tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/masculine-culture-32807/articlesMasculine culture – The Conversation2023-08-16T20:06:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2115242023-08-16T20:06:00Z2023-08-16T20:06:00Z‘Felt alienated by the men’s game’: how the culture of women’s sport has driven record Matildas viewership<p>Wednesday night saw the end of the Matildas’ nation-gripping FIFA Women’s World Cup pursuit, losing 3-1 to England in the semi-final in Sydney.</p>
<p>While it was an emotional finish to Australia’s exciting run, the match only further highlighted the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/13/matildas-world-cup-shootout-tv-audience-likely-the-biggest-since-cathy-freeman-race">record-breaking audiences experiencing the fan culture</a> of women’s football.</p>
<p>This fandom has a notably different flavour from traditional men’s sports fan culture, and could be the defining legacy of the tournament.</p>
<h2>A space for all</h2>
<p>Women’s football, and most women’s sports, allow space for different fan cultures to come together in a safer and more inclusive environment.</p>
<p>These cultures have been developed over time by those who have felt excluded by traditional sporting environments that can promote toxic elements of masculinity and require fans to behave in particular ways.</p>
<p>Fans in many male sporting cultures are expected to have a prior knowledge, understand rules and intricacies of the game, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.smr.2018.12.003?casa_token=YMUIrh1mKoYAAAAA%3AC8y47h7mAl7y9xYkZGJpFJWb7sWIp-jQ7LTZUtAaKCoiWWu13RkczFTdCm3ji3YHNFnG5UrJzh1hfS8">wear particular merchandise</a> and use specific language to show support. If fans don’t comply with these set behaviours, they can feel like they don’t belong.</p>
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<p>Research has shown this is a particularly <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ssj/25/4/article-p516.xml">complicated experience</a> for women. To fit in and feel part of men’s sporting fan culture, they have to modify parts of their gender identity.</p>
<p>Women’s sports create an environment where fans can come as they are, not as who they think they should be. This welcomes everyone to the game, especially people who might have previously <a href="https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/kb/sexuality-and-gender-perspectives-on-sports-ethics#sex_and_gender">looked at sport and thought it wasn’t for them</a>.</p>
<h2>A history of exclusion</h2>
<p>It is no accident these spaces are welcoming, and speaks to the history of active exclusion women have faced in football.</p>
<p>Women’s international football took off in Australia in <a href="https://scholarly.info/article/book_author/marion-stell/">the mid-to-late 1970s</a>, with the first recognised game between Australian and New Zealand. <a href="https://theconversation.com/gorgeous-goal-getters-1970s-media-coverage-of-soccerettes-was-filled-with-patronising-sleaze-208953">Coverage was scarce</a>, and even when it was present, it was often sexist and demeaning.</p>
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<p>The timing of this growth of the game is no coincidence, aligning with the FA’s (English Football Association) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/13/how-the-fa-banned-womens-football-in-1921-and-tried-to-justify-it">lifting of the 50-year ban of women’s football in England</a>. The FA didn’t have the power to ban women from playing entirely, so in 1921 it ruled that women’s games couldn’t be played on FA-affiliated grounds.</p>
<p>This hindered the development of football not only in the UK, but around the world, as other nations echoed similar positions.</p>
<p>That there was an international team representing Australia in 1979 is credit to the women, and supportive men, <a href="https://sirensport.com.au/interview/women-in-boots-and-the-story-of-the-79ers/">who built spaces for women and girls to play</a>.</p>
<p>In creating new clubs, teams, and competitions, they created environments demonstrating values that were the opposite of those that had previously excluded them.</p>
<h2>Fans returning to the sports they love</h2>
<p>These welcoming cultures aren’t exclusive to football. Many women’s sporting clubs in Australia have played key roles in contributing to the growing audiences that elite codes are experiencing today. Women’s sporting codes aren’t just attracting new fans but are also re-engaging fans formerly lost to sport.</p>
<p>Research I conducted into the <a href="https://textjournal.scholasticahq.com/article/37823-how-the-aflw-fan-space-has-created-new-fan-narratives-in-alternative-storytelling">developing fan culture of the AFLW</a> found many fans came to women’s Australian rules football because they were interested in the code but felt alienated by the culture of the men’s game.</p>
<p>Fans shared that AFLW offered a more inclusive culture, and they didn’t have to navigate how to support athletes accused of domestic violence or sexual assault and fear racist or homophobic language. Fans also felt they could do things <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-29/aflw-fans-not-loyal-to-one-particular-team/101578318">such as change teams and support multiple teams</a>. People were fans of the competition more broadly and also wanted to generally support women playing the sport they love.</p>
<p>These findings aren’t just bound to Australia. There were distinctly different fan experiences at the men’s and women’s European Football Championships held in 2021 and 2022. Both finals were played in England and featured the hosts.</p>
<p>The men’s final was marred by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/dec/03/england-fan-disorder-at-euro-2020-final-almost-led-to-deaths-review-finds">fan violence, altercations with police</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-sport-why-it-comes-to-the-surface-when-teams-lose-164413">racism</a>, while the women’s competition presented a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jul/26/such-a-joy-viewing-parties-for-womens-euros-score-with-football-fans">safe, friendly and inclusive environment</a>, .</p>
<p>Fans of women’s sport around the world are rejecting traditional masculine norms of sports fandom, and developing a counter fan culture.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-sport-why-it-comes-to-the-surface-when-teams-lose-164413">Racism in sport: why it comes to the surface when teams lose</a>
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<h2>Inclusive supporter groups</h2>
<p>Trailblazing volunteers, administrators, coaches and athletes built these spaces for women and non-binary folk to play. But there are also passionate fans on the ground continuing to drive the fan culture.</p>
<p>One group bringing the noise this Women’s World Cup is <a href="https://www.matildasactive.com/home">Matildas Active Support</a>, which states “inclusivity is at our core”. The group coordinates meet-ups pre and post-match, leads chants at the games and brings fans together on social media. The group welcomes <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-16/meet-matildas-active-supporter-group-creating-safe-space-fans/102472952">everyone to their events</a>, whether that be singing at the top of their lungs or quietly taking it all in.</p>
<p>Diverse fan support like this adds to the <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsm/37/2/article-p102.xml">family-friendly</a> atmosphere at women’s football, where families with children feel more comfortable to attend, and women in particular <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/two-women-attended-a-matildas-game-alone-both-left-with-a-new-friend-20230804-p5du1h.html">feel safe to attend matches alone</a>.</p>
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<h2>Fans the legacy of this world cup</h2>
<p>It’s important women athletes are visible in the media to show the next generation what is possible, and the Matildas are definitely achieving this. But the visibility of fandom and the culture that surrounds women’s football is just as crucial to drive women’s sport forward.</p>
<p>This Women’s World Cup is an opportunity for stakeholders to learn more about the different ways fandom is experienced, and how to connect with diverse fans to continue to grow the audience beyond the tournament and in other women’s sports.</p>
<p>What’s been clear over the last month is that record numbers of women’s football fans have rejected traditional masculine forms of sporting fandom for more inclusive, safe, and friendly expressions.</p>
<p>These fans have been seen. They now must be heard to continue to build on this momentum for women’s sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kasey Symons consults to and conducts research for a number of organisations across Australia. Her research has received funding from organisations including the Victorian Government, and national and state sport governing bodies including the Australian Football League and its clubs and the National Rugby League. Dr Symons is also one of the co-founders of Siren: A Women in Sport Collective.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bowell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fans of women’s sport around the world are rejecting traditional masculine norms of sports fandom, and developing a counter fan culture.Kasey Symons, Postdoctoral research fellow, Swinburne University of TechnologyPaul Bowell, PhD candidate researching digital technology, women’s sport and sociomaterial perspective, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2038342023-04-20T20:02:00Z2023-04-20T20:02:00ZLike father, like son: new research shows how young men ‘copy’ their fathers’ masculinity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521992/original/file-20230420-3111-6zjdof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C6699%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today’s men express their maleness in different ways. Some adhere to more traditional models of masculinity, characterised by beliefs in male superiority and endorsement of risky or violent behaviours. Others embrace more progressive stances.</p>
<p>But how do men develop their ideas, beliefs and behaviours in relation to masculinity?</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-023-01364-y">new study</a> addresses this question by focusing on one important factor influencing how young men express their masculinity – their fathers.</p>
<p>Our research set out to ask: do young men “copy” their fathers’ masculinity?</p>
<p>We found that young men whose fathers support more traditional forms of masculinity are more likely to do so themselves.</p>
<p>This highlights the critical role fathers play in steering boys towards healthier ideas about masculinity.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-a-real-man-most-australians-believe-outdated-ideals-of-masculinity-are-holding-men-back-147847">Who is a real man? Most Australians believe outdated ideals of masculinity are holding men back</a>
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<h2>Measuring masculinity</h2>
<p>We analysed data from 839 pairs of 15-to-20-year-old men and their fathers. These data were taken from a large, Australian <a href="https://tentomen.org.au/">national survey</a> on men’s health. </p>
<p>The survey asked men a set of 22 <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Ft27381-000">scientifically validated questions</a> about how they felt and behaved in relation to many issues around masculinity. For example, they were asked about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the significance of work and social status for their sense of identity</p></li>
<li><p>their take on showing emotions and being self-reliant</p></li>
<li><p>their endorsement of risk-taking and violent behaviours</p></li>
<li><p>the importance they assigned to appearing heterosexual and having multiple sex partners</p></li>
<li><p>and their beliefs about winning, dominance over others and men’s power over women.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Taken together, the answers to these questions offered us a window into whether the men participating in the survey adopted more of a traditional or progressive type of masculinity. They also enabled us to compare fathers’ and sons’ expressions of masculinity.</p>
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<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>We found that, on average, young men are slightly more traditional in how they express their masculinity than their fathers.</p>
<p>On a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 indicating high conformity to traditional masculinity and 0 indicating low conformity, the average masculinity score for young men was 44.1, and for their fathers, it was 41.</p>
<p>Using statistical models, we then examined whether there was an association between how traditional a father’s masculinity is and how traditional their son’s masculinity is. To make sure we isolated the effect of fathers’ masculinity, the models took into account other factors that may also shape young men’s expressions of masculinity. These included their age, education, sexual orientation, religion, household income and place of residence, among others.</p>
<p>The results were clear. Young men who scored highly on the traditional masculinity measures tended to have fathers who also scored highly.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521414/original/file-20230417-14-rydizx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The red dots denote the size of the association between the fathers’ and sons’ scores. The further away from zero, the stronger the association.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-023-01364-y#citeas">Francisco Perales et al, Sex Roles, Springer Nature</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We identified similar results for 20 of the 22 individual masculinity questions. The strongest father-son associations emerged for questions about the endorsement of violence, importance of appearing heterosexual, and desirability of having multiple sexual partners.</p>
