Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (Resumed)

Professor James O'Higgins Norman:

The Senator is asking how we legislate to deal with toxic masculinity. I do not have an answer to that but I certainly know that education works. When we teach young people about diversity and inclusion, and give them other opportunities to think about what it means to be a man or a woman, research shows that it makes a difference.

My PhD was in the area of homophobic bullying and we tested educational initiatives to reduce homophobic bullying among males. When they were implemented, they worked. From an educational point of view, there are many examples of how to proceed on this. Legally, how to enforce that or criminalise people for being a bad type of guy, and so on, is a question for someone else.

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