpful.
How can we prevent sexual assault?
Putting clear and good policies for these kinds of problems is one of the firsts steps. It is extremely important in order to protect and help the victims and to stop whoever is hurting them. In addition, schools must teach that women are equal to men and that they should be respected. Teaching what exactly is consent and sexual assault is also very important.
Lastly, we need to change problematic representations of men and women in films TV and social media (this goes for both physical and sexual assault), in order to prevent sexism and challenge the idea of what a man is. It is by breaking apart sexism and masculinity that we will be able to confront the issue of school violence.
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 