<p>This indicates these aspects of masculinity are comparatively more likely to be “passed on” from fathers to sons.</p>
<h2>What our findings mean</h2>
<p>As is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0049089X21000740?via%3Dihub">well-established</a>, social learning is important in shaping young people’s attitudes and behaviours. While fathers aren’t the only influence, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-023-01364-y">our study</a> suggests young men learn a lot about how to be a man from their dads. This is an intuitive finding, but we had little empirical evidence of it until now.</p>
<p>Confirming that dads “pass on” their masculinity beliefs to their sons has far-reaching implications. For example, it goes a long way in explaining why traditional models of masculinity remain entrenched in today’s society. Our study indicates that breaking this cycle requires bringing fathers into the mix.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-draw-of-the-manosphere-understanding-andrew-tates-appeal-to-lost-men-199179">The draw of the 'manosphere': understanding Andrew Tate's appeal to lost men</a>
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<p>Policies, interventions and programs aimed at promoting <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0216955">healthy masculinity</a> among young people are more likely to work if they also target their dads. This proposition is consistent with a growing body of programs focused on <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31495253/">engaging fathers</a> in positive parenting.</p>
<p>What’s more, our findings underscore the potential long-term effects of successful intervention. If a program manages to help young people develop <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Adolescent-Boys-and-Young-Men-final-web_0.pdf">positive masculinity</a>, it’s likely that — as they themselves become fathers — their own children’s masculinity is also positively affected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ella Kuskoff receives funding from the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Project ID CE200100025). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Flood has received funding from the AFL, Australia Institute, Australian Research Council, Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute Foundation, BHP, Department of Defence, Diversity Council of Australia, Human Rights Commission, Jesuit Social Services, NAPCAN, NRL, Our Watch, PwC, UNWomen, Victorian Government, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, White Ribbon Australia, and World Health Organization.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tania King receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE200100607 & LP180100035)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco Perales does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This is an intuitive finding, but we had little empirical evidence of it until now. It highlights the critical role fathers play in steering boys towards healthier expressions of masculinity.Francisco Perales, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Social Science, The University of QueenslandElla Kuskoff, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, The University of QueenslandMichael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of TechnologyTania King, Associate professor, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1787092022-03-11T13:20:35Z2022-03-11T13:20:35ZThe American founders could teach Putin a lesson: Provoking an unnecessary war is not how to prove your masculinity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451355/original/file-20220310-27-stamzr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C7%2C4700%2C3136&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are lots of official photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin shirtless, including this one from August 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-president-vladimir-putin-sunbathes-during-his-news-photo/826469180?adppopup=true">Alexey Nikolsky/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Vladimir Putin of Russia loves shows of machismo. He constantly pumps up his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/dec/16/the-gunslinger-gait-of-vladimir-putin-walk-video">swagger</a>. He is wont to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vladimir-putin-cnbc-sexist-pipeline-b1938528.html">disparage women</a>. And he has repeatedly appeared on the public stage <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-defends-shirtless-photos-i-see-no-need-to-hide-2018-6">bare-chested</a> or as a formidable judo athlete. </p>
<p>Putin likely carries out such performances for a series of reasons: to reassure himself that he belongs to a group of famous <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/strongmen">strongmen</a>; to demonstrate his theory that a good leader is one who thrives on flamboyant, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/lawless-masculinity-gop/620732/">unchecked virility</a>; and to show his constituents – <a href="https://krytyka.com/sites/krytyka/files/sperling_0.pdf">including many international acolytes</a> – that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504220920189">male authority isn’t really under threat</a>.</p>
<p>You might laugh at such childish and cartoonish convictions and attitudes. But attitudes sometimes are not just a matter of personal style or political opportunism; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/03/09/putin-ukraine-invasion-militarized-masculinity-psychology/9426237002/">they can lead to dramatic global consequences</a>, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>Looking at Putin, you could make the case that <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/leaders-toxic-hyper-masculinity-results-in-war/">machismo results in war</a>: For these types of men and leaders, a war seems to offer the ultimate test in masculinity.</p>
<p>As a historian who has spent years writing a book on <a href="https://press.prod.jhu.mindgrb.io/books/title/12786/first-among-men">George Washington’s leadership and masculinity</a>, I have no qualms about stating that, for that long-gone generation that created an independent country, wars didn’t feed their egos.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in white judo costumes with one man throwing the other onto the floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451354/original/file-20220310-21-1myuszr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vladimir Putin (top), then Russia’s prime minister, takes part in a judo training session during a visit to St Petersburg on Dec. 18, 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-prime-minister-vladimir-putin-takes-part-in-a-judo-news-photo/1223813355?adppopup=true">Alexey Druzhinin/RIA NOVOSTI/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>On the battlefield</h2>
<p>The American founders were often misogynists and racists. They could be reckless and brutal. But they didn’t crave wars just to prove that they were real men.</p>
<p>It’s true that Alexander Hamilton once made a shocking confession to a friend, “<a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0002">I wish there was a War</a>.” But that’s precisely the point: He was a 12-year-old boy when he wrote that, not yet a man. </p>
<p>None of the founders were <a href="https://archive.org/details/halfwaypacifistt0000stua">pacifists</a>. Together they built a navy and an army. They studied the art of war by reading <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler">Julius Caesar</a> or <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Treatise_of_Military_Discipline.html?id=xHtUAAAAYAAJ">Humphrey Bland</a>, author of a popular “Treatise of Military Discipline.” They all accepted wars as a necessity, especially when every other option was impractical.</p>
<p>Moreover, they saw war as inevitable because they didn’t trust human nature: “This pugnacious humor of Mankind,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “<a href="https://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=FOEA-print-04-02-02-2840">seems to be the law of his nature</a>.” </p>
<p>“So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities,” James Madison had already declared, that “the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp">their most violent conflicts</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dead body lying under a bloody white cloth, with a suitcase next to it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451362/original/file-20220310-15-1tbl6tk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A local volunteer lies dead after the the Russian army shelled an evacuation point in Irpin, Ukraine, on March 6, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/local-volunteer-lies-dead-on-the-ground-after-the-shelling-news-photo/1381188012?adppopup=true">Diego Herrera/Europa Press via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The majority of the founders also didn’t shelter in their palaces, as Putin has done, seated at an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-ukraine-russia-crisis-long-table-kremlin-memes-rcna16670">impossibly long table</a>. “I had 4 Bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me,” George Washington wrote after the <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-the-monongahela/">battle of the Monongahela River</a> in 1755. “Death was levelling my companions on <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-01-02-0169">every side of me</a>.”</p>
<p>Washington, Hamilton and others could be easily found on actual battlefields where <a href="http://holgerhoock.com/books/scars-of-independence/">countless horrors took place</a>.</p>
<p>On May 31, 1777, William Martin, lieutenant of Oliver Spencer’s Additional Continental Regiment, for instance, was ambushed by a British-Hessian unit near Bound Brook, New Jersey. Wounded, he asked for clemency, but to no avail. He was “<a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-09-02-0588">butchered with the greatest cruelty</a>,” wrote one observer. He was bayoneted about 20 times. His nose was cut off and his eyes yanked out.</p>
<p>Washington ordered some soldiers to bring Martin’s body to his headquarters. He had the body washed and shown as proof of the enemy’s inhumanity and lack of virility. Eventually, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-09-02-0588">he sent the body to the British commander, General Cornwallis</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An antique letter in flowery handwriting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451358/original/file-20220310-17-1ps3d89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘It is with infinite regret, I am again compelled, to remonstrate against that spirit of wanton cruelty, that … influenced the conduct of your soldiery,’ Gen. George Washington wrote to British Lieutenant General Cornwallis on June 2, 1777.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw4.042_0079_0080/?sp=1">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Never crave wars’</h2>
<p>In the 18th century, the soldier was a good example of a truly virile man, but only provided he kept acting soldierly.</p>
<p>Look at our enemies, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-18-02-0029">Washington exclaimed</a> in a letter to Patrick Henry; look at the spectacle of recklessness they offer. They only bring “devastation,” whether upon “defenceless towns,” or “helpless Women & Children.” His conclusion was clear: “Resentment & unsoldiery practices” have “<a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-18-02-0029">taken place of all the Manly virtues</a>.”</p>
<p>Walking the razor-thin line between real and pretended masculinity isn’t easy. But 18th-century leaders knew what had to be avoided at all costs. Only “Unmanly Men,” <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-11-02-0012">Benjamin Franklin realized</a>, would “come with Weapons against the Unarmed.” They would “use the Sword against Women, and the Bayonet against young Children.”</p>
<p>Manly men, in fact, put up with wars; but they never crave wars, let alone provoke wars, according to the American founders. A virile man, especially a soldier, must be propelled by the vision of an intellectual, cultural and moral refinement: “I must study Politicks and War,” John Adams once wrote, so that “my sons may have liberty to study <a href="https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17800512jasecond">Mathematicks and Philosophy</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine">Thomas Paine</a>, the author of influential political pamphlets, would articulate the same idea: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, <a href="https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-01.htm">that my child may have peace</a>.”</p>
<p>That inspiring image of children reaping the fruits of peace — definitely at odds with Putin’s shows of bravado through the years — is taken from the Bible. But the image has a political bent and doesn’t belong to any specific religion: People shall “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Isaiah%202%3A4">shall they learn war any more</a>.”</p>
<p>Washington, a man and a leader graced with a hefty dose of masculinity, agreed completely: “That the swords might be turned into plough-shares, the spears into pruning hooks — and, as the Scripture expresses it, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-06-02-0202">the nations learn war no more</a>.”</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maurizio Valsania does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A leader’s machismo can lead to war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has long displayed his version of hyper-masculinity. A historian says that for America’s founders, wars never fed their egos.Maurizio Valsania, Professor of American History, Università di TorinoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1406472020-06-15T15:08:26Z2020-06-15T15:08:26ZDecade-long study shows why South Africa needs to stop stereotyping young black men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341476/original/file-20200612-153849-anwyvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man steps outside a small art studio in Alexandra Township.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/youth-day">Youth Day</a> celebration on the 16th of June, just after my birthday on the 15th, remained a special day in my life as a young black man. But the day also raised questions for me. A lot gets said in the media about the youth of today, especially young black men who (unlike the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">young lions</a> of 1976) are generally described and depicted as reckless, irresponsible, aggressive and violent. </p>
