As the extreme voices of notorious online ‘manfluencers’ risk colouring the views and attitudes of boys, and the nation grapples with a frightening gender violence problem, Hanger says it’s only by rigorously unpacking ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ masculinities that true societal change will ensue.
The education prevention coordinator at The Men’s Project has overseen a pilot program that’s helped 58 Victorian schools to challenge unhealthy, but often stereotypical, ideas and behaviours about what it means to be a man.
“We’re really clear on how we talk about this work, we don’t use the phrase toxic masculinity anywhere at all, because we don’t believe that men and boys are toxic or that masculinity is toxic,” Hanger says.
Recent research has found Australian boys are increasingly falling prey to a ‘regressive masculinist supremacy’ espoused by online figures such as Andrew Tate, with female teachers the target of blatant sexual harassment and frequent intimidation tactics from students.
“There are online influences that are quite loud and are giving boys the message about ‘get domination, get control, men have been hard done by’.
“And that’s where we’re seeing some of these behaviours pop up – we are hearing that there is that disrespect [in] how women are being treated,” Hanger says.
But cut-through conversations that could shift the dial need to err away from issuing blame and shame on boys, he cautions.
“[We need to be meeting] boys where they’re at, and finding out what’s going on for them. We need to actually be curious and not just shame them…
“We know that the majority of men and boys don’t agree or don’t want to personally believe these norms, and they do feel this societal pressure to act out this masculine (stereotype) in a performative way.”
Hanger notes The Man Box research, which found that young men in the ’Man Box’ – those who hold rigid views of dominant masculinity – are 1.4 times more likely to drink heavily, 3.5 times more likely to be in a traffic accident, twice as likely to have experienced suicide ideation in the last two weeks, and 6.6 times more likely to make sexual comments to women or girls in public.
“We asked a whole lot of different questions around perpetration of violence in their relationships, and intimate partner violence came out really strong and [its] connection to the use of pornography and gambling.
“So, there’s a few different correlations there,” Hanger says of the findings.
In his former role as a Year 9/10 wellbeing coordinator, Hanger really picked up on the pressure boys were under to behave in certain ways.
Helping boys to ditch damaging notions of masculinity, and unsubscribe from harmful societal pressures around it, is something of a personal mission for the former teacher.
“It’s always been a bit of a passion area of mine, I guess from my own personal experiences in life, like never really fitting into the stereotypical box growing up – I wasn’t really sporty and didn’t portray those kind of traditional masculine elements.
“I had a lot of friends that were girls, and just didn’t fit the mould – and I grew up in a country town…” Hanger shares.
In his role as a Year 9/10 wellbeing coordinator, Hanger noticed more intimately the pressure boys were under to behave in certain ways that didn’t reflect their true selves.
“I saw a lot of behaviours that were resulting in group settings, and things that I knew that wasn’t who they were individually, when I was with them.”
Emotional restriction is a key Man Box marker, Hanger flags.
“It’s [boys] not feeling they can be vulnerable, open up or be nurturing, all of those things are something we want to tackle, because it has a clear correlation to the data around suicidal ideation, and the kind of mental health [problems] that come from being in the box as well, and subscribing to these norms and behaviours.”
The issue of ‘hererosexism’ is another problematic one for schools to tackle, he suggests.
“It’s this idea that men and boys need to reject anything that might be seen as feminine, or something that might be seen as a part of the LGBTIQA+ community.
“It could be things like wanting to listen to certain music or do sports that might not be seen as masculine. By rejecting those things, it’s seen as good.”
Of course, the appeal of tethering oneself firmly within the Man Box is understandable, Hanger indicates.
“The Man Box is kind of policed or controlled by reward or punishment. So there’s rewards for being in the box, because that’s what’s expected by people in your peer group and there’s also punishment if you’re not in the box.
“That could come through the language and the words used to talk about you, if you’re not appearing like you’re feeding into this stereotype.”
And while the wheels of change have started to turn, Hanger says the bus is not moving at a consistent pace.
“It is getting better, there is change and that’s really exciting … probably not as fast as we would like.”
An independent review of the Victorian Modelling Respect and Equality (MoRE) Schools Pilot run by The Men’s Project, found the program created a shared language and clear framework within participating schools that allowed educators to more effectively challenge unhealthy masculinities with students.
“Further, the pilot provided some schools with a framework to shift their focus from intervention to preventative work with younger students,” the Deloitte Access Economics report noted.
The State Government has backed the program, allocating funding to roll out MoRE to 240 schools over the next four years.
“We’ve pivoted more to teacher professional development, equipping role models, equipping people in the lives of young boys, to have the confidence, knowledge and understanding to have productive conversations to disrupt and nudge behaviour,” Hanger says.
