Masculinity is not to blame for domestic violence

Article here. Excerpt:

'We need to be careful about the messages we send to young men about masculinity.

This week, it was revealed that students in Victoria, from primary school onwards, will be taught about “hegemonic masculinity”.

Don’t know what that is? Well, that state’s new respectful relationships curriculum defines it as the dominant form of masculinity in society that “requires boys and men to be heterosexual, tough, athletic and emotionless, and encourages the control and dominance of men over women”.

In other words, the uncommunicative Aussie bloke who sits in front of the footy on a Saturday arvo and only acknowledges his wife when he’s asking her to grab him another beer from the fridge, is the pinnacle of hegemonic masculinity.

These young Victorian school kids will also be introduced to terms such as heteronormativity, or the normalisation of heterosexual relationships in society at the expense of other relationships, and cisgender — the name given to someone whose gender identity aligns with their biological sex, unlike those who identify as transgender.

I’ll make a disclaimer: I was an enthusiastic student of gender studies at university. I lapped up feminist, post-structuralist, and Marxist gender theory because it was radical and fascinating, and it suddenly opened up almost limitless possibilities when it came to discussing portrayals of gender in literature, history, and popular culture.

But I wasn’t a Year 4 boy at a state school coming to terms with my own identity.'