<p>These young black men are also berated for being more concerned with bashes, parties, excessive drinking and branded clothes. Over the years, terms such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/17/world/in-south-africa-a-lost-generation.html">‘lost generation’</a>, <em>Yizo-Yizo</em> generation (with reference to the <a href="http://thebomb.co.za/item/yizo-yizo-1-2-3/">TV drama</a>), YFM generation (with reference to the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/1997-11-07-yfm-is-a-youth-thing/">radio station</a>), Coca-Cola kids; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34570761">born free generation</a>; <a href="https://phmuseum.com/ilvynjio/story/the-born-free-generation-nelson-mandela-s-generation-of-hope-5f3653e54c">Mandela’s children</a> and WhatsApp/Facebook generation also gained popularity to describe them. </p>
<p>It is against this backdrop that my psychology <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/jspui/handle/10539/11759?mode=simple">research interest</a> <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/11759/Malose%20Langa%20Final%20PhD%20report%20%282012%29.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y">developed</a> to understand the factors that facilitate or hinder young men’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14330237.2010.10820410">search</a> for alternative forms of masculinity, which is the focus of much of my book, <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/becoming-men/"><em>Becoming Men</em></a>. </p>
<p>In the book, I track a group of young black South African boys over a period of 11 years, from 2007 to 2018, from when they were adolescents of 13 to 18 years until they were young adults between the ages of 24 and 28. <em>Becoming Men</em> explores how these adolescent boys negotiate their transition to adulthood in the context of the predominantly working-class <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2013/oct/30/alexandra-township-johannesburg-pictures">township</a> of <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-10-18-waiting-to-exhale-the-story-of-alexandra-township/">Alexandra</a>, as well as how they negotiated the construction of masculinities.</p>
<h2>Positive findings</h2>
<p>Studies about young black men in South African townships are not new, but many tend to associate young black men with gangs, crime and violence. What is new in this book is the focus on young black men who do not subscribe to stereotyped ideas of being a black township man. </p>
<p>These are young township men who are not engaging in risk-taking and other problematic behaviours often associated with them, such as belonging to criminal gangs and committing violent crimes as part of constructing their masculine identities. </p>
<p>Furthermore, these young black men put more emphasis on academic success and long-term career goals, despite lack of bursaries for some to pursue their studies beyond matric. Pursuing academic work was seen by this group as an investment in the future and as a possible means to breaking the cycle of poverty in their lives in the township.</p>
<p>Their narratives revealed positive signs of change, ambition and the aspiration to achieve certain career goals. This and a willingness to sacrifice alignment with dominant or popular positions in the present. They thus entertained non-hegemonic or alternative identity positions.</p>
<h2>Not easy to be different</h2>
<p>It is clear in the book that not all young black men succumb to peer pressure to perform versions of “township” masculinity. But this resistance comes at a cost. Young men who do not subscribe to “township” practices of masculinity are often subjected to bullying, verbal and physical abuse, exclusion, ridicule and humiliation. Derogatory names such as <em>dibhari</em> (fools) or <em>makwala</em> (cowards) are often used against them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341491/original/file-20200612-153832-1bwbhon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thabang Modiba standing in the middle of the street he lives off in Alexandra, from a photo essay on the youth of the township.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is a painful experience for any young man to be called these names. Some feel compelled to behave in a particular way (often getting involved in risky behaviour) to publicly show that one is a “real” township boy. This performativity reveals the artificiality of a male identity that one continuously needs to prove in the eyes of other boys and men.</p>
<p>However, the research for the book also provides rich personal stories of how some young black men are living out alternative versions of masculinity. By alternative I mean non-violent, non-risk taking, non-homophobic and non-sexist.</p>
<p>These entailed rejecting the dominant view that a young man needs to be violent, defy teachers’ authority at school or have multiple girlfriends to show that he is a “real” boy. Strategies that these young black men relied on are revealed in this book, which included vacillating between multiple positions, simultaneously accepting and rejecting certain practices of township masculinity. </p>
<h2>That guy in the middle</h2>
<p>What becomes apparent in my study for the book is that some young black men had conflicting feelings about identifying with alternative voices of masculinity. Some wanted to be popular and yet still achieve good grades at school or stay away from gangs. They had to manage these contradictions in order to maintain and sustain school-oriented and non-violent voices of masculinity by being “in-being” or “in the borderland”. </p>
<p>They accepted that it was better to be “in between” and a “simple guy” who was neither “popular” nor a “loser”. However, being in the middle constituted a dilemma as they still wanted to be considered “real” township boys by doing what other boys did, such as socialising and spending time with peers on street corners, but still being different. </p>
<p>The balance was difficult to achieve and this evoked strong feelings of depression, anxiety, hesitation, shame and ambivalence about being a “different” young black boy. These are psychic and interpersonal tensions that young black men experienced in negotiating the paradoxes of township masculinity and that their narratives were characterised by contradictory sentiments and ambiguities that it is not easy to be a “different” boy who consciously adopts non-popular masculine positions.</p>
<h2>Rejecting stereotypes</h2>
<p>It is argued in this book that being a different boy is “hard work”, so it is important that young adolescent boys are assisted in negotiating these challenges of boyhood and also the transition into healthy manhood. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341494/original/file-20200612-153849-k9ifx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University Press</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is important for researchers and policy makers to understand what happens psychologically when young black men negotiate such multiple voices of masculinity in their daily lives.</p>
<p>As South Africans celebrate youth month, it needs to remember not to stereotype all young black men as inherently violent, callous, risk taking and exploitative of girls and women – as the opposite is certainly evident in this book.</p>
<p><em>This article is based on an extract of a book by Malose Langa called</em> <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/becoming-men/">Becoming Men: Black Masculinities in a South African Township</a>. <em>It is published by <a href="http://witspress.co.za">Wits University Press</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malose Langa receives funding from National Research Foundation, Mellon Foundation and CoE. He works with the Center of Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)as a Senior Researcher.</span></em></p>Young black men are often viewed through a criminal lens. A new book based on an 11-year-long study of adolescent men in a South African township upends the stereotypes.Malose Langa, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1366052020-05-25T15:16:42Z2020-05-25T15:16:42ZBeyond the locker room: Coronavirus isolation is an opportunity to teach boys about toxic masculinity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336195/original/file-20200519-152284-f5p7bm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C1000%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many boys will be happy to avoid the culture of the school locker room during the coronavirus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Boys being boys” is a tired narrative, but one that is still dominant in sport culture. </p>
<p>The latest example: The Washington Capitals released Brendan Leipsic <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-hockey-group-chat-comments-1.5561944">after it was revealed he made misogynist comments in a private chat forum</a> with some other hockey players.</p>
<p>And it’s not just professional athletes. A Canadian boy’s hockey team was recently suspended for <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6628764/medway-school-hockey-team-suspended/">circulating “intimate images.”</a> Before that, the football team at a Toronto school <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/st-michaels-college-bullying-1.5248733">sparked a sexual assault scandal</a> that highlighted systemic bullying and a culture of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-study-reveals-the-dangers-of-toxic-masculinity-to-men-and-those-around-them-104694">toxic masculinity</a>.” </p>
<p>High school boys routinely face <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/school-violence-bullying-alberta-student-survey-1.5331861">physical and verbal assaults</a> that reflect a culture of masculinity underscored by stereotypes that boys just need to “man up.” The pressure to prove your sexual prowess as a man and your power over other men does not stop at high school. As many men know, it carries on well into adulthood.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://werklund.ucalgary.ca/masculinities">masculinities scholar</a> and a father of a son and a daughter, I believe the extended social isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic is an opportunity for parents to challenge the very notion of “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1376182339594">toxic masculinity.</a>” </p>
<h2>Locker room banter</h2>
<p>Several things can be different for boys while at home. </p>
<p>With schools not in session because of the pandemic, boys aren’t currently being confronted with or fearful of the day-to-day <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/childs-play/9780813572918">locker room banter</a>.</p>
<p>This is significant for those who quietly struggle navigating <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/21189">the masculinized spaces of gym classes and change rooms</a>, as well as those who are bullied. The daily competitions, the posturing to fit in and the fear of being perceived as unmasculine because, for example, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/bhs.2017.100203">enjoy reading</a> weighs heavily for many boys in school. </p>
<p>Most boys are no longer immersed in a school teen culture where being “one of the boys” requires maintaining and perpetuating <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=15&ved=2ahUKEwjjkNjk8ovpAhVPop4KHTxkA1Y4ChAWMAR6BAgGEAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sfu.ca%2Fcje%2Findex.php%2Fcje-rce%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F2946%2F2235%2F&usg=AOvVaw0Ymlxjhnun4SfDMvuQEht-">a code of masculinity</a> steeped in toughness, silence and, at all costs, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1363460719876843">heterosexuality</a>. </p>
<p>Coronavirus distancing may have removed some of that fear by removing that physical context. Parents have an opportunity to support boys acting and being different. At home, they should not have to “prove” themselves to be a man so they can be loved, accepted or “fit in.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336196/original/file-20200519-152338-zmt8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brendan Leipsic was released by the NHL’s Washington Capitals after he made disparaging comments about women and teammates in a private social media chat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1274388">Supportive parents should allow boys an opportunity to explore an array of interests</a> — as well as an array of emotions that are often guarded, shielded or repressed because of external social pressures to be accepted within male peer groups and among sports teams. </p>
<p>At the same time, many gender non-conforming youth face intense pressure to live up to parental expectations. School at home can be a time to re-examine the ways we seamlessly enforce children to adhere to rigid, unforgiving gender regulations. </p>
<h2>A new role for fathers</h2>
<p>Parents — and fathers in particular — have a chance to support boys <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072428">yearning for male-male friendships</a>. Isolated from male peer groups, boys are left to chart paths without looking for approval from within the pecking order among boys.</p>
<p>While some boys struggle with having no friends with whom they may measure their own masculinity — their ruggedness, their strength — parents can choose to affirm and confirm <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300701289375">alternative versions of masculinities</a>. Boys may seek comfort and assurance — both about current times, but also about how they <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-theatre-art-play-masculinity-hockey-1.5474604">express themselves, their feelings</a> and their vulnerabilities. </p>
