When Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin addressed the National Press Club in mid-August, her focus was to discuss a new report and calling out the need to redefine masculinity and engage men effectively in “different ways than we do now” in an effort to prevent gendered violence.
Noah Bloch, Co-Head of Curriculum and Lead Program Facilitator at Consent Labs, a youth-led not-for-profit leading the delivery of consent and respectful relationships education across Australia, believes it’s a conversation that all schools should be actively encouraging.
“As the report highlights, our schools, parents and carers, young people, and society as a whole need to start using more effective strategies to engage with young men and boys,” says Bloch.
“Consent education is proven to be a highly effective way to prevent gendered violence, and this includes empowering boys and young men to join conversations and act as positive male role models for others.
Block told EducationDaily that although social media is often pointed to as the sole source of issues like toxic masculinity, limiting damaging impacts of extreme content by limiting access to social media platforms is not a sustainable solution.
“While this is an important discussion to have, our political and educational leaders also need to account for the fact that gendered violence is largely a social issue, not only a social media issue,” he says.
“We need to ask and understand why young men and boys are turning to social media for this content, why this content is resonating and influencing our young people, and how we can call young men and boys into spaces where they can learn about and understand healthier versions of masculinity.”
Questioning tradition can lead to a positive future
At Consent Labs, he leads their Positive Masculinity program and says it has been designed to engage young boys into the conversation and help change the culture of the consent education space.
With program facilitators showcasing themselves as healthier role-models and inviting the male students who take part in the program to explore their own version of healthy masculinity, Bloch says traditional ideas of what men “should be” are challenged.
In the single-sex boys’ school environment the program is often delivered within, this conversation can mean challenging the school culture – and some of the male teachers embedded in that culture.
Examining role-modelling shown by father figures or other male family members may also become part of that important conversation, Bloch says.
“The start of the program reminds young boys and men they don’t have to adhere to these values that have been role-modelled to them, about being ‘strong’ and being a ‘breadwinner’,” he told EducationDaily.
“Over the course of the session, there are different activities that can be put into practice and it’s about empowering young boys and men to feel confident in standing up against traditional beliefs, if those beliefs are tied into gender stereotypes and concepts of gendered violence.”
Bloch says it’s a process of reshaping and rethinking that inspires the participants to find fresh ways to look at what are seen as sought-after traits in boys and men.
“Asking themselves ‘what does strength mean?’ and recognising that it takes a lot of strength to call out bad behaviour by your mates or others is one way to challenge those old ideas of what it means to be a young man in society,” says Bloch.
“We really want to pull young boys and men into the conversation, rather than make the topic of consent education only something that young girls and women have to deal with,” he told EducationDaily.
“Our program is about exploring how we can get more men and boys to be part of the conversation – that’s how positive change will happen.
“If we can help young boys and men critically engage with what traditional values aren’t working, then invite them to think about who the role-models might be in their life who highly value these traditional values, they can start to think critically about how they can connect to more positive values.
” We aren’t there to shame anyone who is engaging in various forms of masculinity, but we want them think about all the different forms of masculinity that are on show to them and encourage them to find the version of healthy masculinity that works for them.”
Navigating the manosphere with a critical eye
The topic of Andrew Tate is not something their content focuses on covering, but in the current climate, with reports of female teachers feeling unsafe at schools because of misogynistic male students, Bloch says it’s a name that can’t be ignored.
“The influence of Andrew Tate is one of the most talked about topics when discussing masculinity today,” he told EducationDaily.
“But Consent Labs sees more value in conversations that aren’t necessarily about ‘what is Andrew Tate teaching young men and boys’ and, instead, ask ‘why are so many boys and young men looking to Andrew Tate?’ It’s because they’re lacking healthy male role-models in their life and when they’re pushed away, they are being pushed towards these extreme views.
“We want to offer a space where social connections can be formed, and a space to openly examine why we need to replace these unhealthy role-models. If men and boys feel empowered to interrupt that culture, then that’s our goal.”