Tackling toxic masculinity at Cheadle Hulme School
by Educate Magazine November 15, 2023 · All News / Primary School News / Secondary School News
Bestselling author Caitlin Moran offered parents a number of ideas to support men and promote positive conversations with teenage boys during a recent talk at a Greater Manchester school.
Caitlin, who is a feminist, journalist and broadcaster, recently spoke at Cheadle Hulme School on a range of subjects to teachers, pupils and parents, including the hot topic of modern masculinity and the challenges boys and men face in 2023.
In her latest book What About Men, Moran tackles the issues around controversial influencers such as Andrew Tate, and proposed that society needed to find new role models for the young men and boys of today, highlighting a certain local Mancunian as one example.
Another tip Moran offered was approaching teenage boys to have serious discussions, which she suggested are much more difficult to have with boys than girls.
“Young men can find direct questions hard to cope with. Something where you don’t have direct eye contact can help. For example when you’re in the car and they are in the back seat, or, if you are doing something together; going for a walk, fishing, mending something.
“It’s about engineering those scenarios, which is hard for busy parents. Especially with teenager’s sleeping patterns [she said jokingly].”
Her third tip was put back on parents, and fathers in particular. Moran highlighted how, in her research for What About Men, she found that men talk a lot less about their feelings to friends than women do. She went on to say how this can negatively affect young boys.
“I realised that 90% of what you are teaching them [your children] comes from them just watching how you behave and go about your life. This is specifically the case with men and boys.
“One in five men over the age of 50 said that they have no close personal friends. Men don’t seem to do the organised friendship stuff that women do.
“I think that a lot of the problems in boys not being able to talk about their feelings with their family and friends comes from not seeing their dads doing that. If they’re not seeing their dad returning from seeing their friends and discussing what they had said, they’re less likely to approach it themselves.”
The evening was hosted by headteacher Neil Smith. He said: “On behalf of CHS, I’d like to thank Caitlin for sharing her experiences, and insight with us on what was a very thought-provoking, intriguing and entertaining evening.
“Parents have a very difficult challenge because the pressures that are prevalent today simply weren’t apparent when we were teenagers. I particularly liked Caitlin’s keep-it-simple, honest approach to starting conversations.
“We hope that every pupil, parent and teacher in attendance were able to take inspiration from the evening and into their futures.”