<p>How will they be judged to be real men? Can boys learn different lessons of masculinity while at home? And shouldn’t we just let boys do what boys do?</p>
<p>We can embrace shifting masculinities marked by uncertainty and vulnerability and instead promote greater empathy and compassion. Many boys don’t experience this at school as they try desperately either to go unnoticed or simply be accepted as one of the boys. Now is a time to watch and listen more closely how and where boys seek validation as boys. </p>
<h2>Boys are not just being boys</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/lad-culture-and-sexual-harassment-in-universities-its-about-more-than-a-few-bad-apples-102794">Bro culture</a>,” and the codes for passing as one of the boys is part of the normalization of a damaging and restrictive masculinity that schools struggle to disrupt or challenge. Testosterone and hormones become explanations for misogyny, violence, transphobia and homophobia.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336198/original/file-20200519-152320-tlwtmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fathers can use the time they spend with their boys during the coronavirus lockdown to promote a more caring definition of masculinity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Boys know the rules, so do their fathers. But can parents change the rules and instead work on a new project of masculinity during and after the pandemic? </p>
<p>While historically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2011.602329">women have and largely still do much of the care labour</a> — particularly as it applies to childcare and housework — there is some evidence in recent years that men have been increasingly involved in <a href="https://men-care.org/">unpaid care work</a> that is <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200327182254-q98wg">normally taken up by women</a>.</p>
<p>Shifting relationships and economic conditions have prompted shifting understandings of gender arrangements in which “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1097184X15576203">caring masculinities</a>” are not seen as a threat to normative masculinities, but rather a renegotiation of what it means to be a man who cares for others and who supports gender equality. </p>
<p>We can support boys to be different, act differently and <a href="https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/4949">embrace varied masculinities</a>. Parents have choices about the lessons their sons learn at home. We do not need to maintain the rules and <a href="https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/4949">codes of masculinity</a> that boys routinely learn in schools.</p>
<p>The insularity and the isolation of the pandemic might provide an opportunity, and the space, to re-envision sons, boys as richly diverse and uniquely complicated rather than as simply “one of the boys.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Kehler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The extended COVID-19 social isolation could be an opportunity for parents to have an impact on how boys are schooled in masculinity.Michael Kehler, Werklund Research Professor, Masculinities Studies, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1103052019-02-07T14:31:13Z2019-02-07T14:31:13ZThe real problem with toxic masculinity is that it assumes there is only one way of being a man<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257264/original/file-20190205-86202-1pb321c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ideas of masculinity have changed yet toxicity stays the same.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/january-19-2019-san-francisco-ca-1289250661?src=J9IyH5tRN7eBi6pob4rmiA-1-0">Sundry Photography/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For centuries, male violence and acts of aggression were <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/violence-rebellion-and-sexual-exploitation-the-darker-side-of-ancient-rome/">often the way</a> that power was understood and patriarchy upheld. In contemporary times, in more moderate societies, this has become somewhat tempered, <a href="https://theconversation.com/patriarchal-culture-male-biology-deadly-mix-for-violence-against-women-88005">yet it still exists</a> in different forms and has now been given the name “toxic masculinity”. </p>
<p>This phrase has long <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891243205278639">been used by academics</a> to define regular acts of aggression used by men in positions of power to dominate people around them. In the late 1980s, Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell <a href="http://www.raewynconnell.net/p/masculinities_20.html">described the ways</a> that white middle-class men used their power and positions to suppress traditionally socially marginalised groups such as women, gay men and working-class men. This idea has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jclp.20105">since been extended</a> to include other behaviours, such as aggressive competitiveness and intolerance of others. </p>
<p>Now, in the wake of recent movements <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/feb/03/voices-in-action-taking-a-stand-against-abuse">supported by celebrities and public figures</a>, and the alleged <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/11/3/16602628/kevin-spacey-sexual-assault-allegations-house-of-cards">sexually abusive behaviours</a> of some <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41594672">prominent men</a> coming to light, the idea of toxic masculinity has started to gain more currency in wider society. </p>
<p>One of latest talking points has been the release of a short film by Pixar which addresses the issue. The animation focuses on a pink ball of wool named Purl and how “she” tries to fit in at as a new employee at B.R.O Capital. Surrounded by suited white men, Purl struggles to fit in – even being told: “You’re being too soft. We gotta be aggressive.”</p>
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<p>The Pixar film comes just weeks after an <a href="https://theconversation.com/gillettes-corporate-calculation-shows-just-how-far-the-metoo-movement-has-come-109936">advertisement for Gillette razors</a>. But while Pixar has been praised for telling a “<a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/pixars-new-short-film-purl-takes-on-toxic-masculinity-in-the-work-place-video-15923579">powerful story</a>” in a “<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-latest-pixar-short-rips-into-office-bros-everywhere">strikingly direct</a>” manner, the Gillette advert has faced criticism. Gillette’s advert appears to suggest that behaviours that some men regularly engage in, either in public or the workplace – including bullying, unwanted touching and catcalling – is inappropriate. What is more, the message seems to be that these behaviours should be explained as being inappropriate to boys in childhood.</p>
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<p>Gillette’s apparent criticism of a domineering and aggressive form of masculinity has angered some, who consider it “<a href="https://theconversation.com/gillette-ad-isnt-anti-men-its-anti-toxic-masculinity-and-this-should-be-welcomed-109995">anti-men</a>”. Journalist <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/piers-morgan-gillette-advert-reaction-gmb-mens-rights-activists-toxic-masculinity-metoo-a8728756.html">Piers Morgan</a>, for example, fumed: “What Gillette is now saying, everything we told you to be, men, for the last 30 years is evil. I think it’s repulsive … the implication we all have something to apologise for? Shut up, Gillette.” Others <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/item/31186-gillette-insults-customer-base-telling-men-to-shave-their-toxic-masculinity">have also suggested</a> that this is just another example of “traditional” forms of masculinity being threatened in general. </p>
<h2>Threads of toxicity</h2>
<p>But what is this “traditional” masculinity that might be under threat? Acts of aggression and a need to dominate others might often be considered as natural behaviour for men – especially for, but not limited to, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-study-reveals-the-dangers-of-toxic-masculinity-to-men-and-those-around-them-104694">those in power</a> – and might even be considered a desirable attribute <a href="https://www.elitedaily.com/money/entrepreneurship/aggression-the-most-valuable-trait-for-entrepreneurs">in some situations</a>. But this idea, which is based on the assumption that more aggressive men have higher testosterone levels, has been <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/sexual-personalities/201602/sex-gender-and-testosterone">widely refuted scientifically</a>. </p>
<p>The recent increase in concern about toxic masculinity has come from several quarters. As the celebrity-backed Time’s Up movement continues to call for an end to sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace, the <a href="https://everydaysexism.com/">Everyday Sexism project</a> collates day-to-day experiences of those who have suffered the consequences of toxic actions. </p>
<p>Meanwhile incidents of violence and aggression <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/19/boys-broken-another-mass-shooting-renews-debate-toxic-masculinity/351125002/">from high school shootings</a> to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2018.1500096">road rage</a> have been characterised as examples of toxic masculinity – but there are more common acts of male aggression that might better illustrate the extent of the problem. These include women being made to feel unsafe in public, due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jan/11/menwhostare">unwanted attention from men</a>. It can also be more subtle than that, presenting as men making public comments to women which are often <a href="https://everydaysexism.com/tag/public-space">sexual and derogatory</a>. </p>
<h2>Men victimised</h2>
<p>But women are not the sole victims of toxic masculinity, men can be affected just as deeply by these acts. Even if men are not directly targeted by an act of toxic masculinity, the culture of it can force them to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45908983">suppress their own feelings</a>, in order <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/toxic-masculinity-international-mens-day-2018-gender-stereotypes-man-up-a8641136.html">to fit in</a> with narrow expectations of masculinity that suggest emotions are weak. Under this idea, men are <a href="https://www.thewhiskeypatriots.com/enough-fight-classic-masculinity/">naturally physically strong</a> and those who are “weak” are “snowflakes”. </p>
<p>Warnings that a backlash against male behaviours that are considered to be “toxic” will result in a society where “boys will not be able to be boys” misses the point and suggests that to be a man necessarily means to be aggressive and domineering.</p>
<p>Just as not all men perpetrate acts of toxic masculinity, not all fit a standard mould of manhood. Many men might be struggling with their sexual identity, or have never had opportunities afforded to others because of their social class. They might not be working, or are parenting their children full time. They might also be men who at some point, have been subject to toxic comments or <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/if-you-care-about-men-join-the-fight-against-male-violence-20171106-gzftpf.html">violence from other men</a>. </p>
<p>There needs to be far greater recognition that the way that some men – especially powerful and privileged men – express their masculinity <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-no-crisis-in-masculinity-only-a-narrow-definition-of-men-21777">is not the only way</a>. As well as greater recognition that the term “masculinity” itself is dynamic, not fixed. Arguably, there is no “right” way to be a man. </p>
<p>Rather than engaging in toxic practices, men who are in privileged positions should be able to recognise that they can be agents for change, to the benefit of all. This is a message for everyone – there is no new “war” on men, and there is no need for anyone to “prove” their masculinity through aggression, and its time to put an end to toxic masculinity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Morgan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time to address one of the roots of the problem.Ashley Morgan, Researcher and Senior Lecturer, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/965582018-05-14T15:05:29Z2018-05-14T15:05:29ZThe bogus ‘crisis’ of masculinity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218770/original/file-20180514-178757-1foee0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C926%2C662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cowboys Coyote Quartet, Glacier National Park, April 17, 1927. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/97453745@N02/9047013599/">Tullio Saba/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toronto, April 23, 2018: <a href="http://toronto.citynews.ca/2018/05/10/toronto-van-attack-more-charges/">A man drives a van into a group of pedestrians</a>,
killing eight women and two men and injuring several others. </p>
<p>While the investigation is still ongoing and the suspect’s trial is months away, a message published by the accused on social media already provides insight into possible motivations, associating him with the movement of “involuntary celibates” or “incels.”</p>
