‘Manosphere’ driving spike in sexist behaviour in high schools

Female students at schools around the country have reported feeling unsafe around male students due to sexist* talk being spread by online influencers.

The rise of the “manosphere*” – online content created by misogynistic* influencers that encourage boys to be sexist towards girls – has led to verbal and physical abuse in schools.

A national survey, conducted by YouGov of more than 500 high school girls aged 14 to 18, showed one in four Australian girls felt unsafe around their male peers, with those in private schools more likely to feel this way than those in public schools.

CJ Ward, a 16-year-old Sydney student, said girls were feeling intimidated and harassed at school.

Boys were also making TikTok videos in the school corridors or at parties asking people personal questions, like who they thought was the hottest boy or girl, or whether they would "kiss or slap" a certain person.

“There is a lot of pressure to answer these questions, often people are humiliated by them,” CJ said.

Out-of-date stereotypes were also coming back, with CJ finding herself in an argument with one boy who said “women deserve to be in the kitchen”.

She said girls needed to stand up for themselves instead of believing, “I am a man’s thing” and that the toxic masculine environment was leaving some girls exhausted like “broken dolls”*.

TEACHER EDUCATION
Teachers will be given conversation scripts and roleplay guides in a bid to end the sexist and misogynistic behaviour playing out in schools.

A two-year Monash University project will aim to support teachers at independent and Catholic schools across the country dealing with toxic masculinity* among male students.

The project, funded by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), will provide education for teachers, many of whom say they lack confidence in calling out misogynistic behaviour in the classroom.

Lead researcher Dr Naomi Pfitzner, deputy director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, said teachers have been asking for more professional development in this area.

“These are tricky conversations because we are seeking to equip school teachers to call out and explain why these attitudes and values are not appropriate,” Dr Pfitzner said.

Co-researcher Dr Stephanie Wescott said Australian female teachers “have described an alarming increase in sexual harassment* and other harmful behaviours by boys in classrooms, often linked to narratives and ideologies* unmistakably derived* from manosphere content”.

The Monash University program will involve in-depth research into the narratives influencing young boys and men, followed by workshops with secondary school staff across Australia in order to develop the best content and delivery.

While the project will be launched in the private school system, the aim is to expand it to all teachers in all schools.

* The survey was commissioned by Tomorrow Woman, an organisation that hosts student wellbeing sessions and commissioned the survey. Tomorrow Woman CEO Paige Campbell said while most of the negative behaviour was verbal, the survey found an “alarming percentage of impacted girls” (22 per cent) have been physically bullied or harassed by their male peers.

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GLOSSARY

• sexist: a belief that one sex is superior or more valuable that another sex
• manosphere: a network of online men’s communities against the empowerment of women that promote sexist beliefs
• misogynistic: promoting hate and/or discrimination against women
• toxic masculinity: stereotypically male behaviours that have a negative impact on men and society as a whole
• sexual harassment: bullying or harassing in a sexual way, including joking about sexual orientation, posting sexual comments and touching or grabbing someone in a sexual way
• ideologies: collections of ideas or beliefs shared by a group of people
• derived: coming from

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QUICK QUIZ
1. What is the manosphere?
2. How is it influencing the behaviour of school kids?
3. Why do one in four Australian school girls feel unsafe around male peers?
4. How is Monash University helping to address the problem?
5. How will the program operate?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Calling out bad behaviour
The definition of a misogynist from the Oxford dictionary, is someone strongly prejudiced against women. This research is looking at new ways to educate young people on what is, and isn’t, acceptable behaviour in regards to how people speak and act towards girls and women.

Work with a classmate you feel comfortable with to discuss when and where you may have heard some misogynist comments about women, at school or other places such as after school activities, sport, home or other settings.

If you feel comfortable, record some of these comments and think about how they make you feel, whether you are male or female doesn’t matter.

Then write what you would have liked someone to say in response to this comment to let them know that you didn’t feel like it was an appropriate comment.

Comment                   How it Made you Feel                Possible Response to call them out

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical education, Ethical, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Do you think all high schools need these roleplays and conversation scripts being introduced by trained teachers?

Think of a situation where a roleplay could be re-enacted to call out the bad behaviour, and help change the attitude of the person who said or did it.

Write a brief description of the incident and how you would role-play it to call out the misogynist behaviour.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Summarise the article
A summary can be a really good way to grab the main idea plus some key points in the article as a highlight. Think of the summary like a little advertisement or extract you could use to encourage people to read the article in detail. You want to give them an overview of the article that includes the main idea (being able to tell the audience what the article is about in one sentence), plus a few of the key points of the information.

Remember to re-read your summary to check that it is clear, concise and makes sense to the audience who haven’t read the article yet. You need to make language choices that allow you to explain the information in only a few sentences.