School violence is one of the most serious problems nowadays but are mostly visible during high school. From elementary to Cegep, I have noticed that more violence occur during high school years.When boys become men, they tend to grow the need of power and dominance. They develop aggressiveness. “It says that masculinity is characterized by willingness to take physical risks and become violent if necessary.” (Kilmartin 6) Although I have experienced seeing more fights between girls than boys, but the guys tend to get more violent. I have also noticed that not many adults have been involved with these fights. School boards tend to ignore these type of situations because they mostly care about the schools reputation. CBC stepped in this topic in order to get answers and know more on why they don’t do much about school violence.

The team at Marketplace was investigating about students harming other students, physically and emotionally. They also found out that kids don’t always tell authorities or adults what is happening to them, because they’re afraid that nothing will happen and won’t get any help.School boards tend to ignore this issue so they decided to go directly to students by doing an online survey on school violence. About 4,000 young people did a survey about their school years from elementary to high school or CEGEP.Half the respondents were between the ages of 14 and 17 while the rest were 18 to 21, young adults whose experience it in their school.(CBC)

Another survey showed that 41% of boys say they were physically assaulted at high school; 26% of girls say they experienced unwanted sexual contact at school.(CBC)When it happens in schools and isn’t addressed, students learn that sexual misconduct is acceptable, even normal. School boards are still hiding this secret while they’re not doing much, it is hard to see much progress in ensuring the students safety in schools. This just shows how much they care about their reputation instead of the kids’ safety,health and environment. The sad part is that some parents aren’t aware of what is happening in their kids’ schools. The information collected needs to be put out there in order to end school violations and assaults to protect these students.

In this generation, social media plays a huge role in teenagers everyday lives. It has also resulted in cyberbullying which will most likely lead into physical violence. Parents should be aware of what happens in their electronic devices. Parents should also be a role model to their kids, especially their sons. To help them grow into a respectful man, tell them that it’s okay to be emotional and sensitive. The way they are treated at home is what leads them to act a certain way at school and towards people. Men should be able show what true “Masculinity” is and not what society makes them see. In my opinion, school boards should offer guidance counselors that will be able to guide these students in situations like this.

In conclusion, school violence should be decreasing anda not the opposite. For many years, it has been affecting these students and will most likely traumatize them for the rest of their lives.Masculinity plays a big role in this type of situations for the boys. They should grow to learn that it’s okay to be soft or to have characteristics that “men” aren’t supposed to have. Our society needs to teach these kids that it’s okay to be one’s true self and not what society expects from them. It shouldn’t be stereotypicalized, our generation should become better for the next generations in order for them to not go through this negativity.

Resources:

Kimmel, Michael. “Masculinity.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 1-5. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 June 2014. 1-5. Print.

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

Bennett W. ,Paul. “Student Violence,Bullying and Sexual Assault.” October 30,2019.https://www.edcan.ca/articles/student-violence-bullying-and-sexual-assault/

Throughout the first International Women’s week, Lucy Everett and Jen Gobby talked about the indigenous society. They talked about men abusing indigenous woman. They were forced to go to these reserves where they were taken away from their culture and families. They were also abused in that place as well. These men present violent characteristic which is also talked about in Kilmartin’s definition of “adventurous and aggressive” men.

In the second presentation we went to, Nadia had issues with her culture and especially wearing a hijab. She talked about how her parents immigrated to Canada and her father was mostly discriminated by white men. For example, she explained how he got beat up from his car and that the police were unable to capture the perpetrator. The people that witnessed it happen were trying to catch the person as well but he went in the next bus and the bus driver wouldn’t stop the vehicle.On the 2nd day, the topic was about Living in the Shadow of Law 21 where were two incredible women in front of us shared their stories. Nadia claims to be a proud Muslim, even after all the trauma her and her family has been through. In 2019 the Bill 21 became a law, Nadia is doing a campaign for the rights of every Muslims in order to wear her hijab while teaching at John Rennie High School. There was also Laïty Fary Ndiaye, who is a black Muslim. Laïty says that the Law 21 was supposed to respect the laïcity. She is part of a collective group that talks about different women with different religions. These women are there for emotional support and help each other through what they have to go through on a daily basis.

These two presentations helped me learn and understand that everyone faces many obstacles either because of their religion,race,etc. From what we learned in class, masculinity always played a major role in our society.Which for indigenous people and muslim women can be relatable to each other.Everyone is goes through different expectations,realities and injustices because of what society expects us to be. These issues are still present today, when it shouldn’t be.Our generation shouldn’t let these things happen and should make changes for our future.

I decided to interview my brother who is currently 13 years old. He has a friend who is a male & bisexual. They have known each other from a young age and I’ve watched their friendship grow as well as the person they have become. I never asked how it feels to be friends with him because I feel like it’s different with girls and boys. Most of my guy friends use the word “gay” as an insult or to make fun of things. In order to understand their friendship, I asked him a couple questions.

Q:Why are you close with Anakin?

A: I’m close with him because we’ve known each other since the 2nd gradeand been friends ever since. I guess we just have a good bond.

Q:What kinds of things do you like to do together?

