Sexism Among the Sophomores
Over the course of this semester at Uni, I have continued to identify the toxic masculinity and sexism that exists at Uni, more specifically in my sophomore class. I have found that toxic masculinity is deeply rooted in my male peers, and in my female peers as well. It is continuously disheartening. I am beyond grateful to be a part of the group that put together the survey about sexism at Uni because of the new insight it has provided me with. This new information is not all negative, however, as I was joyously surprised by the number of people willing to be surveyed further about the subject. Even so, there were still many responses on the survey that I was astonished by, but unfortunately not surprised. Some examples follow:
“In PE, males in general try harder during sports and fitness.” “The only time that I was treated differently was when it was suggested that I should not have an opinion on abortion.” “Men and women are different and have different needs.”
These are direct responses to the survey made by sophomores. It was incredibly disappointing when I first read these because it was a rare occurrence for something of that nature to be said by anyone else in a different grade. I think one of the most disappointing parts of the data that was collected includes the fact that a teacher identified the problem in a class they had last year. They expressed their disappointment in the response to a section of the class focusing on gender and sex. This response made me feel even worse because now the teachers can see the blatant sexism and misogyny in the classroom and school environment. However, when conducting a survey as we did, there is still the possibility for skewed results as people may lie, whether or not it is anonymous, the sample size of responders, etc. For this reason, we may never have the most accurate data results, but we still had a fairly large sample size making it more efficient to make more precise conclusions.
I feel that as I continue throughout my Uni journey I hope to see growth among my classmates. Although this toxic masculinity exists, I have seen and been a part of many conversations to try and help bring awareness of this issue to my classmates.
I hope to begin and continue conversations about toxic masculinity and the importance of equal opportunity in the classroom. I think one of the best responses to the survey would be the ones that acknowledged the divide and hoped to reunite the group.
“In PE, males in general try harder during sports and fitness.” “The only time that I was treated differently was when it was suggested that I should not have an opinion on abortion.” “Men and women are different and have different needs.”
These are direct responses to the survey made by sophomores. It was incredibly disappointing when I first read these because it was a rare occurrence for something of that nature to be said by anyone else in a different grade. I think one of the most disappointing parts of the data that was collected includes the fact that a teacher identified the problem in a class they had last year. They expressed their disappointment in the response to a section of the class focusing on gender and sex. This response made me feel even worse because now the teachers can see the blatant sexism and misogyny in the classroom and school environment. However, when conducting a survey as we did, there is still the possibility for skewed results as people may lie, whether or not it is anonymous, the sample size of responders, etc. For this reason, we may never have the most accurate data results, but we still had a fairly large sample size making it more efficient to make more precise conclusions.
I feel that as I continue throughout my Uni journey I hope to see growth among my classmates. Although this toxic masculinity exists, I have seen and been a part of many conversations to try and help bring awareness of this issue to my classmates.
I hope to begin and continue conversations about toxic masculinity and the importance of equal opportunity in the classroom. I think one of the best responses to the survey would be the ones that acknowledged the divide and hoped to reunite the group.
As someone who isn't a sophomore and not able to truly witness this from within, the responses truly did surprise me. Although as a by stander it was noticeable that the sophomore class more much more separated as compared to my own for instance. Even so I never expected it to be this degree and I am truly am sorry for you and disappointed in the ones that you have to put up with.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was also somewhat disturbed by some of the responses from the sophomores in our survey. I think it is very important for you to start conversations about toxic masculinity in your class. Many of the people need to be put in their place. I know that there are many instances of sexism within the sophomore class and those need to brought up. If you see someone from your class being sexist or showing signs of toxic masculinity, CALL THEM OUT. Although some people in your class would not like that, it is important to do so because if these acts of sexism go unnoticed, it will become normalized.
ReplyDeleteEven though I wasn't in your group, I was very surprised at the strenuous reaction from boys in your class after reading the results summary you published. They were willing to argue at length about how they were not sexist, rather than doing actual self reflection of their sexist behavior. For your sake and everyone's at Uni, I hope these boys become more self-aware soon.
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