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1. Masculinity norms and the anti-academic identity
This is arguably the deepest structural cause. Educators and social scientists have argued that there is a direct link between masculine identity formation and educational underperformance, academic success is coded as feminine, and boys who display “school smarts” risk being ridiculed as effeminate by peers and even adults.
Research by Parry found that boys in Jamaican secondary schools hold a rigid, macho sense of masculinity that expresses itself in contempt for teachers, who are largely female, and an anti-academic sex/gender identity that is incompatible with diligent study or good grades.