We enjoyed a wonderful final Da Vinci session last week debunking stereotypes, deconstructing masculinities and exploring the plurality of being a man.  The Da Vinci Programme at NHEHS encourages girls to take a cross-curricular approach to learning. Focusing on current events and learning new skills through debate and collaboration, the sessions require no prior knowledge of a particular subject, but an open and inquiring mind is a must-have!  

By Alice Jenkins, Year 10 Journalist Leader

Last Wednesday, Year 10 Da Vinci Clubbers enjoyed a session on masculinity led by Mr Piesse and Ms Eastwood. We also had the pleasure of hearing several guest speakers from the Barbican, who came to speak about the Barbican’s new exhibition on ‘Masculinities.’ It was a fascinating session, encompassing everything from the differences between sex and gender, to importance of understanding masculinity as women, to the ways that masculinity is presented in art.

One particularly interesting area that we looked at is the way that language reinforces negative stereotypes around masculinity. For example, take the following words:

• Man spread
• Manhandle
• Man up
• Man to man
• Man flu
• Boys will be boys

As you can see, they present a very narrow view, and can negatively impact the discussion around what it means to be a man.

One other area that we looked at was the ‘Masculinities’ exhibition by the Barbican. If you are interested, have a look! It is really fascinating and looks at so many different forms of masculinity and breaks the traditional stereotypes of how men ‘should’ behave. After the session, we went away and curated our own ‘Masculinities’ exhibitions. Why not give it a try?

Thank you so much to Mr Piesse, Ms Eastwood, and the Barbican team for providing us with such a fascinating session! Thank you to Josie Dick, Chris Bayley, Matthew Taylor, Yasmin Herrings & Kerry Hunt from the Barbican for enriching the conversation with a real-world dimension and for being guest judges in our ‘curate-your-own- exhibition competition.

As a final note, Alice, Alabama and Abha are taking the project further in collaboration with Harrow School in the Autumn, looking at exploring the construction of masculinity in an all boys setting. Watch this space!