You can't just assume : (de)constructing masculinities in sexual violence prevention peer education programs

Abstract

"Sexual violence has been identified as a persistent and pervasive problem on college campuses. College students have been drawing attention to sexual violence since the 1970s, but a new wave of activism in the last decade has prompted both new national legislation and structural responses within individual universities. This has pushed colleges to the cutting edge of research and practice relating to sexual violence prevention. Researchers and scholars agree that effectively addressing and reducing rates of sexual violence involves addressing social and cultural norms. Masculinity specifically has been empirically linked to sexual violence; individuals who endorse and enact traditional or hegemonic masculinity are more likely to condone or perpetrate sexual violence. Given this association, it is imperative that sexual violence prevention education work to dismantle norms of hegemonic masculinity. However, research has not sufficiently explored how norms of masculinity are being addressed in sexual violence prevention education. This study explores how masculinity is conceptualized, deconstructed, and reproduced in sexual violence prevention education. Specifically, a qualitative case study situated within feminist poststructuralism was used to examine (1) how do sexual violence prevention peer educators conceptualize masculinities in their work, and (2) how are masculinities both deconstructed and reproduced in sexual violence prevention peer education? The study focused on a group of peer educators who facilitate consent education sessions required for all first-year students at a large, public university in the Midwest. The findings describe how three central conceptions of masculinity emerged in the group and in the sexual violence prevention sessions: masculinity as sexual prowess, masculinity as taking up space, and masculinity as gendered dualisms. Each conception is explored through the way that students understood masculinity in their work, and through the ways that it was deconstructed and reproduced in their educational sessions. This highlights the need for further research on how social norms relating to sexual violence are being challenged through prevention education, and suggests that all prevention educators need to carefully consider how the nuances of their facilitations affect the delivery of program content."<br/ >Open access