Project
Boys Will Be Boys
Boys will be Boys – or will they? A set of illustrated interviews that model a manifestation of masculinity beyond the “toxic” stereotype.
We developed Boys will be Boys in response to teachers in our North East partner schools expressing concern about boys’ behaviour in school, describing boys “ruling the corridors” and treating female teachers with less respect than their male counterparts.
We knew we had valuable artistic content to critique the prevailing male stereotypes, but had learnt from our Let’s Talk about Sex project the value of “pro-social modelling.”
The interviews are interspersed with artwork exploring the messages we get from the world around us about how to be a man.
Project Outcomes
Our story contributors felt strongly that the social pressures around men were unhelpful and needed to be challenged, and were pleased to be able to contribute their story to a project that gave space for their voice on the subject to be heard.
When we drew on this content in CPD, 100% of educators said that they would use the content with boys in their groups and they were more likely to challenge unhealthy attitudes.
Young men shared stories of:
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overcoming homophobic bullying
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finding their feet with the college course of their choice
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overcoming parental pressure to take certain career choices
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finding a range of different ways to manage their wellbeing in the face of difficult emotion, which they were keen to share with other men
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learning that it is okay to move away from toxic friendship groups who do not support your wellbeing and finding friends with whom you can properly be you
Bringing the project to life
Gathering the stories
Associate artist Rupert Philbrick gathered stories from young men at Bishop Auckland College who were keen to share the ways in which they had broken out of traditional male gender stereotypes. The interviews were illustrated by artist Megan Watson to provide an alternative model of how to be a man.
Creating and testing the zine
We gathered these positive stories together into a zine alongside masculinity-themed artwork from Men’s Voices and Stepping Out of the Box, testing the content with Year 9 boys from St John’s Catholic School to help shape the final resource – Lads, lads, lads.
Sharing the learning
As well as a youth engagement session, we built an educator training around the zine, empowering teachers and youth workers from King James I Academy, AYCC, North East Youth Alliance, Groundwork, Durham Sixth Form Centre and a host of North Tyneside schools to consider how they could use our collected words and pictures to engage boys in questioning the harmful aspects of masculine stereotypes.
Book our CPD to explore how you could use creative tools and methods to unpick what is or isn’t “toxic” about masculinity.
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Impact
Related materials
Lads, lads, lads zine
Our zine encourages teen boys to question the degree to which masculinity stereotypes are healthy / harmful. This could be used in school or youth work contexts to encourage healthy as opposed to “toxic” masculinity.
Find out more