"Yeah...macrob being an all girls school, some moron teacher probably thought it'd be a good idea to start this group to 'reinforce women's rights' and the whole ideology"

"It's just stating how feminists should shut up as they have no reason or right to speak out, the feminist movement happened once, it does not need to happen again as they're not treated badly - this "anti-feminism" is a rebuttal towards unwarranted feminism, it is definitely not chauvanism (sic)"

"Not that many people actually cared"

A Culture of Indeference
It is staggering to think how anyone especially those of supposed high intellect such as students of Melbourne High could reach a state of mind that allows them to say something such as the statements above, what do people like this do with their time?

Is the student culture at MHS somewhat responsible for the creation of this group and formulation of views that were put forth? The answer is yes. If you allow me to coin a term I believe there is a ‘Culture of Indeference’ among the students at MHS. The mainstream culture at MHS is chauvinistic, homophobic and at the best of times border-line racist. This culture seems to be designed to produce not inquiring minds but boys with Messiah complexes. At the crux of the problem is a flippant attitude which exists in this culture in regards to thinking seriously about any issue not involved in schoolwork, picking up or drinking. This culture with its insular nature creates many areas of ambiguity and distorts students perceptions of what behaviour and opinions are moral right and social acceptable.

I was mentioning Messiah complexes earlier; one of the most obvious effects of culture at MHS is that it breeds a certain unique sense of superiority among some students. Troublingly this sense of superiority is encouraged along with a misplaced sense of competitiveness by the school’s principal, Jeremy Ludowyke. To illustrate this point I recall the numerous times that Jeremy Ludowyke called on the class of 2006 to outperform their opposite numbers at MacRob in the VCE. What is wrong with asking the students to ensure that they as individuals put in all the effort they can to ensure that they achieve their potential? Nothing, instead he encouraged us to fiercely compete without clearly dictating the reasoning behind wanting to beat those who we were facing in competition. Because of the ambiguity on his behalf this call to out achieve MacRob filters down into the MHS collective conscious as a misogynistic ‘call to arms’. This causes some students to view the competition as an opportunity to ‘beat’ MacRob both reaffirming a feeling of superiority and to confirming (in their minds) the power of masculinity.

As you have probably gathered this culture goes much further then sexism and a lack of awareness when it comes to the plight of women; racism and racial stereotyping are also issues which need to be addressed. MHS is a very strange microcosm when it comes to ‘race’ relations, as most of you know there are essentially three distinct racial groups at MHS the ‘azns’, the ‘skips’ and the ‘curries’. Because of the existence of these three distinct groups stereotyping of members of these groups is rife, the ‘azns’ are all gangsters who play ‘WoW’ and eat noddles, the ‘curries’ are all curry munchers who want nothing more then to get into Medicine at Melbourne University and the skips are all ‘dumb asses’ who are inherently worse then their peers at schoolwork. There is an understanding among most MHS students that these racial jibes are empty rhetoric essentially designed to poke fun. The problem is of course that this microcosm is not isolated from the outside world and that by making some forms of racism seem acceptable it has the potential to horribly skew students’ moral compasses, causing them to form more entrench and radical racist views. It can be illuminating when the MHS brand of racism collides with the outside world. I remember last year when we were hosting boys from Adelaide High. During the theatresports competition they made repeated complaints about the racist nature of some of the jokes being told by the MHS team and they were also shocked by the attitudes held by general student populace in regards to this issue. The Adelaide students were so full of indignation that they make sure for the next two hours we discussed the issue of racism at MHS.

The voice of the student the student magazine ‘the Sentinel’ helps to encourage this culture of indeference by functioning as an organ that merely disgorges questionable black humour and commentary. This is not the fault of any specific editor or team as it has taken this shape and role for at least the past decade. I know from my experience as Art Editor in the last team it is very hard to try to change the nature of the ‘Sentinel’ beast, something that I will admit to attempting both through article submissions and issue proposals. I remember trying to push the idea of a social awareness/social justice issue an idea that in discussion was flatly reject by the Editor, the Chief of Staff and the Teacher in Charge as a dead end idea that did not fit the Sentinel mould.

So, what can be done? Well for one prominent feminists and/or representatives of Amnesty International, UNHRC and other organisations could be invited to speak at assembly and to the Political Interest Group. Secondly ‘SHAM’ (former members included) should be brought into the process through the running of some form of lecture/discussion or workshop at MHS on feminist theory, the history of women’s rights and the plight of women today. Of course participation in this event would be compulsory for all MHS students that were members of the ‘anti-feminist club’.

Fin.

As a sidenote: Matt (Tito) Do you think it was really wise to try to repudiate yourself of blame?

It would have been easier, more beneficial and less painful for all involved if you accepted that yes you were somewhat in the wrong and then you could have gone from there treating it as a learning experience rather then deciding to descend into further mudslinging.

A few things to remember:

Look at things and discover them for what they are; don’t write things off as what you would prefer them to be. Be analytical, not prejudicial

Compromising your moral stance in order to spring to the defence of your friends is not too cool

I think it is a rather striking reflection of the MHS student body that in 2006 only six students wanted to do year 12 philosophy, this is out of a pool of nearly 700 eligible students

In future read articles like this http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/christine_toomey/article1081032.ece before deciding to form ‘anti-feminist clubs’