<p>Incels are chiefly active on <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/incel-what-is-involuntary-celibates-elliot-rodger-alek-minassian-canada-terrorism-a8335816.html">social media</a> and claim that men suffer from a lack of female sexual availability, leading both to suicide among men and violence against women, including mass murders. The movement has its own <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-tuerie-de-toronto-sombre-hommage-a-un-autre-crime-misogyne-95671">heroes and martyrs</a>, such as Elliot Rodger (<a href="http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/201804/24/01-5162222-alek-minassian-avait-des-liens-avec-des-groupes-de-discussion-misogynes.php">described as a “supreme gentleman”</a> by the Toronto suspect), who killed six people in California in 2014, explaining in a video that he wanted to punish women because he had never had sexual relations.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dark-possible-motive-of-the-toronto-van-attacker-95578">The dark possible motive of the Toronto van attacker</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although this is an extreme example of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30041839?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“crisis of masculinity”</a> rhetoric — the idea that men are suffering at the hands of women in general and feminists in particular — it’s not the only mass murder associated with this kind of discourse.</p>
<h2>The ghost of Montreal</h2>
<p>On Dec. 6, 1989, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/12/06/two_women_on_marc_lpines_death_list_speak_out.html">a man killed 14 women at the Montreal Polytechnique</a>, claiming that “feminists” had “ruined his life.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commemorations for the 14 victims (all female) of the slaughter at the Montréal Polytechnique (1989). The man responsible for the massacre, Marc Lépine, stated, ‘You’re women, you’re about to become engineers. You’re nothing but a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mtl_dec6_plaque.jpg">Bobanny/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The attack was presented by several contemporary commentators as proof that <a href="http://www.editions-rm.ca/livres/jhais-les-feministes/">the men of Quebec were suffering an identity crisis</a>. More recently in Norway, neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed dozens of young members of the Socialist Party, explaining in his manifesto that feminists are threatening the virility of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08038740.2011.650707">Western civilization</a>. In the months following the attack, female journalists were the target of sexist insults and death threats from members of the so-called <a href="https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/314">“Breivik Fan Club”</a>.</p>
<h2>Crisis or crisis rhetoric?</h2>
<p>Historian <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30223">Judith A. Allen</a> and others, including <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-0424.12212">Mary Louise Roberts</a>, have warned that the notion of a “crisis of masculinity” clouds our understanding of complex social phenomena. </p>
<p>They argue that the concept of “crisis,” which implies serious upheavals and profound transformations, does not accurately describe the reality of relations between sexes and the condition of men in society.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0viifGIcA84?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Patric Jean’s <em>La Domination masculine</em> (“Male Domination”), 2009.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Allen underlines the importance of monitoring real-life institutions and social relations to ascertain whether it’s men or women who are at the top of the major political, economic and cultural institutions, which group has the most resources (property, money, firearms, etc.), who is afraid of whom, who carries out the unpaid work of looking after others (husbands, children, the sick) and so on.</p>
<p>This approach quickly reveals that one should more accurately speak of a “rhetoric of crisis,” as Allen suggests, rather than an actual crisis.</p>
<p>Others have made the same observation, including Jie Yang, who studied masculinity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01272.x">crisis rhetoric in post-Maoist China</a>. Yang deplores the fact that the majority of studies on the so-called crisis of masculinity are based on material from newspapers, novels, films and interviews:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This approach can create the illusion that literary texts adequately reflect what is truly happening in society.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even if there is no real crisis, Yang and others have demonstrated that the rhetoric of crisis can have a real impact on society. It brings the attention of authorities and public opinion to those supposedly in crisis (in this case, men), allowing them to present themselves as victims and therefore in need of help (resources, services, etc.). </p>
<p>It also enables the root causes of the alleged crisis to be identified and delegitimized (in this case, feminists and women). It can even be used to justify mass murder and glorify the memory of murderers, presented as heroes, rebels or members of the resistance.</p>
<h2>An overly long tradition</h2>
<p>We should be all the more wary of the notion of a “crisis of masculinity” since <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-cahiers-du-genre-2012-1-page-119.htm">Western history</a> is littered with examples of this rhetoric, from as early as ancient Rome to the end of the Middle Ages and throughout each successive century across the Western world, including such powerful countries as Germany, the United States, and France.</p>
<p>The 20<sup>th</sup> century seems to be dogged by a continuous crisis of masculinity, including in the Eastern Bloc, both during the Cold War and after liberalization.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Age of Brass or the Triumph of Women’s Rights’, a lithograph from 1869 caricaturing the possible consequences of giving women the right to vote.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Age-of-Brass_Triumph-of-Womans-Rights_1869.jpg">Currier and Ives/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In these countries, the rhetoric of a crisis of masculinity was propagated by the highest authorities, including kings and presidents, religious elites, academics, famous writers, prominent members of patriotic leagues and representatives from chambers of commerce.</p>
<p>It was used as a means to criticize mothers and wives depicted as dominating, and to chastise women who did not conform to strictly laid-out female roles (in the way they dressed or did their hair, carried firearms or practised traditionally masculine professions). The rhetoric of crisis also helped justify punishment of women and brought about new resources for men, including the development of amateur sport, gentlemen’s clubs and so on.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Club of Gentlemen’, circa 1730.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Highmore/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Global feminist terrorism’</h2>
<p>Today, studies around the globe speak of a crisis of masculinity in countries <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-crisis-of-male-identity-patriarchy-violence-lynching-4748027/">as diverse as India</a>, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium.MAGAZINE-violent-sensual-unapologetic-1.5404329">Israel</a>, Japan and Russia, as well as among Christian, Jewish and Muslim men. </p>
<p>In the West, some claim that African-American men and “young Arab” men are violent because they are suffering from a crisis of masculinity or, conversely, that they are more virile than the white man, who is “castrated” and defenceless against the Black man or Muslim immigration. </p>
<p>Demonstrably, the notion of a crisis of masculinity can be used to substantiate a plethora of contradictory claims.</p>
<p>The rhetoric can be reoriented, depending on the context: Prior to easier access to divorce, the dominating wife was responsible for the crisis; nowadays, it’s the ex-wife. In some countries today, the discourse touches on higher rates of suicide among men, boys’ difficulties in school, the obligation to pay alimony post-divorce and even laws against domestic violence, which have been presented by groups of men in India as the result of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801214546906">“global feminist terrorism.”</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A demonstration to ‘Save the Indian family’ in New Delhi in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Save_Indian_Families_protest_(New_Delhi,_26_August_2007).jpg">newageindian/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, the rhetoric of crisis is still largely disseminated by wealthy middle-class men with higher-than-average levels of education and good jobs (according to studies in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J002v39n01_06">United States</a>, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801214546906">India</a>, <a href="http://hv.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:626574/FULLTEXT01.pdf">Sweden</a>, and elsewhere).</p>
<p>They are intellectuals, psychologists and social workers, but also activists <a href="https://xyonline.net/sites/xyonline.net/files/Flood%2C%20What%27s%20wrong%20with%20fathers%27%20rights.pdf">from groups of separated or divorced fathers</a>, Christian organizations who run <a href="http://www.konbini.com/fr/tendances-2/france-2-reportage-sexiste-abject-20h">men-only retreats</a>, and white supremacists <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780847690268/White-Man-Falling-Race-Gender-and-White-Supremacy">in the neo-fascist networks</a>.</p>
<h2>Conventional masculine identity: A risk factor</h2>
<p>The rhetoric of the crisis of masculinity offers an opportunity to reaffirm a radical division of humanity into men and women, to associate masculinity with certain stereotyped qualities (action, competitiveness, aggressiveness and violence) and claim that femininity is at once different, inferior and dangerous to men, since the feminine influence is cast as pathological and liable to lead to the decline <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061981906/the-decline-of-men">or even the disappearance of men</a>.</p>
<p>Yet if we look closely at studies of the symptoms supposedly arising from a crisis of masculinity — suicides, difficulty in school, divorce, etc. — we see that women are very often not the cause and, above all, that conventional masculine identity constitutes a risk factor rather than a solution.</p>
<p>In the case of suicides, for example, <a href="https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/38531/pourquoi-les-hommes-se-suicident-trois-fois-plus-que-les-femmes">the high rates for men</a> can be explained, among other things, by the idea <a href="http://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/histoire-de-la-virilite-t-1-alain-corbin/9782020980678">that virility</a> and firearms go hand-in-hand, and by the overlap between masculine and professional identity, leaving men more vulnerable in the case of unemployment. Epidemiologists also note that suicide rates rise in <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2012/02/07/la-hausse-des-suicides-lies-a-la-crise-une-realite-ignoree_1639939_3224.html">times of economic crisis</a>, a phenomenon that cannot be attributed to women, since they do not run the economy.</p>
<p>Even more troubling, the notion of a crisis in masculinity implies that equality is a feminine value that threatens male identity. In this framework, masculine identity is above all a political identity, associated with privileges (in the bedroom, the boardroom, etc.) that are supposedly due to men, while important everyday tasks, like cooking food and looking after children, are seen as incompatible with healthy masculinity. </p>
<p>This discourse is right out of the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/male-supremacy">male supremacist</a> playbook, drawing on the same ideas that might have motivated attacks like that in Toronto.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author recently published <a href="http://www.editions-rm.ca/livres/la-crise-de-la-masculinite">La Crise de la masculinité: autopsie d’un mythe tenace</a> (“The Crisis of Masculinity: Autopsy of a Persistent Myth”), Montréal, Remue-ménage Publishing.</em></p>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Alice Heathwood for Fast for Word.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Dupuis-Déri ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The notion of a ‘crisis of masculinity" clouds the understanding of complex social phenomena and falsely asserts a vision of humanity as being radically divided between men and women.Francis Dupuis-Déri, Professeur, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926852018-03-05T23:38:21Z2018-03-05T23:38:21ZHazing and sexual violence in Australian universities: we need to address men’s cultures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208854/original/file-20180305-65522-gpki6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brotherhood is produced by men with a sense of licence and tradition, and is sustained through particular rites of passage and rituals of abuse. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The esteemed residential colleges of Sydney University have recently gained intense public scrutiny for fostering cultures of sexual harassment, rape and hazing. The <a href="http://apo.org.au/system/files/134766/apo-nid134766-607496.pdf">Red Zone Report</a>, produced by independent journalists for <a href="http://endrapeoncampus.org/">End Rape on Campus Australia</a>, presented a harrowing account of men’s tribalism, and elitism in Australia’s universities. </p>
<p>The report focused on 12 universities including all the Group of Eight universities. Across all 39 Australian universities there are 216 residential colleges or halls. </p>
<p>The colleges are sites of social privilege, populated by the wealthy, with histories that include prime ministers, religious leaders and famous judges and sportspeople. That history is challenged by college cultures that celebrate perversity at the expense of the traditions of academic scholarship and community service.</p>
<h2>Welcome to university</h2>
