Is "masculinity" behind school shootings?

In the wake of the tragic school shootings by Minnesota teenager Jeff Weise, academics and antiviolence experts have offered explanations that include family problems; poverty; Goth music and culture; violence in the media and computer games and on the Internet; and more. They are missing one crucial and overriding factor, according to the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, Washington, D.C.--the codes of schoolyard masculinity and retaliatory violence.

Since 1982, there have been 29 school shootings, all by boys who have been teased and bullied by their peers for being less than strong, sports-oriented, or "masculines." Moreover, they lived in communities that tolerated a violent adolescent masculinity code. For these young men, violence was the way to reassert their sense of autonomy, power, and "manhood."

"Was the shooter teased and harassed as unworthy, incomplete, or failing as a 'real man'? Was he called 'queer' or 'faggot' or other terms designed to undercut his manhood? Was there a culture at the school that valued sports or toughness and ostracized shy or 'nerdy' boys?" asks GenderPAC's Executive Director Riki Wilchins. "These are the questions that need to be asked and addressed at every high school in America if we are serious about preventing the next shootings."

Wilchins says that young males are bound by the "boy code," a set of rules and expectations that flow from outdated and dysfunctional sexual stereotypes, including the notion that boys need to keep their emotions in check; violence is an acceptable response to emotional upset; self-esteem relies on power; and the rejection of any and all signs of femininity.

"We must free boys from their gender straight-jackets in this country," Wilchins demands. "It's time to create an expansive definition of masculinity that includes showing emotion, asking for and receiving help, and being accepted even if you aren't a jock or 'regular guy' at school."

COPYRIGHT 2005 Society for the Advancement of Education
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