Schools is supposed to feel like home, a safe place with people you can trust. However, we quickly realize as we grow older that this is not true as violence and sexual assaults often happens during school days. In fact, school is the opposite of a safe place for some students, they feel scared and alone to the point where they have to look out for their own safety because they know that the school does not provide enough protection. And when students finally talk to the school about their situations, the school takes it lightly and often times it is ignored.

First of all, we have this misconception that to be a man a person must follow certain characteristics. Kids learns this at an early age through their father’s way of doing things and applies it to their daily life. One of the misconception is that violence is often the single most evident markers of manhood (Kimmel 148). Without any context of Jaden and the bully’s relationship, we can assume that they had a conflict and the only way to solve it is through violence. Our society has normalized this idea of solving a problem through violence because talking it out and expressing their emotions is considered to be feminine and would destroy their manly image in school (Kimmel 2). This case is not uncommon, the CBC stated that 41% of boys have been physically assaulted. This shows that the stereotypical concept of man is still very present in our generation. Although violence has no place in our world, boys have no other choice but to apply violence in school to assert their dominance and prove their manliness because they believe that it is a necessary process to become a man.

Secondly, boys are not the only victim in school, girls often receive worst assaults. This is due to the fact that boys believe that they are superior to girls and as a result they view them as a toy and play and touch them whenever they want without consent. In addition, because to be a man is to not be a woman and being strong is attributed to man, boys believe that girls are weak therefore they think that doing stuff to them wouldnt have any consequence. Men gain status and achievement in many things they do such as sports, work and notably sexual conquest (Kilmartin 3). However, if they fail to seduce a girl they will bring another stereotypical trait a man has to achieve their sexual needs. Force and dominance is used to achieve it (Kilmartin 2). As proof, in the CBC video, a boy sexually assaulted a 9 year-old girl in the bus. This proves that the stereotypical concept of man not only harms men but also women.

Thirdly, I believe that these assaults are preventable to some extent. Schools should be able to control their students behaviour by fortifying their rules and adding cameras or employees to places such as buses in order to provide protection to students. The school’s main objective and concern is supposed to be their students however, in the CBC video it shows us that money and reputation is more important. As proof, letters were sent to multiple schools demanding for datas on school violence, schools demanded for high amount of money and others denied the request because it could potentially ruin their reputation. Not only is this morally wrong but it also motivates bullies to continue doing harm to others because they recognize the school’s inability to act and respond to violence.

In conclusion, the way we’ve been taught on how to become a man is poisoning the children into believing that violence and superiority is mandatory to be manly. Not only is it harming young boys but the girls are also affected by it because of certain traits a man has such as force and dominance. To prevent such thing from happening in the future generations, we must change the way we portray a man and encourage them to express their feelings without feeling feminine.

Work Cited

CBC News, CBC/Radio Canada, gem.cbc.ca/media/marketplace/season-47/episode-4/38e815a-011d8f47088

Kimmel, Michael. Masculinity as Homophobia. 1994.

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.

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

As far back as I can remember, violence has always been part of our lives. For most of us, it started at school. In fact, we, definitely, all have witnessed someone get bullied or two boys fighting in the schoolyard. Yet, sometimes, it is not just a fight. Irreversible actions can occur, and it is only afterward that we realize the gravity of the situation. Once, a 14-year-old student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, in Hamilton, got stabbed and unfortunately, he died from his injuries. After this kind of incident, we inevitably question the safety of schools. The CBC, alarmed by this incident, did an independent investigation about the issue of violence in Canadian schools and discovered, using a survey, some surprising information and statistics about students.

The CBC first learn that violence between students is not limited to a simple fight. They also face serious types of crimes such as threat with a weapon, hate crime, robbery, extortion, along with physical and sexual assault and more. Yet, the most shocking are the results: “41 per cent of boys say they were physically assaulted at high school.” The fact that there are at least 2 in 5 boys who already have been assaulted demonstrates that there is a serious problem regarding students’ safety. The worst part is that violence is not only limited to 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.” That being said, we can deduce that schools lack policies to help. In fact, the schools receive several complaints, but it seems like they don’t have the right aid policies for the students. For example, three girls from the school investigated by CBC have been assaulted by the same boy. They complained but the boy got readmitted to school a few days later as if nothing had happened. That proves that schools don’t know how to respond adequately to those type of issues. One of the girls even said that they seem annoyed by this issue. This leads students to remain silent. In fact, “nearly 50 per cent of high school kids don’t report violence they’ve experienced or witnessed.” The students know that the school won’t take any concrete action. At the end, we understand that schools prefer to preserve their reputation rather than releasing critical information about them.

Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes.

Michal Kimmel

Furthermore, the CBC found proof that Canadian students experience from an early age gender-based violence. It tends to focus on bullying for boys and sexual harassment and assault for girls. We understand very quickly that the environment in which young people find themselves greatly affecting their behavior, especially boys, since our society enforce gender differences. Indeed, according to what Michael Kimmel says on page 3 of the text “Masculinity”, “Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes.” We, therefore, understand that some institutions such as schools, workplaces and homes, favor some groups of people over other.

