How to be a Boy is an arts-based program for children designed around film screenings to facilitate conversations and build an understanding of what masculinity means. Using curated films from different countries as resources, each session will encourage conversations around a particular experience of masculinity and how it intersects with other areas of social experience and behavior. The program will be conducted with a selected group of 30 children (all genders) who will be taken through all the sessions, to build an incremental understanding of the diverse meanings and experiences of being a boy.
For children ages 10-15
The programme will be conducted with a selected group of 30 children (all genders) who will be taken through all the sessions, to build an incremental understanding of the diverse meanings and experiences of being a boy.
Some of the proposed ideas for the sessions are:
Physical representation - to focus on the body, clothing, stereotypes and conformity
Inner worlds & emotional expressions - to talk about feelings and fears, and how to express them
Class and gender – to explore the pressures and performance of gender across socio-economic contexts
Sexuality – to understand the self and others along with ideas of consent
Violence – to unpack bullying, gangs, ideas of security, protection and belonging
The films will be viewed in advance, and the discussion and activity sessions will be held online. Each session will begin with a conversation on the film and the sharing of responses. This will lead to an interactive discussion on the particular idea of the session, culminating in a creative activity. Activities will emphasise self-expression by the participating children and include a variety of writing and visual art exercises, from writing a letter to a boy in the future (this could be the self or an other) to creating a portrait through collage. The activities will be conducted in a hybrid mode, with offline time given to create the work. Break-out rooms will also be used as needed. The activities will be designed to allow children of all genders to engage from their perspective so that the programme creates room for multiple voices and a collective construction of knowledge and understanding.
The online sessions will be recorded, and the children’s work documented to allow for future dissemination possibilities either as video or in the form of an exhibition.
