The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s staggering series on the issue of violence in Canadian schools calls attention to an independent research conducted which reveals that Canadian students experience gender-based violence from a very young age. The research divulges that girls tend to experience gender-based violence mainly through sexual harassment and/or assault while boys tend to experience gender-based violence primarily through bullying. Toxic societal perceptions and definitions of masculinity appear to facilitate and even encourage gender-based violence in schools.

Toxic societal perceptions of masculinity gravely affect the portrayal and treatment of women and young girls in society. Fears of being regarded as effeminate are instilled in boys at a young age and discourage them from adopting any stereotypically feminine behaviours. These fears even go so far as to encourage young boys to both view and “value girls and women only as sexual objects,” making the development of healthy male-female friendships extremely difficult for many (“Men in Relationships” 171). In addition to preventing boys from creating deep, meaningful friendships with girls, fears of being perceived as effeminate drive boys to act overtly ‘manly’ or ‘masculine,’ and pushes them to exaggerate “all the traditional rules of masculinity, including sexual predation with women” (Masculinity as Homophobia 148). In fact, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s research uncovers that girls often have a tendency to experience gender-based violence through sexual harassment and/or assault. A national online survey the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned revealed that “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” (McGuire). Toxic societal perceptions of masculinity allow and even seem to encourage gender-based violence against young girls. Boys and men who believe they are falling short of cultural standards of masculinity are motivated to overcompensate or exaggerate ‘masculine’ attitudes and behaviours. Fears of being perceived as an effeminate male can make boys or men feel their masculinity is threatened by the presence of girls or women in school or in the workplace, ultimately causing women to become “the targets of sexual harassment” as equality of the sexes can threaten masculinity and the sexual predation of women ensures that “the playing field of male competition remains stacked against all newcomers to the game” (Masculinity as Homophobia 150). Fears of being emasculated or regarded as effeminate thus promote sexism and even sexual violence against
young girls.

In addition, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s research imparts that young boys frequently experience gender-based violence through bullying. In Masculinity as Homophobia (1994), American sociologist Michael Kimmel shares that when he was young, one would ask a boy to look at his fingernails as a test of his masculinity. Kimmel explains that if a boy “held his palm down toward his face and curled his fingers back to see them, he passed the test,” looking at his nails ‘like a man’ would (Masculinity as Homophobia 148). However, if a boy “held the back of his hand away from his face, and looked at his fingernails with arm outstretched,” he was instantly humiliated and ridiculed as a “sissy” by his peers (Masculinity as Homophobia 148).Growing up, young boys quickly learn that their “peers are a kind of gender police, constantly threatening to unmask [them] as feminine, as sissies” (Masculinity as Homophobia 148). The national online survey the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned also revealed that “41 per cent of boys say they were physically assaulted at high school” (McGuire). In fact, boys are even more likely to face violence than girls, “with four in 10 boys between the ages of 14 and 21 reporting they were on the receiving end of an assault involving slaps, punches, kicks or bites” (Common). The fear of being regarded as effeminate plays a huge role in the constant bullying and humiliation of young boys who are pressured into not displaying any signs of ‘feminine’ behaviour.

Moreover, young boys in schools are often scared to come forward about the violence they’ve either experienced or witnessed. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes from the national online survey they conducted that approximately “50 per cent of high school kids don’t report violence they’ve experienced or witnessed,” proving that violence in schools is a frequently unreported issue (McGuire). The team at Marketplace discovered that “kids don’t always tell authorities what is happening to them, perhaps because they fear nothing positive will come of it,” and for many young boys, reporting violence or bullying brings them no justice (McGuire). A student named Jayden interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation shared with them that going to a teacher to report a violent incident usually gets one despised by their peers and labelled as a snitch. Young boys fear being segregated by their peers which they’re already pressured to be somewhat emotionally disconnected from with all those emotional display rules they are encouraged to follow. From an early age, young boys are encouraged to “avoid behaviors, interests, and personality traits” that are viewed as stereotypically feminine and pressured to not display any emotion as “emotion is often considered a central and defining characteristic of femininity” (“Defining Men’s Studies” 5). Another student actually confessed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that when he tried to report that he was a victim of bullying, he was advised to ‘toughen up.’ His masculinity seems to have been brought up to encourage him to disregard the issue he tried to report as well as push him to internalize the violence he was a victim of. Young boys fear being emasculated by other boys or men. They fear being seen as effeminate. These fears scare many young boys into keeping quiet about violence in schools.

By exposing the issue of gender-based violence in schools and by having open discussions about the issue, only then can we hope to eliminate the problem. We must first collectively recognize that there is a problem in order to then be able to understand some of the sources of gender-based violence such as the dire impact of toxic ‘masculine’ ideals and societal definitions of masculinity which are forced down young boys’ throats. The “troubling social trend” of peer-on-peer violence has a serious impact on students, the parents of students, and society overall (McGuire). Schools should be more concerned with the amount of gender-based violent incidents that occur in their school and the measures they’re taking to combat this issue, than the effect that releasing records on the violent incidents that have happened in their establishment may cause to their school’s reputation. Students harming other students, whether it be physically or emotionally, is a serious issue in schools that shouldn’t be overlooked or ignored.

Lastly, I would like to bring attention to “The Mask You Live In” which explores a narrow Western definition of masculinity and the harm it causes boys, especially through gender-based violence in schools, as well as explores the harm it causes men. Here’s a link to a brief trailer on “The Mask You Live In” project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=182&v=hc45-ptHMxo&feature=emb_title. I think this project is important as it urges us as a society to challenge prescribed gender roles and highlights how critical it is to have discussions about masculinity when boys are young, both at home and in classrooms, in order to decrease the likelihood or intensity of gender-based violence in schools.

Works Cited

Common, David, et al. “‘I Thought He Was Dead’: CBC Survey Reveals 4 in 10 Boys Are Physically Assaulted at School | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 8 Nov. 2019, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence-marketplace-1.5224865.

Kilmartin, Christopher, and Andrew P. Smiler. “Defining Men’s Studies.” The Masculine Self, Cornwall On Hudson, NY, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 1–7.

Kilmartin, Christopher, and Andrew P. Smiler. “No Man Is an Island: Men in Relationships.” The Masculine Self, Cornwall On Hudson, NY, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 161–171.

Kimmel, Michael. Masculinity as Homophobia. 1994.

McGuire, Jennifer. “Why CBC Started Looking into Violence in Schools | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 8 Nov. 2019, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence- editors-note-1.5331402.

By: Alexandra Rose Morgan Arseneau