Anonymous<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all heard the expression \u201cget back into the kitchen.\u201d I bet \u201cmake me a sandwich\u201d sounds pretty familiar too. We all know these comments are sexist to women.\u00a0 But what we don\u2019t realize is that sexism exists towards guys as well. Guys are expected not to be able to cook well, not to be able to handle taking care of kids, not to be as sensitive as girls. \u201cThere is a lot of sexism toward guys. Girls often make jokes about guys only being good for certain things. But no one really notices that, yet everybody notices if a guy is sexist,\u201d says Jenny Lye, a grade 11 student.<\/p>\n
Megan Abbey, another student, points out that \u201cthere are a ton of organizations out there geared towards women\u2019s rights, but none or very few that deal with the sexism that men face.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not only a general statement \u2013 there\u2019s sexism towards guys right here at NT.\u00a0 Take a look at leadership positions in the NT community. As Senior Vice President of the NT Music Council, a head of Outers Club, and a leader on NT\u2019s Wellness Committee, Rachel Loo plays a prominent role in North Toronto\u2019s community. She says that on leadership retreat there were definitely more girls than guys involved in leadership roles at NT.\u00a0 It seems that guys are less inclined to take on a responsibility in the community, letting the girls do it instead. Is it because they\u2019re afraid of the girly stereotype they\u2019ll receive, or are they just not interested?<\/p>\n
Sebastian Winemaker, one of the creators of the North Toronto\u2019s Gentlemen\u2019s Society, a club that tries to promote male leadership and conduct throughout the NT community, says that \u201cstatistically, girls are more prominent in the leadership roles of North Toronto.\u201d For example, at NT, the position of a secretary on student council is almost always a girl. \u201cNo guy wants to be a \u2018secretary\u2019,\u201d says grade 11 boy Baiden McCallum. \u201cThey should give it a more macho name. Like chief bro organization consultant. Or swag captain. Or executive flow director.\u201d Marco Chan, another grade 11 student at North Toronto, says that a lot of guys do associate the position of secretary with a girl, and they don\u2019t run for it because they don\u2019t want to be stereotyped as \u201cgirly.\u201d It\u2019s true that the position of secretary always seems to appeal more to girls than to guys, maybe because girls tend to have better organizational skills. But that doesn\u2019t mean that boys should be afraid of running for the position simply because of the stereotypes.<\/p>\n
It also goes beyond the positions on student council. The heads of Fashion Show are female. The PAL Heads are female. The majority of the students involved in leadership positions on the North Toronto Wellness committee are female. The two head editors of Graffiti this year are female.\u00a0 Out of the nine members of music council, only two are males.<\/p>\n
So come on NT.\u00a0 Drop the sexism towards men. Encourage your guy friends to run for secretary. Encourage them to get more involved in leadership in our community. And don\u2019t make sexist comments towards guys, because, hey, you don\u2019t like it when they make sexists jokes about women, right? North Toronto is already on the road to change, with the Gentleman\u2019s Society encouraging leadership among NT males. But it\u2019s up to us to keep the change coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anonymous We\u2019ve all heard the expression \u201cget back into the kitchen.\u201d I bet \u201cmake me a sandwich\u201d sounds pretty familiar too. We all know these comments are sexist to women.\u00a0 But what we don\u2019t realize is that sexism exists towards … Continue reading