Sexualization Of Girls In Schools

One day when I was a junior in high school, our entire grade was pulled out of class for an assembly. Except there were two assemblies. A speaker came to talk to only the girls in our grade (I have forgotten what topic it was on), and so for whatever reason all of the boys were put in the gym to listen to our administrators speak. What I do remember was what our principal and vice principal said. They told us “what it takes to be a man,” and “what it takes to be a father.” Skeptical of every word they spoke and what it said about gender roles, I remember cringing for most of the morning. Shouldn’t all the qualities of a man and a father be the same as those of a woman and a mother? And why did the school feel that whatever the females in our grade were hearing wasn’t important for the males to learn about and that they had to separate us?

Boxes that prevent people from being who they truly are or strive to be. Boxes that contribute to a culture where women are sexualized and men are called problematic terms like “gay” and “pussy” when they don’t fit the masculine stereotype, where violence and rape are normalized because “boys will be boys.” No one at my school taught me about these problems. Few students would feel comfortable talking about them. However, here at Rice, there are avenues for dialogue on sexuality and issues in our culture, among other important topics in our modern world. Intrigued, I took the CTIS course because it is one of those avenues, and I wanted to learn more about things I had only ever been able to look up myself. Thus I would be better able to stand up, speak out, and