<p>Orientation Week (O Week) is an exciting time for all university students embarking on a new year of study. But O Week has become known as “The Red Zone”. During this period, sexual harassment, hazing and college rituals spike in incidence.</p>
<p>The report was released to highlight this.</p>
<p>Residential colleges are a hotspot for these activities. They have similarities to other education or training institutions, such as the Royal Military College, religious seminaries or apprenticeship schools. These are closed, insular, elitist and culturally formalised environments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St John’s College at the University of Sydney, one of the colleges named in the report as a site of hazing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Jason Tong</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://universitycollegesaustralia.edu.au/about-us/history/">college system</a> dates back to the mid-19th century. Most colleges were founded on the contributions of wealthy private individuals in the mid-1900s. The colleges hark back to British aristocracy but have become increasingly divorced from the principles of education and scholarship over time. </p>
<p>The colleges remain capitalised by wealthy families as their children pass through from generation to generation. Their <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/business-is-booming-for-misogyny-hunters/news-story/39a646bfe1cfbfc2c5dff3a3eae83001">Christian foundations</a> have been used as proof of their moral authenticity.</p>
<p>Wealth and privilege are sustained by social connections that serve to mask and silence these cultures and their practices. From managing media events to using influence to avoid independent scrutiny, the colleges instil an overstated sense of purpose and entitlement among their residents.</p>
<h2>Sexual assault: how much?</h2>
<p>The Red Zone Report explains there are about 30 assaults on university campuses across Australia per day. About 21,000 of the 1.3 million students who attended Australian universities in 2015/16 were subject to sexual assault. </p>
<p>And 23% of women who experienced rape or sexual assault during 2015/16 were assaulted on a university campus. Women were about four times more likely to experience sexual assault on campus than men. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-metoo-we-need-bystander-action-to-prevent-sexual-violence-91741">Beyond #MeToo, we need bystander action to prevent sexual violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Universities with colleges have the highest rates of sexual assault. College students were seven times more likely than non-college students to have been raped or sexually assaulted on campus. College women are six times more likely to experience attempted or completed rape or sexual assault, compared to college men.</p>
<h2>Don’t our universities know about college hazing?</h2>
<p>Evidence of sexual harassment, rape and hazing has been in the hands of universities for many years.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="http://elizabethbroderick.com.au/">Broderick and Co.</a> investigated college culture at Sydney University. The terms of the research were limited. The <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/11/29/broderick-report-on-cultural-renewal-at-colleges-received.html">Broderick report</a> provided important quantitative data on these cultures, but rejected the wider historical and cultural context within which college tribalism is sustained. </p>
<p>The Red Zone report fills the gaps. It describes hazing rituals in detail gathered across Australian universities. The report provides the necessary context of the histories and cultures of abuse in these colleges, and the administrative responses by the universities. </p>
<p>The Red Zone Report is important because it is independent.</p>
<p>The report describes these cultures and the practices of the men inside them. It gives us a wider sense of how these traditions of torture arise as part of young men’s misguided sense of community. The Red Zone Report tells us it is a community based on sexual prurience, conquest and the immaturity of young wealthy Australian men. </p>
<p>These incidents are windows into the wider Australian establishment. Many of our cultural leaders, solicitors, public servants and corporate chiefs with university degrees have been educated in these environments.</p>
<h2>The ‘man problem’: it’s about men isn’t it?</h2>
<p>In the past two decades or so Australia has seen the “man problem” arise across numerous social institutions. </p>
<p>The elite Australian football codes, the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-subject-to-new-sexual-harassment-scandal/news-story/8998479a7119225eba0467b7c8fcae93?nk=efa1cb3ba27a0ffe68b621db40b6a5c8-1519967731">AFL</a> and <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/rendezview/give-grown-women-credit-for-their-own-decisions/news-story/de9efe217c3af20ad83a92a5e98c5996">NRL</a>, are consistently in the media because of matters of men’s culture and behaviour.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.eoc.sa.gov.au/eo-resources/EOC-Independent-Review">State</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/22/afp-gets-95-sexual-harassment-and-discrimination-complaints-in-three-months">federal</a> police forces have recently undergone reviews into cultures of bullying, harassment and institutional dereliction. These reviews name men and their cultures of masculinity as the principal contexts of abuse. The <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report">Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse</a> is an example of this. </p>
<h2>Brothers</h2>
<p>Two principal forces sit behind these cultures of violence and depravity: some men use violence to control others, and that violence serves to sustain male domination – in colleges, in universities, and across wider society.</p>
<p>The college system and these men’s dominance is sustained by a kind of brotherhood. Brotherhood is based on the self-interest of the association of men itself. It reflects the demand of a group of lads to have the “freedom” to do as they please. </p>
<p>Brotherhood is produced by men with a sense of licence and tradition. That tradition, and manhood, is sustained through particular rites of passage and rituals of abuse. </p>
<p>Brotherhood brings men together. It keeps men together. It keeps other men and women out. </p>
<h2>Changing men</h2>
<p>The Red Zone report highlights the way in which universities have been struggling for decades with college cultures and their misogyny, sexual perversity and violence. It names university cultures of abuse and the wealthy, male and often Christian cliques of domination that reside within them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-governments-should-be-cautious-about-criminalising-hazing-92665">Why governments should be cautious about criminalising hazing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This report is another example of male cultures of tribalism and violence across institutions in Australia. These cultures of manhood must be acknowledged publicly. Recommendations or strategies must take addressing men’s cultures as a principal line of inquiry and action. </p>
<p>The Red Zone report provides a line in the sand that no university leader, or any of us, can ignore.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Wadham receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Addressing male cultures of tribalism and violence needs to be central to the response to reports of hazing and violence in Austrslia’s university colleges.Ben Wadham, Associate Professor, School of Education, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/808072017-07-13T20:15:50Z2017-07-13T20:15:50ZExplainer: what are ‘creepshots’ and what can we do about them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177795/original/file-20170712-26274-1calqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The role 'creepshots' have in the denigration of women, and broader questions concerning privacy, the body, and public spaces, need to be considered. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://candidfashionpolice.com/">“creepshot”</a> is the <a href="http://jezebel.com/tag/creepshots">latest trend</a> concerning the non-consensual image-sharing of women. </p>
<p>A creepshot – a photo taken discreetly of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10987816/Creep-shot-Twitter-trend-how-creeps-just-got-creepier.html">women in public</a> by men – is provoking questions concerning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/02/why-is-it-still-legal-to-take-creepshots-of-women-in-public-places">rights to privacy in public</a>, and ethical concerns about <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/news/massachusetts-supreme-court-upskirt-creepshots-legal/">technology</a> and <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1361&context=faculty_scholarship">bodily autonomy</a>.</p>
<h2>What are ‘creepshots’?</h2>
<p><a href="http://metareddit.com/r/CreepShots/">MetaReddit/Creepshots</a> defines creepshots as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the natural, raw sexiness of the subject without their vain attempts at putting on a show for the camera… Use stealth, cunning and deviousness to capture the beauty of your unsuspecting, chosen target.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177791/original/file-20170712-14458-13z1pf9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of a ‘creepshot’ archive available for free public viewing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Candidfashionpolice</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=creepshot">creepshot</a> is focused on women’s clothed bodies. Images are sexually suggestive rather than sexually explicit, and are different from other forms of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838016650189">technology-facilitated sexual violence</a> like <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-picture-of-who-is-affected-by-revenge-porn-is-more-complex-than-we-first-thought-77155?sg=7536f4d5-ac3b-4c07-ac05-b1a4c056f5a3&sp=1&sr=8">revenge pornography</a>, <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/344/">upskirting</a>, and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659016652445">unsolicited dick pics</a>. However, the term may be used interchangeably with sexually explicit practices. </p>
<p>The advent of technology has paved the way for devices like the <a href="http://www.spycamerabathroom.com/supply-shoe-spy-camera_c60">shoe spy camera</a>, <a href="http://observer.com/2013/09/professor-arrested-for-creepshotting-students-with-camera-equipped-pen/">camera pens</a>, and <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/03/google-glass-and-the-golden-age-of-creepshots/">Google Glass</a>. These have made it easier for men to photograph unsuspecting women and share those images widely. </p>
<p>There are creepshot <a href="http://creepshots.com/">websites</a> where men <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/creepshots?lang=en">share and compare</a> their images with other men. </p>
<h2>Why do men do it?</h2>
<p>There is limited research that looks at why men engage in this practice. However, <a href="http://promundoglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMAGES-MENA-Executive-Summary-EN-16May2017-web.pdf">a recent study</a> exploring men’s sexual street harassment found that men felt it was a harmless and fun activity, that women enjoyed it, and that women deserved it. </p>
<p>Research has also found men engage in <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X12448465">masculine bonding activities</a> involving the <a href="http://op.asjournal.org/rape-as-spectator-sport-and-creepshot-entertainment/">sexual denigration</a> of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PejmDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=gang+rape+as+bonding&ots=Rfy90cm2fS&sig=Luc5IQi2gX4byUUOos6IVjVj74U#v=onepage&q=gang%20rape%20as%20bonding&f=false">women</a>. Such activities allow men to demonstrate <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/089124396010002002">hegemonic masculinity</a>. </p>
<p>At this time we can only speculate why men might choose to take a creepshot. Perhaps it is a way they can bond with men and demonstrate masculinity. Perhaps they view it as harmless, or they have <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/opinion/male-sexual-entitlement-is-killing-women-20150211-13bmef.html">sexual entitlement</a> to women’s bodies.</p>
<p>Or, perhaps it is another way to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/23286230?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">limit women’s access</a> to public spaces. </p>
<h2>Is it legal?</h2>
<p>As <a href="http://metareddit.com/r/CreepShots/">MetaReddit/Creepshots</a> contends:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… there is nothing here that breaks any laws. When you are in public, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. We kindly ask women to respect our right to admire your bodies and stop complaining.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Creepshots are not illegal in Australia. The <a href="http://www.lawstuff.org.au/nsw_law/topics/Privacy">reasonable expectation to privacy</a> does not include public spaces, nor are they considered sexual violence unless involving people under 18. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ub3MdvSf83Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Discussion of a recent reddit controversy concerning creepshots.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The secretive nature of the creepshot also means women do not have the opportunity to confront perpetrators, and may <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-22/young-women-face-street-harassment-every-other-day-research/8642094">put themselves at risk</a> of aggressive retaliation. </p>
<p>Current legal options are limited, but include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>asking/reporting websites to take material down; or</p></li>
