Challenging Macho Values: Practical Ways Of Working With Adolescent Boys

315 Pages·1996·1.36 MB·English

by  J. Salisbury

Challenging Macho Values

Challenging Macho Values
Practical Ways of Working with
Adolescent Boys
Jonathan Salisbury
David Jackson
The Falmer Press
(A member of the Taylor & Francis Group)
London • Washington, D.C.
UK The Falmer Press, 1 Gunpowder Square, London EC4A 3DE
USA The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101,
Bristol, PA 19007
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© J.Salisbury, and D.Jackson, 1996
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the
Publisher.
First published in 1996
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are
available on request
ISBN 0-203-39742-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-39772-X (Adobe eReader format)
ISBN 0 7507 0483 7 cased
ISBN 0 7507 0484 5 paper
Jacket design by Caroline Archer
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Acting Hard—A poem by David Jackson viii
Preface by Jeff Hearn ix

1 Introduction: Why Should Schools Take Working with
Adolescent Boys Seriously? 1
2 The Secondary School as a Gendered Institution 18
3 Boys’ Sexualities 40
4 Sexual Harassment 86
5 Violence and Bullying 104
6 Media Education, Boys and Masculinities 139
7 Language as a Weapon 166
8 The Ideal Manly Body 189
9 School Sport and the Making of Boys and Men 204
10 Boys’ Well-being: Learning to Take Care of Themselves and
Others 216
11 How Boys Become Real Lads: Life Stories about the Making
of Boys 232
12 Playing War 250
13 Fathers and Sons 274
Bibliography 292
Index 298
v
Acknowledgments
The authors and publishers would like to thank the following for permission to
reproduce materials used in this publication:
‘Smalltown Boy’: Words and Music by Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek
and Steve Bronski © 1994. Reproduced by permission of Jess-E Musique Ltd/
EMI Virgin Music Ltd, London, WC2H OEA.
‘Smalltown Boy’: Words and Music by Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek
and Steve Bronski © 1994. Reproduced by permission of Bucks Music Ltd,
London, W8 7SX.
‘Smalltown Boy’: Words and Music by Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek
and Steve Bronski © 1994. Reproduced by permission of Larry Steinbachek.
Living and Learning (Cambidge) Ltd for permission to use material from Taught
Not Caught, H.Dixon and G.Mullinar (eds) and Greater Expectations, H.Slavin
(ed.).
The Guardian for permission to use the article ‘Bare Faced Cheek’.
SMASH (Sheffield Men Against Sexual Harassment) for permission to use their
Sexual Harassment questionnaire and ‘The Lads’ cartoon.
Richard Yerrall for permission to use material from his privately published Anti-
Sexist Practice with Boys and Young Men (1989).
Rykneld Support Service, Derby for permission to reproduce material associated
with whole school policy on bullying.
National Council of Voluntary Organisations for permission to use material
from Boys Will be…, Neil Davidson, Bedford Square Press (1990).
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey for permission to use ‘Being a Boy’
by Julius Lester from Men and Masculinity, Pleck and Sawyer (eds).
vi
Acknowledgments
Neti Neti Theatre Company for permission to use material in the bullying section.
Mike Davis of Hackney Downs School for permission to use material from
their ‘Skills for Living’ course.
David Pickersgill for his preparatory work in the sexual harassment section.
Val Lindley, Head of Lower School and Dance Teacher at Redhill Comprehensive
School, Arnold, Nottingham for her contribution to boys and dance.
Derbyshire County Council for permission to use material from their HIV/
AIDs pack.
Max Biddulph for advice and assistance in the Boys’ Sexualities section.
Bob Vincent and Mike Wilkinson for his reading of the text, advice and
encouragement.
vii
Acting Hard
He wants to be the giant King of Hard
smirking beneath his back-to-front
baseball cap. Proud of his blood-grazed knuckles
he tries to push his fist through another
locked door. Sprawls insolently across
three seats on the bus home. Knows
that he was born to own space.
He threatens to jump out of this poem
to head-butt YOU.
But this giant King of Hard
is afraid to take off his bomber jacket
before the hissing showers. He knows
they would rip his towel away, sneer
at his hairless dick. He sees their jeering
faces in his Dad’s shaving mirror—the place
where he practises looking mean.
This King of Hard has jelly feet.
He tries to put his shoulders on again
and the upturned cap that hides his eyes.
But it’s too late; the iron lung is cracking.
These are real, human tears that are scalding
his cheeks. Now nothing can stop
the dark, wet stain from seeping right through
his ‘Red Devils’ football strip.
David Jackson
viii
Preface
There are good reasons, albeit different ones for women, for men, for girls and
for boys themselves, why boys and young men should be challenged and
changed. Many girls and women, whether they are sisters, students, friends,
mothers or partners, would like to reduce the power of boys and young men, to
increase their safety from them, and where appropriate to improve their
relationships with them. Perhaps surprisingly, the reasons why it might also be
in boys’ own interests for boys and young men to change are rather similar—
equalizing power, increasing safety, improving relationships. For example, it is
well documented that young men are particularly at risk of violence from other
young men. From the point of view of men, challenging and changing boys and
young men, whether we are brothers, friends, fathers, or whatever, is also a
matter of concern. In addition, many men carry with them sadness from their
boyhood that they would like to shift in themselves and see shifted in others.
For some people, all these issues are complicated by the ambiguous authority
that comes from being a teacher teaching boys and young men—and of having
to face the question ‘What on earth do I do with these boys?’
So how did we get here? How has it come about that the need to challenge
and change boys and young men is being increasingly recognized?
Like many stories of this kind, this is a long one. Boys and young men have
often been seen as a breed apart, as naturally quite different to girls and young
women. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century there was a clear
emphasis on the separation and segregation of boys and girls. And although it is
easy to overstate the operation of such ‘dual spheres’, there was certainly a
strong pursuit of ‘natural’ separation, so that boys could be and could become
boys. That was the way things were in schools, in religious and paramilitary
youth organizations, and even in many workplaces.
This ‘natural’ regime with its own firm distinctions has remained with us
since. Indeed my own schooling in the fifties and early sixties was strictly based
on the idea of boys becoming the way they should be, through sport, study and
segregation from girls—a strange and inconsistent mixture of nature and
instruction. However, by the sixties there were movements towards mixed
schooling and mixed youthwork. Interestingly, this mixing was accompanied
by the creation of ‘youth’, ‘youth culture’ and the ‘youth problem’, in which the
naming of boys and young men was liable to be lost. Despite the fact that ‘youth
culture’ and the ‘youth problem’ usually stressed what boys and young men did,
ix