The Talking Masculinities Project made a stop in Dunedin and informed principals and teachers about the messages their pupils are receiving on social media that result in boys having aggressive and misogynistic attitudes.
University of Auckland researcher Dr Kris Taylor said a lot of teachers and parents did not have an understanding about not only who the influencers were but also how they worked and what their appeal was.
"It’s about giving them some tools to recognise when boys are saying some things that they may not have understood before."
The workshop described a "violence pyramid" that illustrated a escalation of violence that some boys could succumb to after being influenced by the online messaging.
The bottom tier of the pyramid included attitudes and beliefs such as racism, sexism and homophobia and the top tier was homicide and suicide.
Other issues manifested in boys from online messaging included eating disorders, body image issues and conspiracy fixation.
He said among the influencers the pupils were watching was former kick boxer turned social media influencer Andrew Tate, who is facing human trafficking charges in Romania.
The workshop also explained to the schools’ communities concepts such as the red pill and blue pill derived from the film The Matrix.
Tate’s misogynistic version of the red pill explains that men live in a reality where feminism rules the world and the blue pill is an escape from it.
Dr Taylor said the second part of the project would produce a resource teachers could use to intervene when boys were showing red flags.
He said Tate was on his way out in terms of popularity, but he was being replaced by YouTubers such as Sneako and Brian Atlas.
"That’s why we’re trying not to focus exclusively on Andrew Tate and talk more about the philosophy and mechanism of why it’s so appealing, so we take this and transfer those lessons to whoever comes next", Dr Taylor said.
Otago Boys’ High School rector Richard Hall said he would be working with the Talking Masculinities team, which also included University of Dalhousie researcher Luc Cousineau and Groundswell Project UK researcher Meadhbh Park, to talk with pupils about what and who they have been influenced by.
He said the talks would include what messages they are receiving and how the school could sustain positive references around being a responsible sexual citizen.
"I want to have some professional evidence gathering that we can then use, with the other schools, to create a bespoke programme to teach our boys to be responsible sexual citizens, to be confident to critically reflect and challenge what they are seeing and to, importantly, not feel alone or isolated.
"What I am expecting to find is that I know even less than I thought I did about who or what are the influences for our boys."
The project was funded by the Department of Internal Affairs Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund.
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