Rather, what is identified as bullying (particularly in our site of inquiry, schools) tends to be that which transgresses normative gendered behaviour as this ‘intersects’ with other identity markers like class and race […] In addition, we trace how being labelled as bullies and/or victims at school can position boys and girls in various ways as ‘gender deviants’. What we mean by the notion of gender deviant is that young people transgress expected and normative ideals of femininity and masculinity. (Ringrose, Reynolds 2010)
At first, I had a lot of trouble understanding what was meant by these sentences. My initial (mis)understanding was heavily based on a gendered understanding of bullying – when girls bully they do it like this and when boys bully, they do it like that. Because we seem to have clearly defined genders for bullying, the idea of bullying transgressing normative gender behavior seemed strange. What’s actually going on is that “normative gendered” behavior is defined NOT to include such behaviors as bullying. For example, the Heroic Masculine archetype, which is discussed in the article, does not include harming weaker males in a way that is deemed “unmerited” by the other students. To do so would not only constitute bullying behavior for the do-er, but also cause them to be a violator of this Heroic Masculine gender norm – a gender deviant. In the same ways, girls who engage in bulling behavior are deemed as violators of the idealized feminine archetype, who is “friends with everyone”, and therefore gender deviants.
It’s very interesting that gender roles are used to police/obscure bullying behavior among students. What can we do to change that?
Very interesting point that you brought up that kind of (sort of) ties into what I wrote about- which makes reference to the social constructs we knowingly or unknowingly submit to. Now, what can we do about it? I’m not sure there’s a perfect answer of course, but we have a lot of potential to advocate and motivate our students to not be submissive and passive to these normative ideals of masculinity and femininity. I think the first thing we can do right is recognizing that this exists and promote tolerance. Also, let’s take the example you mentioned about this Heroic Masculine gender norm and talk about it with them. “What is a hero? What does it mean to be one? So if X does X thing to X, is that heroic?” Of course, this is all theoretical and it all depends on the situation we may face in our classroom, the age group and their maturity levels.
I think we just have to step away from promoting this kind of thinking and it doesn’t always have to be a direct confrontation either.