Nearly one third of English secondary schools and academies are teaching about toxic masculinity in mandatory Relationships or Health Education (RSHE) courses, according to a new report from the Family Education Trust.

Toxic masculinity has multiple contrasting definitions, and its use in educational settings is not uniform. But in some English schools, the most inflammatory read of the concept— that masculinity or men themselves are innately bad — is being taught to students.

For example, 4% of schools teach that young men as a category are problematic, and 5% teach that they possess traits that are inherently toxic and negative to society, the report found. Only 22% of schools teaching this content report it to parents, and at least 18% are working with outside providers in developing toxic masculinity-related curriculum.

The Trust sent 300 Freedom of Information requests to schools over the summer, and only 65% responded.

RSHE became mandatory in 2020, and has since become a lightning rod for controversy over gender and sexuality issues. Schools are required to keep parents informed of the courses’ content, but became reticent to do so when questions arose about gender identity-related lessons in 2023. Eventually, the Government released guidance requiring schools to disclose the curriculum’s contents to parents, alongside rules making clear that students could not change genders legally until turning 18, and barring the teaching of “the broader concept of gender identity.”

Meanwhile, educational curriculum addressing toxic masculinity has largely flown under the radar. The report claimed that toxic masculinity’s rapid rise over the past decade has had deleterious effects, including the rise of extremist figures such as Andrew Tate in the absence of positive, mainstream views on masculine identity. “If masculinity is toxic, all boys and men must be too,” the report read. “Arguably it is not a coincidence that extremist figures such as Andrew Tate have become more popular, with a minority of boys and young men turning to dark corners of the internet in search of an identity which has been deemed as toxic from inception elsewhere.”

As toxic masculinity has become a common subject in English schools, boys’ academic achievement has remained subpar compared to girls, with preferential treatment from teachers potentially playing a factor, according to an APPG report on boys’ educational underachievement in 2023. Nonetheless, attitudes within the educational system blame boys for their underperformance. The report found “a widely held explanation for Boys’ Educational Underachievement was one which blamed the ‘negative stereotypes of masculinity’ in the boys and that there was a need to improve their attitude.”

“Our society is experiencing a series of serious problems in which men are profoundly disproportionately represented,” Conservative MP Nick Fletcher wrote in the foreword, mentioning violence and incarceration. “Demonising all men, however, telling boys at school that they are born bad, and continually pursuing a ‘Diversity, Equality and Inclusion’ (DEI) agenda whilst ignoring or minimising the welfare of ‘white working-class boys’, is not going to help.”

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is UnHerd’s US correspondent.

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