By Michael Nacey ’19
Mr. Cussen, religious studies teacher at Bellarmine, former coordinator of the Justice Summit, and head of Bellarmine’s immersion program, will lead a Breakout Session entitled “What is Toxic Masculinity” during all four Breakout Session blocs this week. Before leading this Breakout Session, Mr. Cussen led a session during the Justice Summit on Masculinity in the 2014-2015 school year. The “What is Toxic Masculinity” session will discuss, in Mr. Cussen’s words, “how media, film, television, and advertising influence a negative stereotype of what it is to be a man,” and inform the concept of toxic masculinity. Behind each example of these negative stereotypes will be the messages that masculinity and toxic masculinity are different, and “it’s important to define for [high schoolers] what it means to be a good man.”