This Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 10:55 PM, France 2 is airing, in "Infrarouge," "Educate Our Sons" by Marie-Christine Gambart and Émilie Grall. Filmed in France and available on france.tv, the film examines "toxic masculinity" through testimonies and analyses. Additionally, it explores educational approaches to prevent male violence without stigmatizing men, from school to family.
The Schoolyard, Theater of Injunctions
It’s 8 o’clock, the schoolyard opens like a stage. Backpacks bump against knees, yellow vests slide toward the gate. In the middle, a father slowly releases his son’s hand. "Behave yourself," he murmurs, as if entrusting a responsibility beyond the child. A little further, other words fly: "don’t cry," "be a man." They settle in the morning air and create a familiar setting. It is here, in this ordinary drama, that France 2 offers this Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 10:55 PM a documentary. It poses a simple yet vast question: how to educate our sons and prevent toxic masculinity without stigmatizing?
The Film: An Investigation at Men’s Level, Without Tribunal or Scapegoat
Aired in the "Infrarouge" slot and available on france.tv, "Educate Our Sons" is by Marie-Christine Gambart (director and co-writer) and Émilie Grall (co-writer), produced by Les Batelières Productions. The film keeps its distance from witch hunts: it gathers men’s stories, consults researchers and specialists, and observes prevention initiatives. The broadcast promises a perspective that does not "accuse" "men" as a group but seeks causes and remedies.
The announced duration is around 58 minutes, a tight format that matches the pace of the public evening. FranceTVPro‘s communication clarifies the goal: understanding why the vast majority of violence is committed by men and, above all, how education can alter these trajectories.
Behind the Words: What "Toxic Masculinity" and "Hegemony" Cover
The film uses the term "toxic masculinity," not to essentialize, but to denote a set of norms and injunctions. These include the rejection of emotions, domination, and the valorization of risk-taking. They are likely to harm others as well as oneself. The approach is intended to be socio-cultural: we talk about scripts that are learned, internalized, transmittable, and therefore transformable.
In literature, sociologist Raewyn Connell proposes the notion of "hegemonic masculinity": a dominant model that is rarely the majority but prescriptive, organizing the hierarchy of masculinities and asymmetry with the feminine. This tool allows us to situate practices: some boys adhere to it, others conform partially, and others resist. Describing hegemony is to denaturalize the expectations that weigh on bodies and minds.
The Zeitgeist: Countercurrents and Backlash
In the background, the shockwave of the "Gisèle Pélicot affair" has brought sexual violence, the issue of consent, and what is called rape culture back to the forefront. Meanwhile, masculinist discourses are gaining audience, social networks amplify controversies, and schools crystallize contradictory concerns. In this context, "Infrarouge" assumes a civic gesture: to offer a narrative framework where biographies and structures are connected without fueling the fire. The documentary notably includes the voices of Floriane Volt (Women’s Foundation) and Cédric Rostein (podcast Papatriarcat), to think about education, prevention, and fatherhoods, and more egalitarian models of masculinity.
The Disruptive Data: When Numbers Provide Scale
Public statistics paint a clear picture: men represent the predominant share of violence perpetrators. On the road, the indicator is massive: in 2024, 77% of those killed in metropolitan areas are men according to ONISR. Regarding the accountability for fatal accidents, 84% of the presumed responsible are male. These figures come from the Ministry of the Interior. It is important to note: this reminder is not intended to stigmatize but to document socially encouraged behaviors that expose men and their surroundings more.
Another reference, often recalled by Justice: the prison population remains very predominantly male, around 95% men according to long series. Again, the issue is not to deduce essences. It is about acknowledging the gaps to question the learning that feeds them.
Finally, historian Lucile Peytavin suggests an economic order of magnitude of 95 to 100 billion euros per year that aggregates health expenses, justice, compensations, and social costs. It is an estimate from a methodology of adding items: useful for grasping the scale of the phenomenon, to be handled with caution and pedagogy.
