Bob Kinnear isn't Greg Kinnear
Scale Model City, Actual-Size Grime
Newsstand: February 8, 2010
The Original Fifteen Moves to Metro Hall
Photoist: February 8, 2010
Illustration by Brian McLachlan/Torontoist.
We all remember what it was like to be sixteen. The pressure to be a man led boys to grow those dreaded teen-'stashes and direct uninformed vulgar remarks toward their female classmates. Girls struggled to maintain their self-esteem in the face of mounting pressure to show skin and be like all of their friends. Nobody knew which way was up when it came to sex, and the confusion surrounding gender and identity was enough to make your acne-prone head spin.
In September 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Education will introduce a new course titled Gender Studies, designed to help teenagers get a better grasp of all these perplexing issues. The course will be available as an elective for grade eleven students province-wide, creating a safe place where gender in our society, and in others, can be discussed.
"We’re always looking at our curriculum in different ways, looking at societal changes, and we felt this was the right time," said Steve Robinson, spokesperson for the ministry. The decision to introduce the course was reached in consultation with a number of stakeholders, including curriculum review boards, educators, and the Safe Schools Action Team.
Among the topics to be covered in the class are the norms of masculinity and femininity, how gender is portrayed in the media, power relations between men and women, homosexuality, sexism, transgender issues, equity, and gender-based violence and oppression.
The Miss G Project for Equity in Education, a grassroots young feminist organization campaigning to end oppression in and through education, spearheaded the mission to bring the course into high schools. Sheetal Rawal, co-founder of the project, said the idea developed in 2005 from a conversation between herself and a friend in a dorm room. "[We were] talking about our experiences in high school and those of our younger siblings. We thought it was bizarre that people often don't get a chance to talk about how gender norms and expectations affect their lives until and unless they take particular courses at a post-secondary level."
As Rawal sees it, safety is a big part of what makes the course a necessity. "As recent studies in this province have shown (Falconer, CAMH, Roots of Youth Violence), gender-based violence in schools is ever-present and needs to be addressed through preventative measures. One of those measures is education and creating a safe space for students and teachers to discuss the very real issues present in their personal experiences, their communities, and their lives in general, both within and outside of the classroom."
The course isn’t just for teenagers who are struggling with their gender identity, said Rawal. Gender issues are relevant to everyone, and a broader education in the subject can create a better, more informed, and understanding society.
By the time the classrooms empty out for summer vacation, the goal is that students will be a little less confused about how gender affects their lives and the lives of others. Maybe girls will feel a little more comfortable expressing their individuality, and perhaps boys will give up their macho personas and bust out those razors. Fewer teen-'stashes, at least, would indeed contribute to the betterment of society.
Big thanks to Karen Whaley for drawing our attention to this tidbit.
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The Miss G team did an amazing job with this and deserve all the credit in the world for it. I think it's been more than five years since I first heard about their initiative. Their perseverance through years of navigating the Ministry of Education's bureaucratic processes was only matched by their political savvy and creative grassroots mobilization techniques (think "read-ins" on the lawn of Queen's Park).
Congrats, Miss G...and thank you!
Nice illustration for this column---isn't that some kind of male-targetting gender-based bullying going on?
I guess that is meant to depict the type of anti-male gender-based oppression that the course is designed to combat.
The guys are right to be worried, any one of the girls could be carrying cooties.
It sure is tough to be a guy these days.
/s
While I think gender studies is awesome, I do worry about how well this will be taught by the average high school teacher. It's often taught badly at the university level.
Hopefully the curriculum will be designed to help fix the substantially higher representation of boys among high school dropouts across the province.
Note to the author: Gender studies does not teach us that "macho personas" are "bad" unless taught by someone who really doesn't know wtf the are talking about.
I agree with the concern about how this curriculum will be taught. We don't want to represent gender stereotypes of the past and yet we also don't, I feel, want to mush the masculine and feminine into some kind of big, indefinable mess. The masculine and feminine (gender aside) have very different qualities and needs - that lower our stress and bring us joy. These differences need to be understood and celebrated. In a culture that is dominated by the masculine (and by this I do not mean just "men" but I am referring to a culture that values masculine traits more highly), we need to teach young men and women about the value of the feminine, that is not respected and honoured by us. We are so confused these days by the masculine and feminine, and their roles in each of us, that relationships are suffering.
I don't understand the last sentence, do moustaches weaken society?
Is this about more feminizing of men or about teaching how to respect everyone regardless of gender?
Make sure to link us to the curriculum when it’s available. There is considerable reason to be nervous.
Wes, the idea for the illustration was meant to be more that the girls were titillated, reading the gender studies textbook like a skin mag, with a "centerfold," and the boys were supposed to be intrigued. The guys were meant to look skeptical and bewildered but it came out looking more like worried. There was never a gender-based, anti-male bullying message intended.