2. Girls feeling unsafe in school. Is it a new problem? And why I’m optimistic.

Trigger warning: Harmful sexual behaviour, misogyny, abuse

A number of things have come to my attention in the last few weeks. I wrote yesterday about what feels like a moral panic emerging around AI. It feels the conversation is particularly acute in relation to harmful sexual behaviour/toxic masculinity and the online risks of the ‘manosphere’ influencers right now. I’m sure this is no thanks to Starmer saying that the Netflix hit show Adolescence should be shown in schools. In addition to this, there is some very interesting analysis that has come out from the FFT Data Lab around girls’ perception of safety in schools and I am interested in what this means and what we might do in response to it. This data starkly indicates the rise in teenage girls feeling unsafe in schools in post-pandemic England.

I want to state, off the bat, that lived experience matters. If girls feel and are saying they are unsafe that is an issue and one for which we have a moral responsibility to explore what the solutions are. It is the same for boys too, (obviously), but this was not the data set being explored by the FFT. Nonetheless tomorrow I’m going to put together my hot take on The Lost Boys report from the centre-right Think Tank ‘The Centre for Social Justice’. So, stay tuned. I do wonder though, whether misogyny in schools is really the new issue that it is being presented to be. Anyone who knows me knows that I bang on about The Middle Way quite a lot, (I’ve just remembered that is how I avoid talking about throwing babies out with bathwater[1]). I think it’s really important that in our concern and enthusiasm to find solutions that we don’t forget what we already know, or present this as a new problem.

So, I’m going to start with the personal. I felt deeply unsafe as a girl at school in the 90s and 00s. The rampant misogyny and fetishisation of girls, (from the cover of The Sun, to the sexist bullying at the back of the class, to the actual teachers who should never have been allowed to work with kids), was the backdrop to my schooling and hugely damaging to me and my peers. It’s just this misogyny just took place IRL, (that’s not online for the boomers amongst us). I certainly felt failed by the sex education that I had at school, which entirely focused on risk and put the emphasis on girls to keep themselves and others safe from a myriad of harms, material and metaphysical, (STIs, unwanted pregnancy, shame, stigma, abandonment). I also felt deeply unsafe as a young teacher and sometimes powerless in the face of the sexism that I felt from both my male colleagues and students and that I recognised my female, (and gender non-conforming and queer), students felt too.

As an older woman with class, education and race privilege on my side I feel far more protected from sexism and secure to speak my truth than ever before. However, my non- normative lifestyle (I’m not married and I don’t have kids amongst other things) and sexuality (biphobia is real) still keep me a little more vulnerable (and perhaps more compassionate and relevant) in a heteronormative world.

This privilege may be clouding my judgement (and please amplify and comment if you think it is) but I actually think there’s a lot for us to celebrate right now. Anyone who’s implemented a new behaviour policy knows that after such policy is launched there’s always an implementation dip. I’m sure there are studies on this, (please point me to them if you know), but in my experience this is due to raised expectations, better reporting and recording and of course a backlash from a minority who really don’t like it. Things have been steadily getting better in respect to our recognition of and response to misogyny and harmful sexual behaviour. #Me Too and Everyone’s Invited and the subsequent OFSTED review of Sexual Abuse in Schools and Colleges have raised the profile of this. When I started my role as MAT Lead for Safeguarding and Inclusion, a priority for me  was generating a shared understanding of the issues in regards to gender inequality and harmful sexual behaviour and ensuring consistency of reporting and recording. I honestly believe we have better data sets in part due to teachers’ understanding, but most probably because of the zeitgeist (that cultural awareness). Young women have an awareness of their sense of safety and they are not afraid to speak out and declare it if they don’t feel safe. Whilst it’s not a good thing that they don’t feel safe, it is great that they are finding their voice and it’s great the adults care and are listening.

We are experiencing a very real backlash of course. The far right is more active than it has ever been in the 21^st century, Trump is back in The White House and hateful online ‘influencers’ seem to be operating rampant and unchecked by the big tech companies (who profit greatly from the addictive nature of extremist content, be that porn or misogynistic rants lest we forget). However, even though the threat is ever evolving, our existing understanding of how young people get recruited into extremism and what makes them resilient in the face of it means that we don’t have to start from scratch.

This systematic review of Sex Education and what we know works is a good place to start. It underpins the current policy approach in the UK and reminds us of the solid evidence base for Comprehensive Sex Education (as opposed to abstinence only) and the need to place this education within a framework of human rights and gender equality. It also points to gaps in the literature, particularly in regards to a discourse on desire and pleasure that the ways in which heteronormativity mediate and construct these and I quote, “To date we still have little idea as to what are the “active ingredients” that can contribute to successfully encouraging men to challenge gender inequalities, male privilege and harmful or restrictive masculinities so as to help improve sexual and reproductive health for all”. That’s tomorrows blog sorted then.

---

[1] That’s a call back and makes me sound far more comedic, spiritual and academic than I actually am.