Macho culture is driving boys to bully and harass, writes Hugo Schwyzer.
The American Association of University Women today released the first major study of sexual harassment in schools in over a decade. This is the first such research to be done since the advent of of the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr) that is so much a part of teens’ lives. The study (available in its entirety here in PDF format) paints a sobering picture of what junior high and high school students endure today.
The researchers found that boys remain the primary perpetrators of sexual harassment. This goes against the media depiction of “mean girls” as the agents of so much of suffering on high school campuses. Boys were much more likely to harass:
A majority of harassed students (54 percent) identified one male student as their harasser, and 12 percent of harassed students said that they were harassed by a group of male students. In contrast, only 14 percent of students said the harasser was one female student, and 5 percent said that they were harassed by a group of female students. Not surprisingly, girls are much more likely to be the ones harassed: Girls were more likely than boys to be sexually harassed, by a significant margin (56 percent versus 40 percent). Girls were more likely than boys to be sexually harassed both in person (52 percent versus 35 percent) and via text, e-mail, Facebook, or other electronic means (36 percent versus 24 percent).
As dramatic as these statistics are, they don’t mean that every boy harasses, or that boys are never harassed by girls. But this brand-new study is a reminder that anti-bullying programs that don’t address adolescent masculine culture as the primary culprit are missing the mark.
What drives sexual harassment isn’t testosterone. Boys are not born to harass. What enables and encourages so many of them to harass girls and other boys are the “rules of manhood” that prize cruelty, swagger, and aggression. Boys who are shamed out of crying and who are shamed out of forming close friendships with girls are “set up” to become bullies and harassers. They use words (and worse) to enforce a strict Guy Code among other boys. (The study found, not surprisingly, that male-on-male harassment tends to employ homophobic language.) And they harass girls to win attention and praise from other boys—and to feel the thrill of power over vulnerable young women.
The AAUW report is a dramatic reminder that the problems of bullying and harassment are heavily gendered: most of the time, it’s about what boys do to girls and to each other.This doesn’t mean, of course, that boys are inherently bad. But the aspects of “guy culture” that encourage and enable harassment—including the “boys will be boys” attitude that’s prevalent among far too many parents and educators—need to be confronted.
—Photo hoyasmeg/Flickr
“But this brand-new study is a reminder that anti-bullying programs that don’t address adolescent masculine culture as the primary culprit are missing the mark.”
I’m sorry, but Hugo, you are missing the mark by a bit. “Adolescent masculine culture” is supplied by the greater culture. Mothers, fathers, teen girls and teen boys love to portray boys as “natural bullies,” natural scoundrels. Snips, snails, puppydogs’ tails. I’m still working out my personal anger at my parents’ dismissal of my adolescent issues as “just a boy thing.”
Like domestic violence, sexual harassment of boys by girls is defined away. Men and boys get the message early that your problems are not problems, that no one will believe you or take you seriously, and more importantly if any action is taken it will be taken against the male. So we learn to be quiet. The goal of “sexual harassment” programs is to control men and boys. I’m not surprised that this study’s numbers don’t add up – because the the writers of the report are biased feminist activists. Grievance groups like them will always come to the same… Read more »
People seem to only what to talk about the “guy culture” when it negatively impacts woman.
Boys rarely speak about the problems they’re having, if they do they’re considered a snitch or punk.
Sould i tell my young nephew that since boy and girls aren’t bullying or harassing each oher equally that his problems aren’t that bad.
Hey, I don’t go to co-ed schools. I want to study with women and girls, I want to focus on my education.
If guys can’t change their “culture” of harassment, and I don’t think they ever will, then I’ve got better things to do with my time.
Did I read this right? “Girls were more likely than boys to be sexually harassed, by a significant margin (56 percent versus 40 percent). Girls were more likely than boys to be sexually harassed both in person (52 percent versus 35 percent) and via text, e-mail, Facebook, or other electronic means (36 percent versus 24 percent).” I read that as saying that 40 percent of boys have been sexually harassed in general, and 35 percent have been sexually harassed in person. That’s a staggering number of boys. Yes, I know that Hugo’s point is that girls face this harassment at… Read more »
I’m sure the definition of ‘harassment’ in this study is ridiculously broad. I’m sure the vast majority of the people who this study claims are being harassed would not characterize it this way. For example I bet any boy who reports that another boy called him a “fa g” even once was “harassed”
This problem is serious enough without men finding a loop hole out of blame.
