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Bullying and the Arts

Dateline: 11th July, 2004

Wayne Sleep's comments that school bullies are torturing boys who show an interest in dance come as absolutely no surprise to me. As regular BTG visitors may know, I spent thirty years as a schoolteacher, teaching Drama and have seen many a promising young actor put off taking part in drama out of school because of the attitudes and activities of a significant number of young yobs, for there is no other word for them.

Some examples:

One boy was called a "puff" and even worse throughout his school career. He went on to have some success as a pop singer and, when he returned to the school some years later, was fawned over by just the sort of kid who would have attacked him a few years before.

One of the yob brotherhood, talking to me after a lesson one day, looked at a photo on the wall of another boy playing the lead in a school production and said, "He's got guts, that lad. I'd like to do that, but you can't, can you?"

Another former student, now a professional actor, told me recently that he had wanted to join the school drama group for years but hadn't dared to until he reached Year 11 (aged 16), when felt confident enough in himself to stand up to the bullies. "I missed out on so much," he said.

Yet another actor, from another school, said he had had a similar experience but hadn't had the courage (or the belief in himself) to join in until after he had left school.

And this was drama, not dance. Dance is very definitely viewed as being a "girl's thing" and any lad interested is automatically branded a "puff".

I wondered if it was a local, North East thing, but on a recent visit to London, in which I took another look at the eternally fascinating Theatre Museum, I peered through the window to see the children's theatre club which meets on a Saturday morning. Not a boy in sight.

What a culture! Britain leads the world in the quality of its theatre, but that's in spite of the attitude of a large proportion of its population. From Cool Britannia (pretentious, yes, but at least supportive of the arts), we have moved on to a culture of laddishness (more accurately described as yobbishness), which centres on a frightening aggression. It's an attitude fostered by the tabloid press, which reserves its outraged morality for anyone who dares to be in any way different.

O tempora! O mores!

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©Peter Lathan 2004