A growing body of scholarly work investigates how men and boys can be effectively addressed in sexual violence policy. Indeed, scholarship aligns in showing that the overwhelming majority of sexual violence is committed by men. Moreover, toxic masculinity, characterized by traits promoting dominance, has been identified as a cause of sexual violence and harassment.

Sexual violence and harassment awareness training programs can be effective in countering peer approval of sexual violence and rape myth acceptance. However, negative responses to such programs are common, as they may be perceived as “male bashing” or provoke anger. Understanding what causes these negative responses is important to develop strategies that more successfully foster responsibility in men for preventing sexual violence.

In a recent article published in Men and Masculinities, I explore this issue through a qualitative approach to policy reception research, drawing from ethnographic observations of training sessions by France’s foremost anti-street harassment organization, Stop harcèlement de rue, as well as interviews with boys that attended the sessions. The educators were of different genders, predominantly white, in their twenties or thirties, and in possession of a graduate diploma. Specifically, I sought to understand why responses to street harassment awareness training were more antagonistic among racialized students in schools in underprivileged areas around Paris than among mostly white boys in schools in more affluent areas.

Should we conclude from this that greater support for feminist values made white boys in schools in affluent areas positively disposed to the activists’ message, while opposition to gender equality in the French banlieues led pupils in schools there to respond negatively? This conclusion would resonate with how the media and politicians commonly present gender-based violence as primarily a problem among racialized or immigrant men.

My findings challenge this view. Boys’ negative or positive reception was not only a reflection of their opposition or adherence to feminist values. Instead, my paper illustrates how such audiences might fail to see street harassment as ‘their’ problem (therefore deflecting responsibility for sexual violence). How exactly boys deflected responsibility for street harassment was informed by their intersectional identities (in terms of race and class), and this in turn influenced how they responded to the program. The comparison between two different school contexts shows what deflection may look like.

Racialized boys in schools in underprivileged areas often felt stigmatized and attacked by (the mostly white) trainers. One boy, identifying as Algerian-French, said: “There are many prejudices, like we jeunes de banlieue are going to rape all women. You’re saying we’re like dominants, but you don’t even know us.” Another boy, identifying as Moroccan-French, deflected responsibility for street harassment to racist stereotypes in society. According to him, this informs how women perceive interactions with him: “It’s just because I’m Moroccan that she reacts badly.”

During sessions in affluent area schools, many boys expressed their support for the trainers’ message. However, this stance was often accompanied by a belief that harassment is committed by racialized men elsewhere. For instance, one boy associated street harassment with a neighborhood with high poverty levels: “So, when you go and take line 4 to go to Montmartre, for instance, you make sure you’re not alone, or you don’t go out at Chateau Rouge, where it’s probably pretty tough?” Another boy stated that it is “awful that this happens to girls. I’m glad that at least here in our school we’re all pretty aware of these things.”

This comparison shows that men and boys are more likely to deflect responsibility for sexual violence when a training program insufficiently relates the message to their personal experiences. Moreover, these findings call into question whether raising awareness on street harassment alone is the most effective strategy to do that. Because street harassment is popularly associated with racialized men and underprivileged areas, a session that concentrated on this singular form of gender-based violence was likely to make boys who are white and live in more affluent areas feel that it does not concern them. In my interviews, girls talked about experiences with sexual harassment in their school, but because the sessions focused on street harassment these were not discussed. Conversely, the popular association of street harassment with men and boys of color made it likely that the latter would feel attacked by a session that primarily focused on this problem. Developing intervention strategies that speak to each target group’s intersecting identities and experiences will be more successful in fostering a sense among all men that they can play a role in preventing sexual violence.