Lori, There are two issues with the study that I can see. One, it does not take into account social factors that may affect if students report harassment. As Mike noted above, the students admitted to harassing more boys than girls, and that does mean the numbers do not match up. It is akin to most violent people admitting they target males, but having more female victims come forward. Does that mean that people are less willing to admit hurting females or does it mean that male victims are less willing to report their abuse? Two, much of what counts… Read more »
Great comment, and good questions but don’t hold your breathe for an answer. That would be counter to the “men and boys are the devil” campaign that this article is a part of.
Hugo there is a reason why crying in males is shamed. Males in the tribe needed to act crying is inaction. Crying has no good place when action is called for afterward then and only then is it useful.
The true studies are different in that male on male is far more prevalent depending on the definition of sexual harassment.
what about same sex schools? any data on them?
In other news, Michigan has just passed an anti-bullying law for schools, with ONE important exemption: bullying is just fine if it’s done for “religious or moral reasons.”
Therefore, following Schwyzer’s model, I would be fully justified in titling a column “Sexual Harassment on Campus: It’s a Christian Thing.”
Why not say it is a “jewish thing”? or a “muslim thing”? Oh right, because only anti-christian bigotry is tolerated in PC circles.
What I see trending in the news are cases of aggression in general. I see gay kids reporting more bullying, parents pushing back, schools implementing anti bullying programs. Is there an increase in aggression in schools? If so, why? Could it have anything to do with the last 8 years of war and pro war stances our country has been in? Could it have to do with a general level of economic and cultural anxiety about the role of America and it’s involvement in the world? As for the sexual part, yeah, I’d tend to believe that sexual harassment is… Read more »
It seems exceedingly unlikely. Crimes of all types have been going down since the 1970s at least.
It’s probably mostly two things: our tolerance for bullying is dropping faster than the rates of bullying, and we tend to remember the past as being better than it was.
I worked in schools for 25 years. I hope that gives me some credibility. Boys sexually harass girls WAY more than the other way around, and that continues into adulthood. I am not saying it is never girls sexually harassing boys, or women sexually harassing men. Those things happen. But MUCH less often. I read on this site so many times that these simply are not the facts…that men and boys do not sexually aggress against females in greater numbers. Reading that is like reading impassioned diatribes that the earth is really flat. I just don’t get the irrationality. And… Read more »
Lori, I was sexually harrased by a single girl for months when I was in 10th grade. I never reported it to anyone because I did not feel that it was a significant impact on my life. Was it annoying? Sure. Would I have preferred it to stop? Definitely. Did it make me start cutting/starving myself/taking drugs? Definitely not. And for clarity’s sake, it was intense, there was groping involved, and it was someone I had to see every single day (we took the same bus). Furthermore, because the girl involved was attractive, I was told that I was “lucky.”… Read more »
Mike, as much that I agree that male sexual harassment is usually dicounted or unreported and that the culture of victimisation has an enormously negative impact on men and women of all ages, isn’t it a little arrogant to assume that your experience of sexual harassment applies to all victims? To Lori: I think you pointed out the problem yourself when you said “So for me, a woman, to tell you that I was the head of a school and had to personally deal with all sexual harassment incidents and that boys do it WAY more than girls” Firstly, speaking… Read more »
Peter, I think it’s far more arrogant when I’m told by others what the impact of sexual harassment “should be” despite my first hand experience. When a study defines sexual harassment so broadly that 56% of women have supposedly been harassed (pg 10), and then later claims that sexual harassment is a problem because it prevents children from being well-adjusted, then there is a fundmental problem with the survey. When 56% of a population has experienced something that affects “adjustment” then you either need to change your definition of “adjustment” or acknowledge that you cast the net much too wide… Read more »
“Let’s just stick to the specific facts.” “Boys sexually harass girls WAY more than the other way around” “…women sexually harassing men. Those things happen. But MUCH less often.” Lori, those are not facts. Those are your personal opinions based on passive observations. You are offering nothing to support your claims other than working in schools for 25 years. How many incidents of sexual harassment were reported at your school? How many by girls and how many by boys? Those answers would be FACTS. Someone working in education should know the difference! “Hugo does not need me to defend him,… Read more »
Lori, believe me I share you concern about harassment, and sexual harassment of anybody by anybody. Actually concern is a overly mild word. It pisses me off. But the reality is that AAUW has an agenda, which is to look for academic, career and economic advantages for girls and women whenever and wherever possible, and if that requires shoddy methodology and statistically suspect reports, or if it requires backing USED Guidance or an amendment to VAWA to make it possible to expel boys and men from school for commenting about a girl, well, you can’t make an omelette with breaking… Read more »
I think Masculinity should be a curriculum.