At school, it is a bit different. The male gender tends to be the most affected by gender-based differences since young boys are forced from their young to behave like a “man”. Therefore, by telling a boy to conduct like a “man”, he is asked to reject all female behavior and to realise that if he is not acting like a “man”, he will be rejected by the others. This leads most men to use violence to show their masculinity since for many, violence is equal to masculinity. Indeed, “Violence is often the single most evident marker of manhood” (148), according to Kimmel on the article “Masculinity as Homophobia”. That is why men have tendency to fight and use their strength to resolve their problems. For example, Hockey illustrates perfectly the way men demonstrates their masculinity. They use their fists when it is necessary to settle a misunderstanding just like the students are ready to fight when they get irritated

Moreover, according to the last definition of masculinity proposed by Brannon and David in the text “Defining Men’s Studies”, “Masculinity is characterized by a willingness to take (physical) ricks and become violent if necessary” (6). This explains why there is so much violence in educational establishments. Unwittingly, violence plays a big role in a boy’s life. The society thinks that it is normal for a boy to be violent or aggressive. By trivializing the violent behavior of boys, schools have also banalized violence. Fights are, therefore, not taken seriously. Violence in school is a serious issue and it should be taken much more seriously. All schools should acknowledge it and act accordingly.

Works Cited

CBC News, CBC/Radio Canada, gem.cbc.ca/media/marketplace/season-47/episode-4/38e815a-011d8f47088

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

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

Kimmel, Michael. Masculinity as Homophobia. 1994.

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.

Many people wonder what is going on behind the scene during a hockey game. We tend to assume that players just play the game and go home afterwards. However, many news reports covey the idea that being a hockey player isn’t just like any other typical job, but a job that can have positive and negative consequences that will potentially affect their life and relationships. 

If we were to picture a hockey player, we would automatically picture them tall, good looking and muscular. We would also describe them as someone who is aggressive because of all the fights we see during games. As audiences, we can sense that hockey is portrayed differently than any other sport because fighting, pushing, and giving each other concussions are encouraged during games. We would also see that some referees won’t even stop the fights players started. Therefore, it makes us wonder if players are taken cared of during hockey season and off season. In the CBC news website, a report was talking about how hockey players are intoxicated by the “hockey culture”.  As we all know by now, toxic masculinity is a systemic issue that has to be put in order. Just like Kilmartin explained in his article called “Defining Men’s Studies”, hockey has a “manbox” that players should follow to be successful. He stated “males are encouraged from early age to avoid behaviors, interests, and personality traits that are considered “feminine” (5). We can compare this with hockey players because if they are seen as a sissy they are most likely not to make the team because they won’t fit in with the group. For example, Wade Belak, an NHL enforcer who played 14 seasons in NHL was fighting with other players because it was part of the game. He said “he didn’t love it, but he was fine with it [because] he wanted to stay within the NHL and have his career” (Smart & Ellenwoord). This goes to show that players are forced to do things that are not in there liking to stay playing hockey. Furthermore, although there is a lot of proofs that violence is very present during hockey games, senior vice president of NHL Gary Bettman won’t even recognize it as something serious because fighting on ice is something that fans want to see often during games ; and those fights bring money to their wallet. Hockey has obviously became a business rather than a passion. Therefore, if hockey players bring more rates and money to their pockets, why should Bettman stop players from fighting each other if that’s what intrigues fans the most? This toxic business affects players self-worth. The article “Men at Work: Jobs, Careers, and Masculinity” by Kilmartin it says, “masculine socialization shapes behavoir, but ongoing social contingencies maintain it” (233). He then goes on by stating society made that wealth is what defines your worth and value in this world (233). We can parallel this with the careers of NHL players. Like I said above, if fighting is what makes hockey players famous and grow the NHL business, they will be more accepted in the league and hockey culture. In short, hockey players use violence to grow in the business because that is what makes them be and feel part of the NHL business. 

To continue, because of the fighting and concussions, hockey players experienced some negative consequences that affected their family’s life and theirs. Many of the players have severe concussions that caused them to have CTE. Players like Todd Ewen, Daniel Carcillo, Wade Belak and many more have suffered from CTE. Moreover, although they only knew recently that they had CTE, CTE is the reason why NHL players are suffering with their identity and role in their relationships. For example, Daniel Carcillo, he began to change personality and become more aggressive towards his wife and kids because of CTE (Smart & Ellenwoord). His wife said that he would come home and not talk about his day or anything (Smart & Ellenwoord). Despite not knowing the cause of it all, men tend to not talk about their emotions because it isn’t “manly”. In the article “Men at Work: Jobs, Careers, and Masculinity” by Kilmartin, it is stated that men didn’t learn how to deal with emotional problems and how to talk about it with someone. They tend to keep it all in their head. Men also have been “raised to ignore emotion” when it comes to being vulnerable (Kilmartin). This means that men will try to deal with problems alone even though it concerns their partners and kids. Furthermore, even if men try to be emotional, society will criticize them because it isn’t “normal”. Based on the article by Kilmartin “Defining Men’s Studies”, he says that because society portray men as strong and independent human beings, we assume that they can control and solve any problems themselves (5). However that’s obviously not true. For example, Wade Belak, he had many personal problems that he thought he could’ve solved alone but ended his life because it was too much to handle. This goes to show that because of the society defines how men should be, men who needs help won’t ask for it because of the toxic masculinity. In short, hockey culture is a toxic culture that needs to help hockey players that has CTE rather than turning the other cheek because they aren’t “man enough” to solve their personal problems. 

In conclusion, men have been put through in a lot of pressure to fit in society. Hockey is just one of many example of how toxic masculinity is very present in our society. We tend to assume that everything will go well because men are strong and independent. But that is not true because like I have mentioned above, many men want to reach out for help but could not because they are scared of being seen as too sissy or too feminine. We need to change our way of thinking and let men be vulnerable so we can end this toxic culture.