Beyond Netflix: the rise of misogynistic violence in school

Flavia and Chelea joined us from Getaway Girls, an organisation dedicated to empowering girls and young women in Leeds, to shed light on these concerning trends.

From her experience co-producing Getaway Girls’ Thriving in Education – A Charter for Girls and Young Women, Chelea told us, “Many young women spoke about the impact of misogyny, sexism, and how harmful attitudes can affect their confidence and sense of belonging within education. They want schools to be places where these behaviours are challenged and not ignored”.

Flavia explained that current responses are “a stick-on plaster, thinking in the short-term with little bits of work with girls or boys in schools without looking at whole systems change.” While local services are at the forefront of tackling misogyny and instilling positive masculinity, she stressed that “systems change requires national level policy and strategy”.

Highlighting the importance of engagement with girls to create meaningful solutions, Chelea told us:

“Too often, decisions about education are made for young women rather than with them... If we want schools where girls and young women can truly thrive, we must continue to involve them in shaping their spaces.”

In addition to the Thriving in Education Charter, Getaway Girls have also co-produced an essential resource on online objectification.

Ebinehita from Milk Honey Bees, a creative and expressive safe space for Black girls to flourish and put H.E.R (Healing, Empowerment and Resilience) first, shared her expertise on the role that racism plays in shaping Black girls’ experiences of sexualisation and adultification.

Ebinehita explained that “Black girls are seen as older, treated as less innocent and given more responsibilities. In the schooling system, Black girls are labelled as loud, aggressive instead of expressive, their emotions are punished instead of supported.” This adultification intersects directly with their experiences of sexualisation: “With school uniform, their bodies may just be a bit more developed, so they're more likely to get targeted by school policies.” Ebinehita added that this targeting can also be seen through the exclusionary punishments Black girls receive in response to their hairstyles.

As an example of the dehumanisation and adultification that Black girls experience, Ebinehita recounted the story of Child Q - a young Black girl from Hackney who was wrongly accused of carrying illegal drugs and subsequently subjected to a strip-search by metropolitan police officers whilst in school. Both the school and the police were complicit in racialised systemic abuse, which enabled adult professionals to strip-search a school aged girl without an appropriate adult present. The investigation that followed found that racism was likely to have been an ‘influencing factor’ in the officers’ actions and that if the girl had not been Black, then her experiences are unlikely to have been the same.10

In order to effectively challenge adultification, Ebinehita stressed that: '“Adultification needs to be thought about as a systemic issue, not an individual issue”.

Positive change requires adults to take accountability and create space for Black girls to be children:

"Black girls want adults to take accountability for their experiences... because for so long, [Black girls] have had to be accountable. These girls are children and deserve to be treated as children - we need to really protect the right of Black girls to be soft”.