<li><p>demonstrating that the image is defamatory, has violated reasonable expectation to privacy, is an image of a person under 18, or is harassing and offensive. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Despite what some men say, the <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/haswo26&div=18&g_sent=1&collection=journals">creepshot is harmful</a> and not a <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/46805863/Skirting_Around_the_Issue_-_Conference_paper.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1499815552&Signature=XhY8nRh8yPFnRFL4xw08%2FXPhGws%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DSkirting_Around_the_Issue_Problematizing.pdf">victimless crime</a>. Effort should be made to consider the role creepshots have in the denigration of women, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-ok-for-people-to-take-pictures-of-you-in-public-and-publish-them-27098?sg=6aa6a07b-a1fc-45e5-92ea-b93a2e1c6263&sp=1&sr=1">broader questions</a> concerning privacy, the body, and public spaces. </p>
<p>The claim that admiration is the motivation seems wholly undermined by the effort that goes into hiding the practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Waling received funding from La Trobe University in 2016 to explore the cultural framing of 'Dick Pics' in contemporary online publics. She is affiliated with The American Men's Studies association. </span></em></p>‘Creepshots’ are provoking questions concerning rights to privacy in public, and ethical concerns regarding technology and bodily autonomy.Andrea Waling, Research Officer, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759522017-05-16T15:06:21Z2017-05-16T15:06:21ZWhy working with men could help efforts to combat violence against women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169318/original/file-20170515-7005-e43ai9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Men march against
violence against women and children in Cape Town, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Numerous <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2017/05/15/Shocking-stats-show-one-in-five-SA-women-experience-domestic-violence">studies</a> have noted that South Africa is an extremely violent country with high rates of interpersonal violence and <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/2014_GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_BOOK_web.pdf">homicide</a>. Along with this, the rates of sexual violence are high, with a report by the Medical Research Council showing that 25% of women in their <a href="http://www.mrc.ac.za/gender/gbvthewar.pdf">study</a> had been raped in their lifetime.</p>
<p>Although the rates of violence are extremely high in South Africa, the ways in which it plays out are similar in many ways to other countries. Around the world most violence is perpetrated by men, often against women, but to an even greater extent <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-05-10-analysis-how-south-africas-violent-notion-of-masculinity-harms-us-all/">against other men</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this knowledge, most interventions to combat violence tend to focus on women. Typically they provide support to women after they’ve been attacked, or they suggest ways to avoid or prevent violence by changing their behaviour or the clothes they wear.</p>
<p>These interventions have had little impact on the levels of violence in South Africa which suggests that alternatives need to be investigated. One possibility would be to specifically work with men as a form of violence prevention. </p>
<p>This was the focus of my recent <a href="http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/101057">doctoral study</a> which primarily looked at the effect of working with men. </p>
<h2>Tackling masculinities differently</h2>
<p>My study drew on a growing <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Against_our_will.html?id=3jF6EIp8sUwC&redir_esc=y">body of research</a>, which suggests that focusing on <a href="http://www.raewynconnell.net/p/masculinities_20.html">masculinities</a> – the societal norms men are expected to achieve in order to “prove” their manhood – can help in reducing men’s use of violence in the future. </p>
<p>Masculinities include aspects such as men being financial providers in a relationship or family. Others are that men “need” more sex than women, and the notion that men are more aggressive. </p>
<p>While some consider these norms to be biological, or as something inherent to men, research <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070500493845">suggests</a> this isn’t always the case. A number of organisations in South Africa and globally have begun to focus on the societal norms surrounding men as they grow up. My study focused on a South African NGO implementing this kind of workshop. </p>
<p>Organisations like the one I focused on typically use workshops to question whether aggression is something men are born with, or merely something that they are encouraged to use. </p>
<p>Results from studies of these interventions have been quite positive. They show that men who take part in them often report using less violence after completing the workshops. They also tend to report a greater respect for women and their rights. </p>
<p>This has been shown in South Africa, as well as countries like <a href="http://www.leftvoice.org/Organizing-Against-Rape-Culture-Lessons-from-Brazil">Brazil</a>
and <a href="http://menengage.org/resources/reviewing-responsibilities-renewing-relationships-intervention-men-violence-women-india/">India</a>, where similar interventions have been implemented.</p>
<h2>Changing behaviour</h2>
<p>My own study found that a primary part of this success comes from the structure of the workshops that organisations facilitate. The participants report that creating a supportive peer group through the process is incredibly important in encouraging them to maintain lower levels of violence.</p>
<p>Along with this, the workshop facilitators – predominantly men – act as positive role models for the alternative notions of manhood that get discussed in the workshops. These positive role models were mentioned repeatedly by men who participated as being one of the most important aspects in helping them to change their behaviour in terms of violence or discrimination against women.</p>
<p>In my study, I found that a shortcoming of the workshops is that while they have an effect on specific behaviours, they don’t seem to have an impact on underlying attitudes which often drive these behaviours. For example, men might agree that using physical violence against their own partner is wrong, but not that gender inequality itself is an issue.</p>
<p>Similarly, they may assert that they themselves will not rape a woman, but still maintain that women’s clothing or behaviour is the cause of rape. Thus, certain behaviours were highlighted as problematic, but the fact that men are encouraged to use violence was seen as less of an issue.</p>
<h2>Shifting mindsets</h2>
<p>Overall, the findings suggest that workshops which specifically focus on men can play a role in lowering the rates of certain forms of violence. Along with this, involving men in efforts to lower violence is an important step, as it moves the conversation away from simply blaming men for violence, enabling them to become part of the solution instead. </p>
<p>It also questions the notion that men have no control over their use of violence, preferring to see them as active participants in efforts to reduce violence. While the impact is still quite limited - workshops usually only have space for 10-20 men at a time - the fact that this approach has the potential to reduce men’s use of violence is promising.</p>
<p>But some adjustments still need to be made to the workshops to focus more on the underlying attitudes of gender inequality that seem to be more resistant to change. Limiting certain forms of violence is definitely a positive step, but a shift in the mindset which underlies that violence could enable a much larger reduction in violence and gender-based violence as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Graaff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While men regard the social norm of ‘proving’ their manhood as normal, research shows otherwise. Combating these misconceptions can help reduce male violence.Karen Graaff, Lecturer in Sociology, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/748982017-03-30T15:54:55Z2017-03-30T15:54:55ZAct tough and hide weakness: research reveals pressure young men are under<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162673/original/image-20170327-3273-j95xm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A rigid construct of how “real” men are supposed to behave leaves many feeling trapped, new research we carried out suggests. </p>
<p>While most support gender equality, the young men in the UK, US and Mexico reported feeling pushed to live in the “man box”. They feel pressure to act tough, hide weakness and “look good”. This can have damaging effects on their health and wellbeing, as well as their relationships with each other, and with women and children. </p>
<p>Alongside online surveys conducted for this international study, we convened <a href="http://wels.open.ac.uk/sites/wels.open.ac.uk/files/files/YMMW_report_02-17_email.pdf">focus groups</a> with men between the ages of 18 and 30 in London and the north of England, representing diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, religion and class.</p>
<p>The men we spoke to were keenly aware of influences – from family, peers, teachers, media – encouraging them to conform to certain models of masculinity. One said: “There is pressure everywhere to tell you what man you should be.” Another added: “You have to be a young man who’s got a nice house, who’s got a nice car, who’s got a family with kids, who’s got a good job.” At the same time, many felt that these images were difficult to live up to and remote from their experience.</p>
<p>The young men in our groups supported gender equality in theory. But many held on to traditional ideas about gender roles. They saw men as “breadwinners” or “protectors” and women as “carers” and felt that societal attitudes hadn’t changed dramatically. </p>
<p>“The jobs that society has a higher regard for … fall to men,” one said. Nevertheless, a small number expressed resentment at what they regarded as the more favourable treatment of young women – including young mothers, when it came to custody issues or domestic disputes. “In the eyes of social media, social services and the law, the girl’s always right when it comes to the child,” said another. </p>
<p>Most of the young men in our focus groups claimed to be tolerant towards homosexuality – “you wouldn’t discriminate against a gay person” – while recognising that prejudice still exists in wider society. However, sexuality was clearly a topic that some found difficult to talk about in a group setting. </p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>The young men we spoke with were aware of pressure to “look good”. Many had gone through a phase of working out but most had concluded that it was unhealthy and unfulfilling. That said, they thought the pressures on young women to conform to a particular body image were more intense than for young men. </p>
<p>Violence is still a feature of many young men’s lives, with some regarding it as a way of maintaining status and an inevitable part of becoming a man. “It shapes young boys into men,” said one. But some resented being seen as a threat and felt targeted by the police when out in public simply because they were young and male.</p>
<p>Some saw admitting to emotional problems as a sign of weakness. One spoke of dealing with mental health issues by “disconnecting myself a lot from other people, because I thought that was the manly thing to do”. Others admitted that they found it difficult to express their feelings and were reluctant to seek help when distressed. One said: “Men, we just deal with it differently … we’ve got other channels of expressing our feelings.” Others admitted that if they were having problems they would just “bottle it up and get on with it” or even “turn it into a bit of a joke”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162497/original/image-20170326-18998-aznfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friendships matter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">elijah henderson/unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Personal relationships were important for these young men. Many spoke warmly about the support they had from their families. As one put it: “They always had my back.” A number had grown up without a father, but many had positive relationships with their mothers and other female relatives.</p>
<p>Friendships were important too, with one young man saying that with friends “you don’t feel like you have to put up a front”. But others expressed regret at the prospect of losing close male friendships as they grew older, highlighting the risks of isolation and loneliness. </p>
<p>These focus groups have been part of a wider <a href="http://promundoglobal.org/resources/man-box-study-young-man-us-uk-mexico/">international study</a>, which argues that breaking free from the “man box” is not something young men can do on their own. It concludes that parents, educators, the media, teachers, girlfriends, boyfriends, and others need to be part of the process of reinforcing positive, equitable, unrestrictive ideas of manhood.</p>
<p>Our discussions present a similarly complex picture. They confirm the importance of listening to young men’s own perspectives on their lives and demonstrate that they need <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sandy-ruxton/male-role-models_b_8416328.html">support</a> in resisting pressures to conform to the expectations and in realising their full potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Robb received funding in 2016-17 from Promundo-US for the research discussed in this article, and from the Economic and Social Research Council between 2013 and 2015.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandy Ruxton has received funding from Oak Foundation, Open University/Promundo, Harassmap/British Council/HasnaInc, the European Institute for Gender Equality, Luxembourg EU Presidency, ESRC, the European Commission, The British Academy, Belgian EU Presidency.
