PAULINE PERSPECTIVE
Some very hesitant reflections on teenage toxic masculinity Theo Hobson (1985-90) reflects on sexist attitudes and behaviour.
T
his article was prompted by the news story earlier this year about toxic masculinity in certain schools. The ‘Everyone’s Invited’ website catalogued alleged sexual harassment by boys at various schools, mostly private ones in London, and St Paul’s featured highly. Some commentators argued that all-male private schools inevitably breed a culture of entitled misogyny, a ‘rape culture’. Others wondered whether this narrative was unfairly demonising all boys educated in this way, when only a small minority deserved censure. My response was mixed. Of course all serious incidents of sexual harassment must be taken seriously, I felt, but I also felt that, in the context of teenage silliness, and awkwardness, it is amazingly difficult to say what counts as serious. The fragile bragging of teenage boys should surely be ignored rather than investigated. Surely it is a wilful misreading of teenage culture to suggest that young men are preying on young women, like apprentice Harvey Weinsteins, when the vast majority are just nervously trying to have their first snog.
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ATRIUM
AUTUMN / WINTER 2021
But I also wondered whether I knew what I was talking about. Maybe things had changed since my day, the late 1980s. Maybe today, for various reasons we will come to, the culture of sexist banter has become more harmful, and more likely to lead to abusive behaviour, especially at an all-boys school. Any treatment of these issues is going to be utterly full of bias, so one might as well drop any pretence of objectivity and offer some personal reflections. I was raised to assume that boys were…not better than girls exactly. But we were plainly the more serious, effective gender, the gender that got things done, things like winning wars and winning at sport and saving the world from super-villains. I had no sisters to tell me otherwise, and my mother was from the traditional mould. She is the same age as Germaine Greer but I am guessing they have different star-signs. What inkling did I have, in the mid 1980s, of another perspective? On TV, I saw a bullish prime minister, but she was sui generis (thank goodness). And I saw lots of feisty pop-stars: Blondie, Madonna et cetera. But they were close
