Boys

Radicalised Boys – A Threat or Opportunity?

gettyimages It’s concerning to see boys at war with themselves and the world. But what if radicalisation held some powerful insights for us? Radicalisation isn’t new. Attractive to boys adrift from society, it has surfaced in gangs, neo Nazi groups, football hooliganism and the like. But never before has radicalisation gone global, or been so extreme. Traditionally it was boys from fractured or marginalised communities, lacking good male role models and surrounded by violent narratives, who were [...]

Teaching our boys to respect women

One in three women over the age of 15 have experienced physical violence. One in five have experienced sexual violence. One in four have been emotionally abused by a partner. Approximately 70 women are killed each year by a current or former partner. Men are almost always the perpetrators. One in four children in [...]

By |2020-03-09T10:02:31+11:00November 1st, 2015|Categories: Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , , |3 Comments

‘They Control Me’: A 13-year-old Boy Laments Video Games

William Lindesay is trying to stop his over-reliance on video games. When I come home completely exhausted from school, I just want to get away from it all. I go to my room and turn on my console. But when I turn it off, it doesn't take long for me to feel drawn back [...]

The Mask You Live In: Challenging Harmful Cultural Messages about Masculinity

One of the most moving experiences I have had as a speaker addressing young people around the country took place about a year ago when a Year 11 student in a WA secondary school stood to his feet during the discussion time following my talk on how our culture shaped boys views of themselves in negative ways. Visibly distressed, this young man recounted that his brother [...]

By |2015-07-19T23:10:18+10:00July 19th, 2015|Categories: Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Lessons from Knox

We were sitting on the grass at the side of Knox Grammar School's main oval in 1987; it must have been in my final few weeks of school. The memory of an awkward moment saying uncomplimentary things about Mr Fotis the religion teacher, while he was sitting behind me popped back into my mind when I saw [...]

By |2015-03-10T13:27:50+11:00March 9th, 2015|Categories: Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , , |5 Comments

Top four challenges of raising boys

Dealing with emotions One of the biggest challenges in raising boys is balancing out the social expectations and stereotypes. Dr Bronwyn Harman, psychology lecturer and families expert at Edith Cowan University, acknowledges that there is still a belief that boys will behave in one way and girls in another. "This is socially and culturally reinforced, [...]

Police investigate students for upskirting staff

Police are investigating five year 9 boys from a prestigious Catholic boys' college on Sydney's northern beaches who shared sexual images of two female teachers on Facebook. The boys, from St Augustine's College at Brookvale, used iPhones to photograph and video up the skirts of the two teachers and then shared the images on a [...]

How to stop our boys from becoming bashers

In one of the most important ever studies by a psychologist in the 20th century, James Prescott researched dozens of cultures and found that the degree of violence was directly linked to the amount of affection shown to children. Having our skin needs met in childhood and adolescence means we don’t have the urge to [...]

Sex, Drugs, The Media & Our Kids

In the weeks since that Miley Cyrus performance at the VMAs, more fuel has been poured onto the fiery debate around the overtly sexual messages our kids are receiving thanks to the media.   Add this to the heady mix of alcohol, violence and drug use with the apparent rise of such related anti-social behaviour [...]

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