A:Well we usually like to play video games and just chill together when we have time.

Q:How do you feel about him being bisexual?

A: I don’t have a problem with it, like it’s his choice and if he’s happy then I’m happy for him.

Q: What happens if he likes you?

A: That’s impossible because we know each other’s boundaries and we’re basically brothers.

Q:Have you ever told your friend how much he means to you?

A:I don’t think I have to need to since we’ve been friends for like 7 years, that basically just shows that our friendship means a lot to each other.

I analyzed that maybe at a young age, they don’t really know how to express their feelings. In “No Man Is an Island: Men in Relationships” by Christopher Kilmartin and Andrew P. Smiler, they describe different types of relationships and I feel like they’re friendship is more in the “buddy” stage since they don’t show much emotional support. They just vibe with each other and enjoy doing activities together.

Micheal Kimmel says “Foundations achieve the making of sexual orientation distinction and the multiplication of sex request through a few gendered forms.” Many institutions differentiate these groups of people bu their gender. The way society sees males is that they’re manly,strong and independent, as for females they’re seen to be weak,dependant and feminine. For example, the text mentions that Institutions accomplish the creation of gender differ- ence and the reproduction of the gender order through several gendered processes. Basically what he’s saying is that in every field you want to study in, there’s a number of females and males that will go in that course and it’s most likely that there will have more than the other gender. In the engendering field, it’s scientifically proven that there are more males than females that would study that. In the episode 4 of “Man Enough”, Justin talks about how if he walk down the streets he wouldn’t have to worry about someone harassing him or even rape him unlike females who go through that situation many times. Basically the relation between these two is that men are more advantaged since women are seen to be weak.

Kimmel prefers the use of term “masculinity” and pluralizes it because there are a lot of different views on the meaning “to be masculine” around the world. He says that a “consistent gender behavior is less a response to deeply internalized norms or personality characteristics and more a negotiated response to the con- sistency with which others demand that we act in a recog- nizable masculine or feminine way.” It’s more of a characteristic trait that others see’s the meaning of being masculine/feminine. At the end of the episode 4,these men we’re talking about the definition of masculinity the way they thought it was that’s why they call it “masculinities” since they’re are different meanings to it for each individual.

Lebron James is a professional basketball player for the LA Lakers. He has many accomplishments like receiving NBA championships, NBA MVP awards and many others. He even built a school in his hometown. His qualities includes leadership,hardworking and courageous.With his talent for basketball, Lebron James was the first player to be picked for the 2003 NBA Draft straight out of high school. The Cleveland Cavaliers signed him to join their team.Outside of the NBA, he established the “LeBron James Family Foundation” in 2004 to help out children and single-parent families in need.Kilmartin Smiler in their textbook The Masculine Self, men are expected to be task-oriented,they are supposed to hide their own fears and weaknesses. Lebron James does the opposite by being inspirational towards his fans and loving his family even if he looks like a “tough guy” on the outside.Brannon’s Themes of masculinity in terms of status and achievement fits when describing Lebron’s status and achievements of since he became known and successful in the NBA.

The 2 aspects that really jumped out to from this documentary was the emotions that boys would hold in and the fact that they would get bullied based on their masculinity. They talked about how the would get judged if they show any sort of emotions when something would bother them because showing them would make themselves seem weak. In our society, boys are shown to be strong, be a “man” and emotionless, but it is proven that 90% of man experience pain. One of the boys in the documentary explained that he would cry himself to sleep since he had no one to talk to. He nearly killed himself and the only way to deal with his depression was with drugs. I honestly think it’s not fair as a female because it isn’t easy to hold in all the emotions and boys shouldn’t struggle with that feeling. The fact that they would get bullied is just unacceptable because the “victim” won’t be able to do anything about it but just “man up” and use violence to solve their problems.

In the book that Carlos Andres Gomez wrote that caught my attention was when he was trying to be with this girl he met to figure out his sexuality. I didn’t think that was a good idea because she also have feelings like another human. But what I liked about her is that she mentioned it and noticed that he wasn’t really into her. I feel like for us girls it’s easy to noticed those type of things because some guys just want you for different reasons, in my experience. They talked about it and the started to build a relationship to see how things would be which I find very interesting.

Kobe Bryant.

Kobe Bryant recently passed away on January 26th 2020 during a helicopter crash. Sadly, one of his daughters were part of it. He’s one of the best players in basketball history and many people look up to him. He retired at the end of the 2015–2016 NBA season after playing with the Los Angeles Lakers. That was one of my favourite basketball teams. Bryant was also a very smart and cerebral player. He has inspired many athletes around the world. Growing up, my dad always loved basketball and hoped that one day his daughter would be part of a team but I ended up liking girly things but I still enjoy watching basketball games. Kobe is inspirational to me because he was able to use his platform to teach kids lessons from his experiences and mindset throughout his journey as a professional NBA player. He also wrote five books towards young adults who wants to become athletes. In my opinion, to be considered “inspirational” you have to be able to very encouraging, speak through ambitions and be passionate on what you want to bring out into the world. Kobe Bryant did an amazing job on being inspirational, I just can’t believe that him and his daughter had passed.

Sushi