Chapel Talk – Señor Encinas
I love RHS. I love it so much that I have spent the last 16 years of my life here. Having conducted so many GCSE Spanish speaking exams over the years, I’m always shocked by the number of pupils who tell me they don’t like the school because it is boring when I ask them for their opinion. It could well be that it is the only thing they can say in Spanish correctly, but some of them may actually mean it, who knows?
I’m surprised by that statement because I find this place truly inspirational for the young people who have the privilege to attend it. Every week, in assembly and chapel, we hear about the wonderful things that are taking place all the time, but we also listen to so many great speakers. I have so much admiration for the pupils who stand in front of the whole school and share their thoughts with us.
Last night, as I was deciding between watching this week’s episode of Game of Thrones and preparing this talk, I remembered one particular speech that caused a bit of controversy last term. I remember it well because the reaction from many pupils in the assembly hall was not the reaction I have come to expect from RHS pupils. Olivia Scott was introduced by the Headmaster to speak about feminism. An unpleasant groan followed. It did not come from everyone, but it came from enough people to be clearly heard by many of us.
Don’t worry, it is not my intention now to explain to you what feminism is and why it is so relevant today. The reason is not that I want to avoid another groan; it is simply that you can find far more articulate responses to this incident on the Bubble. Please find a few minutes to read them if you haven’t yet.
I could not let it go completely, however, as that incident highlighted that there is still a lot to do to educate young people, boys and girls, on the issues of feminism and gender equality/inequality.
The other day I read a story about a group of High School girls in Maryland who decided to stand up and demand respect from their male peers. A group of boys created and circulated a list which included the names of 18 girls, ranked and rated on the basis of their looks, from 5.5 to 9.4, with decimal points to the hundredth place. When the girls saw their names next to a score, they felt sad, humiliated, objectified, violated. The boy responsible was found and given a detention. The girls, however, came up with a different approach. The girls and boys in the Year group met for 2 hours and a half. According to the Washington Post report*, ‘Several girls delivered personal and impassioned speeches describing not only their presence on the list, but also their previous experiences with sexual abuse, harassment, and objectification, both inside the school and outside of it.’
The girls knew that society still accepts that kind of behaviour as something inevitable: boys will be boys, as they say. However, they also suspected that boys would think twice if they knew what the consequences of their words and actions could be. It turns out they were right. The boy responsible for the list listened to his classmates for 2 hours and a half; at the end, he stood up and spoke to the group, admitting to making the list and apologising for the hurt it caused. The girls and boys of the High School have organised a series of talks, workshops and even a pop-up museum to fight against the toxic culture, as they call it, that makes their lives difficult. The boy who came up with the list is helping and taking part in those activities.
The pupils who groaned before Olivia’s speech may think that the reaction of these girls was exaggerated. If you are still listening, you may be thinking that boys can also be the victims of cruel behaviour from other girls and other boys. Similarly, girls can be horrible to other girls. You are right. Does that mean that sexist behaviour should go unchallenged?
I discussed the groaning incident with several pupils afterwards. Although all of them were not happy with the groaning, many said to me that they understood why it happened. They thought that there are other problems in our society that are way more important than gender inequality and discrimination of women. They mentioned global warming, racism, poverty, hunger and war. The world is indeed facing many critical issues and young people, that is you, are going to have to fix them because you cannot trust older generations to do it. Does that mean that the ongoing struggle for women’s rights and equality is not worth two minutes of our time on a Monday morning? Does it mean it is not one of those issues?
The boy with the list did not know how those girls felt. He did not think that there was a problem with what he did. He then was forced to listen and he then understood. In the same way, we may not realise in our day-to-day lives in RHS that feminism is still necessary in today’s world. But we are certainly not forced to listen like this boy was. Instead, we are given the wonderful chance to listen and learn about this and so many other issues. Every single one of them is worthy of at least our attention.
Perhaps you think I have wasted my chance to address the whole school with this topic. In any case, I thank you for listening respectfully.
* Samantha Schmidt. ‘Teen boys rated their female classmates based on looks. The girls fought back.’ The Washington Post, 26 March 2019.
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