The actions of Yarra Valley Grammar schoolboys is all part of the violence which harms women

The Yarra Valley Grammar schoolboys who ranked their female classmates as “unrapeable” may not realise it, but their act is on the same continuum of violence against women that has murder and rape at one end and cruel social media posts at the other.

The actions of Yarra Valley Grammar boys – who created a spreadsheet rating 30 of their peers on a scale from “unrapeable” at one end to “cutie” at the other – are disturbing and depressing.

I’m sure the boys themselves don’t see it this way, but their act is on the same continuum of violence against women that has murder and rape at one end and cruel social media posts at the other.

Such violence stems from a lack of respect for women; an unwillingness or inability to see them as equals or human beings.

These boys dehumanised and debased their female classmates by assessing them solely on their attractiveness.

Just in case anyone missed the point of what they were doing, they even included photos of the girls so their sexual worth could be further discussed and assessed.

Four male students have been suspended from Yarra Valley Grammar School.

I’m told by the Yarra Valley Grammar headmaster Mark Merry that the boys didn’t plan for the spreadsheet, created on the Discord app, to get out. But it did get out because they couldn’t resist and showed it to their classmates.

Yes, of course they did.

In my mind the fact that this was supposedly a private act makes no difference. Young people need to realise that nothing is ever private on social media. Even four vile misogynists is four too many.

The school is now trying to work out what to do with all the boys who saw the spreadsheet but said nothing.

Attention is rightly turning in society more generally to these “bystanders” who allow abuse to continue.

Sexual assault campaigner Chanel Contos. Picture: Martin Ollman

The weariness expressed by Dr Merry, who said the boys have been doing respectful relationships training for years now, is felt by many of us.

How could these schoolboys have missed the current discussion about violence against women that’s swirling around in society right now as a result of the death of at least 27 women by men this year alone?

That’s an increase of 30 per cent compared to last year.

Do they dismiss it as a case of more women ranting? Do they think the debates about respect for women don’t apply to them – privileged private school boys?

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Back in 2021, a petition started by Chanel Contos calling for better sex and consent education in schools received thousands of shocking anonymous testimonials from many private and a few public school girls.

Many detailed horrifying incidents of harassment, rape and abuse at the hands of their male classmates.

Today our thoughts are with the girls at Yarra Valley Grammar singled out by their class mates in this vile way. You did not deserve to be treated like this.

Let’s hope this leads to more being done to get the message through to males of all ages that violence in any form is unacceptable and must be stamped out.