A Pedagogical Drama: Life Stories, Expertise, Workshops
The setup takes the form of a journey. Men tell their stories, distance themselves from old attitudes, and share what changing has cost and brought. Specialists describe the mechanisms of virilist injunctions: refusal of tears, valorization of risk, confusion between authority and domination. The production, close to the voices, intertwines intimacies and collective spaces: classroom workshops, paternal discussion groups, prevention modules. We hear concrete actions: naming emotions, defying toy or manual stereotypes, working with peers, involving fathers without blaming them.
Since its inception, "Infrarouge" claims a public service function: opening zones of ambivalence, refusing anathemas, holding together individual responsibility and the weight of social frameworks. Here, the film articulates the critique of virilist norms with an educational horizon. In this horizon, mothers, fathers, teachers, educators, media, and institutions share the burden.
What We Know About Public Policies: Tools, Plans, Useful Numbers
France has equipped itself with concrete tools. The 3919 (Violences Femmes Info) provides listening and guidance 24/7, free and anonymous. The interministerial plan for equality 2023-2027 combines prevention, training, care, and justice. The 2023-2027 plan against violence against children sets six objectives, from protection to data production. Finally, the Téléphone Grave Danger (TGD) is assigned by the courts. It allows victims in grave danger to immediately contact law enforcement via a dedicated button.
These tools do not solve everything, but they mark out a path of public offers: from initial reception to emergency, from prevention to support. The essential thing now is to measure their effects: number of calls to 3919, deployment of the TGD, effective training, and impact indicators. This allows for correcting blind spots such as adolescence, peers, and social platforms.
School, Family, Screens: Where to Act?
The film focuses on places where ordinary gestures are created: bedrooms, canteens, sports fields, news feeds. It shows proven experiences, such as equality education sessions in primary or middle school. Additionally, it proposes empathy workshops to name and regulate emotions at the onset of puberty. Furthermore, programs for fathers shift the paternal figure from mere authority to presence and care. In class, they unpack advertising clichés. At home, they redistribute online tasks. Moreover, they identify masculinist rhetoric and learn to doubt it.
In this area, Cédric Rostein Papatriarcat reminds us that educational coherence matters: setting limits does not mean humiliating, demanding can rhyme with respect, apologizing is exemplary. Floriane Volt, for the Women’s Foundation, emphasizes support pathways. Additionally, she highlights the role of the associative network. Finally, she underscores the need for a responsive justice. The film guides without dictating: it proposes actions, it invites to try.
What the Evening Asks of Us: Four Questions to Continue
What exactly do we mean by "toxic"? First, behaviors established by research—risk-taking while driving, verbal violence, contempt for emotions. Then, internalized norms—"boys don’t cry." Finally, contexts that reward these attitudes among peers or in certain professional cultures. What educational levers work? Those that involve fathers and equip mothers play a crucial role. Moreover, they train teachers and value empathy. Additionally, they evaluate their effects over time.
What public measures produce results? Access to 3919 and the deployment of TGD are important projects. Furthermore, the training of judges, healthcare personnel, and law enforcement is crucial. Additionally, the 2023-2027 plans on equality and child protection are essential. In these areas, the indicator is as important as the announcement. Finally, how to articulate individual responsibilities and social frameworks? By reminding that people are accountable for their actions, but that norms are transmitted and changed collectively.
A Fully Engaged Television: Narrate, Connect, Repair
In the tradition of public service, "Educate Our Sons" does not just denounce: it weaves knowledge into a narrative and opens spaces for practice. In the face of the post-#MeToo backlash, the evening holds a compass: not to yield to caricature, to stick to the facts, to inspire action. Amidst the noise and fury, the camera listens. It records ambiguities, contradictions, new beginnings. It’s little and it’s a lot.
But the methodological caution that remains is that not all figures used have the same nature: ONISR data is official and updated, the economic approximation of 95–100 billion euros is an argued essay, useful for grasping an order of magnitude. Distinguishing them is not opposing them: it is to situate the arguments, avoid misunderstandings.
The credits roll, the schoolyard reopens. A father searches for his son in the crowd, a boy cries without shame, someone offers him a tissue, we breathe. Perhaps this is where education begins: in these small things that undo the fear of being tender. What if this film managed, for an hour, to defuse a fuse? To offer families, classes, institutions, the words and gestures to express strength and vulnerability differently.