Matt Canavan has faced scrutiny after blaming the “feminisation” of school curriculums for a growth in misogynist attitudes and the rise of the toxic manosphere.

“(Boys) are sick and tired of getting lectures about how bad men are, at school,” he told Nine’s Today program last week.

“Maybe we should look at getting more male teachers.”

The remarks continue to draw the ire of political rivals. 

Labor’s special envoy for men’s health, Dan Repacholi, believes Senator Canavan needs to “wind back” his comments. 

“We have some of the best teachers in the world and to be slagging them off, saying that they’re teaching a woke agenda, that they’re teaching a feminised agenda to our young kids at school, I think that’s disgusting commentary from Matt Canavan, and he needs to have a good hard look at himself,” Repacholi said on Monday

“This just incites more anger, more unhappiness, and for them to push back and think it’s OK for them to not show teachers respect, to not have the right conversations, not show any female respect at all.”

Independent MP for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, said the manosphere is not the fault of male or female teachers.

“And it’s not the fault of the young people who are falling under the influence of algorithms which very quickly direct them towards really harmful, toxic content on media platforms.

“Within 23 minutes of opening a social media account, young men are directed towards content that changes the way that they think about young women and we know unfortunately it changes the way that they behave towards them.

“Now that’s not the fault of female teachers, in fact I think it’s important that young men have strong female role models in their lives – and if anything we should increase the numbers of female teachers in our schools.

Ryan said parliament needs to legislate urgently a digital duty off care on those platforms.

“And we need to stop the finger-pointing and name-calling of male politicians trying to point score in a way that is really disrespectful and harmful towards the secondary education system,” she said.

Education Minister Jason Clare said lessons on consent and gender-based violence are a crucial part of the education system. 

“Our schools don’t just teach our kids how to learn to read and write, they help to build character too,” Clare said. 

“Teaching boys to respect girls isn’t woke, it’s just common decency, and teaching them about consent isn’t woke either, it’s the law.”

Independent MP Kate Chaney said she “deeply disagrees with Matt Canavan”.

“I’ve got two sons who are 18 and 20 and I don’t think they feel they’ve been brought up in an anti-boy world,” she told ABC Radio on Monday.

“I think that gender-based violence is something we need to be addressing head on in teenage years and the education system.”

 (with AAP)

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