Research co-led by Professor Nicola Shaughnessy from Kent’s School of Arts and Architecture has formed the basis of a new play touring English secondary schools, which highlights the dangers of online radicalisation and misogyny.
Man Up is a 70-minute play about being a boy and becoming a man for young people of all genders in year 9 and above by playwright Nina Lemon (Masking, Hidden, Losing It, The Forest in Between) produced by award winning youth arts charity Peer Productions.
In light of growing evidence showing a notable increase in misogynistic attitudes among young people, Peer Productions developed this new play aimed at empowering and uplifting young men, as well as their communities and people of all genders who support them.
Man Up was created with, and is performed by, a cast of young actors aged 18-24 who are yet to train at Drama School. Peer Productions deliberately works with emerging young actors from a range of backgrounds so that teenage audience members feel that the people they see on stage are closer to their own age and experiences – their peers – and can therefore more easily relate to the play.
The play was developed using findings from a research collaboration between Professor Nicola Shaughnessy (University of Kent) and Dr Kaitlyn Regehr (University College London), as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project ‘Understanding online Misogyny: Vulnerability, Violence and In(ter)vention’. The project team’s report ‘Safer Scrolling’ in partnership with the Association of School and College Leaders, highlights how the affordances of social media platforms actively amplify and direct harmful content to young people.
The play has so far had a profound effect on teenagers who have seen the play in schools so far. While 100% of teachers felt confident that, after watching the play, their students have a better understanding of the negative effects of misogynistic behaviours, in particular how this impacts the safety of women and girls.
Professor Nicola Shaughnessy said: ‘Our research offers insights into how and why social media impacts on young people, particularly vulnerable groups and the importance of digital literacy as well as the potential of peer education to build resilience. Our work also offers a novel creative research method using archetypes generated from field work to discover more about the processing of algorithms in real world contexts.’
More detail about Man Up can be found on Peer Productions’ website: https://www.peerproductions.co.uk/plays/man-up
All images courtesy of Peer productions.
