Inside the rise of misogyny in Victorian classrooms

The “disturbing” ranking of female classmates at Yarra Valley Grammar is far from an isolated incident, as Victoria grapples with a misogyny crisis in schools and violence against women soars.

The “deplorable” and “disgraceful” behaviour of male students at an elite Melbourne school over the weekend has sent shockwaves through the community.

But it’s far from an isolated incident, with experts warning misogynistic behaviour at such a young age can be linked to gender-based violence later in life.

The incident has sparked calls to stamp out the “vile” attitudes in schools.

What did the Yarra Valley Grammar students do?

Four male Year 11 students were suspended from Yarra Valley Grammar in Ringwood after creating a spreadsheet with photos of female students ranking them according to misogynist categories.

The categories included terms such as “wifeys, cuties, mid, object, get out” and “unrapeable”.

Principal Mark Merry labelled the post, made on the app Discord, as “disgraceful”.

Principal Mark Merry labelled the post, made on the app Discord, as “disgraceful”. Picture: Josie Hayden

He told the Herald Sun police could be involved to determine if the term “unrapeable” constituted a threat.

“We need to get to the bottom of this and work out who is responsible and hold them accountable. The boys who did it thought it would stay among themselves but how often do we need to tell young people that’s not how it works?” Dr Merry said.

About 30 Year 11 girls from the school are receiving counselling after the incident.

Dr Merry said the school will hold a meeting on Monday morning with all Year 11s where “kids will be addressed directly”.

Staff learned of the material last Wednesday and moved to investigate the situation which resulted in the four students being suspended on Friday.

The parents of the female students involved were notified and the principal also confirmed the school has contacted Victoria Police for advice.

Should the students be expelled?

Feminist researcher and lecturer in humanities and social sciences at Monash University Dr Stephanie Wescott said the action the school had taken was “appropriate for now”.

Dr Wescott said the principal referring the matter to police sent a “really strong message” to both the alleged perpetrators and victims.

Dr Wescott said the action the school had taken was “appropriate for now”.

“Not necessarily because the principal believes that there are going to be charges but because it sends a really strong message to both the students who are responsible, but also other boys and young men who are following the story,” she said.

“It also sends a message to girls too, that their safety at school is being taken seriously. When schools don’t respond strongly on these matters, it sends a message that there is scope for boys to behave this way with impunity.”

Experts agreed they did not know if expulsion was necessary, given the male students would then just move onto another school, and possibly continue to exhibit harmful behaviours.

Former school principal and now senior lecturer in educational leadership at Australian Catholic University, Dr Paul Kidson, said it was “simplistic” to think that if Dr Murray expelled the students, it would “fix up these young men”.

Professor of education at Deakin University Chris Hickey said a combination of punishment and education would see the most benefit to students.

“You’ve got two levers in your hand – you’ve got to educate and help people understand what’s not acceptable, and then you have the regulatory stick – which needs to be used appropriately,” he said.

“But it’s always better to focus on education, to help boys like this understand the implications of their actions, which are actually quite violent.”

What charges could the students face?

In Victoria it is an offence to threaten to commit a sexual offence.

The maximum penalty for such an offence is five years’ imprisonment.

Like all sexual offences, it’s considered a serious offence.

What about the victims?

Dr Wescott said the female students at the school would be feeling “degraded” and “unsafe”.

“They would not know who they could trust in their schools, because these are their peers, who they are meant to be educated alongside,” she said.

“But instead they are objectifying them and degrading them in this way.”

Dr Wescott said the female students at the school would be feeling “degraded” and “unsafe”.

She said girls who fall victim to these harmful behaviours from male students could become “silent in the classroom”.

“From our research it’s evident that girls’ behaviour can change in response to boys’ brazen misogyny,” she said.

“So the school will need to take really careful steps to reassure the students that their safety is a priority.

“The government needs to step in here and take this as a national issue and talk about what they’re going to do for girls’ safety in schools, because this is not an isolated incident.”

Body Safety Australia chief executive Deanne Carson said Yarra Valley Grammar should consult the female students who have been targeted to ask how they want the behaviour stopped.

Prof Hickey said the boys in this situation would also need support as they begin to “realise the gravity of what they’ve done”.

What’s driving this harmful behaviour?

Dr Wescott said extreme misogynistic influencers, such as Andrew Tate, were driving harmful attitudes and behaviours towards women.

“We know that boys are viewing this content, we know that their algorithms are serving it up to them,” she said.

“Boys’ behaviour has changed since ‘manfluencers’ have become prolific on various social media platforms. Categorising women like this, objectifying them, degrading them, is directly connected to what kind of content is available online.”

She said misogyny is a “nationwide issue” across Australian schools.

“I’ve spoken to teachers all across Australia, who are reporting issues with boys behaviour, sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment.”

Dr Wescott said extreme misogynists, such as Andrew Tate, were driving harmful attitudes and behaviours towards women.

Dr Kidson said young people have an in-built desire to “fit in” and “impress”.

“A lot of the way that this takes place, is by replication and copying other people that they believe are worthy of being copied,” he said.

“Some of those alleged perpetrators will be reprehensible in their moral view about other human beings. Some of them will have repeated their actions, simply because they want to be seen to fit in.”

He said while technology compounded the problem, it wasn’t the problem itself.

“The problem itself is this notion of how we treat each other with disrespect. And that flows out of the fact that some don’t accord others with the inherent dignity of humanity,” he said.

Tomorrow Man chief executive Tom Harkin, who has been running workshops at Yarra Valley Grammar over the past two years on respectful relationships, said the best long-term impact happens when issues are tackled by not just schools, but parents, sports clubs, student peers and the government.

“What this shocking incident shows is that getting young men to think and behave differently isn’t something that happens overnight or in isolation,” he said.

“We can work with students in the classroom, but other external factors have a huge impact on their perspectives and behaviours, which can lead to these types of events.”

What can be done to address gender-based violence?

Dr Wescott said what Victoria is currently doing now to address gender-based violence is “absolutely not enough”.

“Schools will often use programs or workshops to promote respectful relationships, and that’s wonderful, but they’re short term,” she said.

Dr Wescott said what Victoria is currently doing now to address gender-based violence is “absolutely not enough”.

“They’re not addressing this as a long term, culturally embedded problem. That kind of response needs to be a whole school approach.

“That needs to be an every single day, every single classroom, every single school approach, rather than just sort of day programs or speeches, that come and go.”

She said harmful attitudes towards women needed to be stamped early, before it turned into violence towards women.

“The first thing that needs to be established is that this is not isolated from the broader conversation that we’re having nationally,” she said.

“These actions by these boys do need serious consequences so that the boys learn this lesson. Because if they never learned this lesson at school, then they eventually go on to learn it somewhere else, whether that’s in the workplace, or university, or in future relationships.

“We can’t take that risk, we can’t let it go any further. That’s why school is such an important space for intervention, and for preventing further violence against women.”

Other shocking incidents in Victorian schools

In February the Herald Sun revealed more than 100 explicit private videos and photos of underage Victorian students were shared on several Instagram pages.

Some of the victims, who had footage shared of them without their permission, were believed to be as young as 14, with sources saying they were previously pressured to send explicit photos to their ex-partners.

A number of students targeted were seen wearing school uniforms – some belonging to Melbourne’s most elite colleges and well-known government schools.

Back in 2021, a petition started by Chanel Contos calling for better sex and consent education in schools also received thousands of shocking anonymous testimonials from private and public school girls.