Hold up. Maybe the study clears this up (I’m on a pretty slow net connection right now) but I’m suffering a bit of confusion here. The researchers found that boys remain the primary perpetrators of sexual harassment. This goes against the media depiction of “mean girls” as the agents of so much of suffering on high school campuses. Is this about harassment or sexual harassment? Difference being that all sexual harassment is harassment but not all harassment is sexual harassment. I’m asking because if this is a study on sexual harassment I’m not seeing how this exonerates “mean girls” as… Read more »
I don’t think that these numbers are contestable. We know that junior high was an alpha male hamburger grinder why should we pretend that Hazing, Bullying and Dominating other (mostly weaker) children is worthy of a defense?
Budmin, I cannot speak to your experience in junior high. But I do contest what is being said here. I would argue that attempts to villify “guy culture” are not only baseless, but potentially destructive. The reality of growing up male in America is that you are taught certain values, the overwhelming majority of which are positive. The argument put forward here describes a culture that takes “thrills” in seeking power over the vulnerable, and injures 3rd parties in an attempt to seek approval. But these are gross mischaracterizations of the stoicism and self-reliance that actually makes up male culture… Read more »
“The argument put forward here describes a culture that takes “thrills” in seeking power over the vulnerable, and injures 3rd parties in an attempt to seek approval. But these are gross mischaracterizations of the stoicism and self-reliance that actually makes up male culture in America.’ Well… imagine “Lord of the Flies” but add a ridiculous amount of drug money…My Junior High was so bad that when I graduated they changed their name… (Probably to avoid a law suit) Putting that aside, there is still the practiced belief that Social Darwinism is a duty. That the weak must be made to… Read more »
Budmin, I was in a mixed school too. Oh course men bully people and of course its indefensible. But ignoring the fact that women do too or implying that “Male culture” and “Machismo” is fundamentally corrupt and inferior to the supposedly peaceful and nurturing female culture is not only ignoring a huge problem, but is also a huge slap in the face to the victims of female bullies.
I’m sorry to hear you were bullied by men, I was too, but that doesn’t mean that women are less culpable.
Who said anything about defending those behaviors? I’m not trying to contest the numbers I’m saying I don’t I think I understand what numbers are being talked about or perhaps I don’t understand how the numbers are being used. Harrassment and sexual harassment seem to be used interchagabley throughout this article when they are not all one and the same. From what I’m reading here it looks like Hugo is trying to file all harassment under the umbrella of sexual harassment, take a study that shows most sexual harassment is male against female, then conclude that school girls don’t really… Read more »
What’s really interesting is the discussion of the exact figures that Hugo cites which he either “forgot” to mention or just didn’t feel was relevant. From Page 14 of the Report: “The majority of male harassers said that they had sexually harassed a male student; more than two-thirds (72 percent) indicated that they sexually harassed a boy, and less than one-fifth (19 percent) said that they sexually harassed a girl.8 Among female harassers, the difference is closer. One-half of female harassers (50 percent) said that they sexually harassed a boy, and 41 percent said that they sexually harassed a girl.… Read more »
Well, that’s not really true. If you thinking being a victim of harassment and being a perpetrator of harassment are randomly distributed, they would need to match up. But we know the latter isn’t, and the former probably isn’t either. It’s possible that most harassers harass boys, and yet most harassment victims are girls, if the people harassing girls are harassing more girls each than the people harassing boys. Which is certainly plausible. Of course, we also know that girls are more likely to identify and report harassment than are boys, and both genders are more likely to identify and… Read more »
Surprise, surprise, the AAUW again found that men are the root of all evil.
Fortunately this problem is going away. Men now represent only 40% of college graduations, and the US Department of Education has made it an expellable offense for a man even to be accused of sexual harassment. With any luck, we will eradicate all men from student bodies in the near future.
Understand that they will not be content and will not rest until it’s tangentially 0%.
As for this article’s purpose and actual message: boys and men are the devil incarnate. We get it.
I think the two of you are looking at this in a very child like manner,what is meant to get across is the need to change this bullying culture that needs to change,
If the shoe was on the other foot women would be up in arms to make thing better for men .we just ask for the same.
Really? When have women been ‘up in arms’ to make things better for men? It’s certainly not a priority for feminism, so you must have some other example in mind.
superstarjackie, I am looking at the reality of the situation. Children don’t do that. As a father of two daughters and no sons, I am anti-sexual and all other forms of harrassment, and such should not be tolerated. However, the incessant male heterophobic attacks are no solution to bullying, harrassment, or any other problem. Furthermore, the reality of the education situation today as it relates to a gender imbalance should be considered a national problem. The AAUW’s evident objective to continue to drive the education ratio as close to 100/0 as possible is already harming sociey and it is worsening… Read more »