Sexual Bullying and positive gender relationships workshops.

Sexual bullying is any behaviour, which degrades someone, singles someone out by the use of sexual language, gestures, violence and victimisation related to appearance. This ranges from groping, name-calling, sexual assaults, and comments on female breast/male genital size.   Sexual bullying is also pressure to act promiscuously and to act inappropriately at school.  These behaviours happen inside and outside school, in social groups and via the internet or mobile phones.

TeenBoundariesUK 2009

Our workshops can be delivered in off-time table days, over PSHE/Citizenship lessons in lunchtimes and afterschool.

Learning outcomes:

• Raise awareness of the dangers of unhealthy and exploitative relationships.
• Advise teens of the dangers of being involved in inappropriate or coercive relationships and sexual activity.
• Increase understanding of a person’s rights to be protected from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuses.
• Increase confidence to report exploitation and abuse
• Develop understanding of how unwanted pressure to have sex can lead to more dangerous and exploitative situations
• Increase awareness of risks in immediate physical and virtual online environments and explore consequences of risk-taking
• Make teens aware of the risks of sexual offences, unwanted pregnancies, STI’s and how they can avoid them
• Increase their confidence and skills to negotiate pressures and enjoy safe and healthy relationships
• Prepare teens for the realistic expectations of sexual relationships
• Raise their awareness of local support agencies and how to get help
• Domestic violence and how this is unacceptable to both females and males.
• Gender inequality and how this can leads to objectification, body image and self-esteem problem

A survey by the UK National Union of Teachers suggests that sexual bullying is most often carried out by boys against girls, although girls are increasingly harassing girls and boys in a sexual manner. ]Research  shows that sexual bullying starts at primary school level and usually takes the form of verbal insults by boys directed at girls and women through demeaning sexually abusive and aggressive language. A NUT study  shows that these verbal insults are generally centred around girls’ sexual status including terms such as ‘bitch’, ‘slag’, ‘tart’ and ‘slut’. Other researchers cite similar evidence. Alarmingly, these incidents are typically dismissed as playful behaviour or justified through humour.The research also shows that boys are also subjected to a range of sexual bullying by other boys and by girls although this is said to be less obvious. The most prevalent issue is sexual verbal abuse and being called obscene names. The names that cause most offence to boys are homophobic terms and those that are associated with the ‘absence’ of high status masculinity.

• 45% of teenage girls have had their bottom or breasts groped against their will
• 38% of young people have received unwanted sexual images
• 37% hear ‘slag’ used often or all the time
•  65% of gay or bisexual young people experience homophobic bullying in school
•  48% of teachers have witnessed sexist language from one peer to another
•  If gay pupils report bullying to a teacher, 62% of the time nothing is done about it

NSPCC (2006), Neill (2006); Katz & McManus (2008); Stonewall (2007)