He is a member of the Steering Group, MenEngage Europe, a National Ambassador for the White Ribbon Campaign UK and a member of the Labour Party.
</span></em></p>Young interviewees speak of the pressure to conform to certain ideals of masculinity.Martin Robb, Senior Lecturer, The Open UniversitySandy Ruxton, Honorary Research Fellow, European Children's Rights Unit, Law School, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/672172016-11-04T02:20:16Z2016-11-04T02:20:16ZMasculine culture responsible for keeping women out of computer science, engineering<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144109/original/image-20161101-15779-1y4v16s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is a male culture keeping women from becoming engineers and computer scientists?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfupamr/5805388761/in/photolist-9R18PF-pFhFnj-oh3WvE-ptSwVc-9n2P8W-eiA5FV-7LdYUp-aoV3Vw-kuD7hE-9R18HH-shkMau-axukx9-sqG42P-9dpCkz-7KgX94-nKa7rZ-aoUZHQ-Ci7Zx-gcjLBs-pD7UAu-6BC2Bw-at99tV-oTafLY-6x8VFU-8ifP7T-dYFKXD-eiFQ6u-nxUGeB-6UNivd-rnebn2-juRoSj-f8g8xt-nsEYfn-fmse73-nxU9EC-6eqs5u-9Q3dD-eiA3pZ-bnggET-osQBPy-nxTXiD-pcG9fe-532LtC-aoSdRc-9R18Lk-9R417o-56ykPh-dcakkn-8xAqvk-eiAe76">Simon Fraser University - University Communications</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) areas now show a gender parity – women earn about half of the undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry and mathematics. This, however, is not true of all STEM areas – women earn fewer than <a href="https://ngcproject.org/statistics">one out of every five</a> of the undergraduate degrees in computer science and engineering.</p>
<p>The failure of computer science and engineering to recruit and graduate women is incredibly costly. These disciplines often <a href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/stem-execsum.pdf">offer high-paying jobs</a>, and men’s greater participation in lucrative jobs in these fields <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1964782">perpetuates the gender gap in pay</a>. </p>
<p>That’s not all. When predominantly male engineering teams design lifesaving products, such as airbags and heart valves, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse">they often do so with male bodies in mind</a>. This has far-reaching implications – some of these products have caused <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/female-dummy-makes-her-mark-on-male-dominated-crash-tests/2012/03/07/gIQANBLjaS_story.html">injuries and deaths</a> for women and children.</p>
<p>My research shows gender gaps in computer science and engineering are a result of a masculine culture that dominates these fields. </p>
<h2>Where’s the problem?</h2>
<p>One common explanation for women’s relative absence in computer science and engineering is that they choose to have families and <a href="https://www.human.cornell.edu/hd/upload/Ceci-Williams-Barnett-2009.pdf">do not want</a> to put in long hours at work. But evidence shows that female students are just as likely as male students to choose careers that require long days away from family, such as <a href="https://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/">medicine</a> and <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/marketing/women/current_glance_statistics_may2016.authcheckdam.pdf">law</a>. </p>
<p>Another prominent explanation is that women have <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/19/4/598.short">lower math abilities than men</a>. But studies show that high school girls <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/321/5888/494">perform just as well as boys</a> on national math exams, and college women obtain about <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-48466-001/">half of undergraduate math degrees</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144111/original/image-20161101-24460-12m4ru4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women are well-represented at the undergraduate level in some STEM areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkfun/16457292326/in/photolist-r5gVDq-r7qfGn-fPxGqz-qaLTJk-nZEmbU-qhXSGK-6qB6zb-aDM1zC-vTydfj-qQ1ypQ-qQ7wKK-2hYSYe-gwmN7H-qPZ8my-crLxUN-aPLgBz-qaLUwc-qPZ7GN-qQ9p2T-eADXSH-wbAoCD-qPVc6K-AW8fnc-qQ1ytY-atMLeP-51mqA-ifRNw4-okqioj-enAe2K-4v29tN-8bdRFs-agix6k-amZAug-pwXG96-qbrRso-3cyZG9-crJg7u-dTPcwZ-okqGau-c6XXR5-6AUJVh-5Hz6cM-aoUFf9-sgsFPi-GGXjk-4qGoRi-cCymRm-ncowUk-okqFH7-7jHrSu">SparkFun Electronics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The limitation of these approaches is that they scrutinize how women differ from men, or they call on women to change themselves to fit into male-dominated fields. These efforts can include teaching women to <a href="http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/227762/lean-in/">act more assertively</a> and <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/google-test-case-gender-bias/">promote themselves more</a>. But when women do these things, they often get <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00306.x/full">backlash at work</a>.</p>
<p>We turned our attention to scrutinizing the fields instead. </p>
<p>We analyzed more than 1,000 research articles on gender disparities in STEM fields to find out why biology, chemistry and math <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-48466-001/">were more gender-balanced</a> than computer science, engineering and physics. </p>
<h2>Here is what we found</h2>
<p>Gender disparities are greatest in STEM fields that have two prominent qualities. The first is a perceived masculine culture and the second is a lack of course experience before college. </p>
<p>Masculine cultures are environments that foster a greater sense of belonging and ability to be successful in boys than they do in girls. </p>
<p>One aspect of masculine culture is stereotypes about who excels and belongs in a field. The <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-013-0296-x">current image of a computer scientist</a> is someone who is singularly focused on programming and socially awkward (think Bill Gates or Steve Jobs). <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9835-x">These characteristics are at odds with</a> the way that many women see themselves.</p>
<p>Other aspects of the masculine culture <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2003.tb00774.x/abstract">include stereotypes</a> that women have lower abilities in these fields and a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103104000253">paucity of female role models</a>.</p>
<p>Each of these characteristics – <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/97/6/1045/">male-oriented stereotypes</a> of the people in a field, <a href="http://psp.sagepub.com/content/28/12/1615.short">negative stereotypes of women</a> and a <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/100/2/255/">dearth of female role models for women</a> – has been shown to be a powerful deterrent to women’s interest in a field. We found that computer science and engineering have all of them.</p>
<h2>Lack of early experience</h2>
<p>The second factor that explains why gender disparities are bigger in some STEM fields than others is a lack of mandatory precollege coursework: Biology, chemistry and math are <a href="http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbprofall?Rep=HS01">more often required</a> in U.S. high schools than computer science, engineering and physics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144114/original/image-20161101-14771-145bqlc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">STEM subjects more widely offered in high school are less likely to see gender gaps in college.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugacommunications/14953867889/in/photolist-Bm773F-AUTMev-oMqtWr-p4VhjF-5jNHtB-5jNHzP-p4TnHY-5jNHnK-8ZVbBz-9wLuxd-ctTPzd-8763ae-4ESpdV-5jNHMz-en95UR-LV69r-LUWW1-AveG8w-oQxD29-rA7kB7-p81jML-p81jBq-oQx9Cz-osJw9M-obeNVb-ossg82-obeVwX-ouuiJv-osGZiC-oswpU5-osGZi7-obeVvV-obeRzC-oqGAm1-obeVun-ouuiFz-oswpPL-oswpNd-ouuiBM-ouuiBB-obfQoX-ouuiBg-obeRso-oqGAgm-oswpJA-osJw1v-ouuiAp-obeRrb-obeNJ9-obeNHh">UGA College of Ag & Environmental Sciences - OCCS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Countries that require more science and math in high school, such as Turkey and Ireland, have <a href="http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/9780262033459.001.0001/upso-9780262033459-chapter-6">smaller gender disparities in STEM</a> at the college level than the United States. </p>
<p>Mandatory coursework is important because without it, students turn to their preexisting perceptions and stereotypes about the field to decide whether to pursue it. Taking courses gives students the opportunity to learn that their stereotypes about <a href="http://www.engineeryourlife.org/">who can be successful</a> in the field are narrow and inaccurate. Mandatory classes means that students have the potential to see many girls doing well in them. And mandatory coursework allows students to get to know potential computer science role models through their teaching staff. In doing these things, mandatory coursework helps to counteract masculine cultures.</p>
<h2>How to reduce the gap</h2>
<p>Several measures are being taken to bring more students into computer science in the U.S.: Earlier this year, President Obama allocated US$4 billion to making computer science more widely available in schools through the White House’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/01/30/computer-science-all">Computer Science for All initiative</a>. Last year, Congress added computer science and engineering to the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/671">list of core academic subjects</a>. A nonprofit, <a href="http://code.org">Code.org</a>, is working on bringing computer science to every K-12 school in the country. </p>
<p>These efforts are important. However, if these efforts reinforce rather than disrupt the masculine culture of the field, women’s underrepresentation could get worse. Closing gender gaps will require broadening the culture of these fields so that everyone feels welcome.</p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.hmc.edu/">Harvey Mudd</a>, a private science and engineering college in California, computer science was mandatory for decades, but women made up only 10 percent of computer science graduates in the mid-2000s. It was not until their computer science department made purposeful changes to alter their culture that the <a href="http://qz.com/730290/harvey-mudd-college-took-on-gender-bias-and-now-more-than-half-its-computer-science-majors-are-women/">proportion of women increased to over 50 percent</a>.</p>
<p>They did this by revamping their introductory courses to promote an image of computer science that extended beyond the male “geek.” They also educated their faculty on how to avoid stereotyping, and exposed their female majors to relatable role models. Making computer science mandatory alone was not sufficient – gender gaps in participation only closed once women found a culture in which they felt that they belonged.</p>
<p>To eliminate gender disparities in computer science and engineering in college, it will not be enough to provide students with more early coursework. Girls and boys must feel an equal sense of belonging in these learning environments and the fields more broadly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sapna Cheryan receives funding from National Science Foundation and Sloan Foundation.</span></em></p>Masculine cultures foster a greater sense of belonging and ability to be successful in boys than they do in girls.Sapna Cheryan, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.