The tenacious nature of misogyny is like that old arcade game Whac-A-Mole.

Strike one rodential manifestation down, as I have observed before, soon enough it is followed by the materialisation of another from elsewhere.

WARNING: Offensive content.

Toxic masculinity's latest appearance comes in the form of the stench of elite private school boys from St Kevin's College in Melbourne chanting a sexist song on a packed tram.

It included the lines:

I wish that all the ladies Were holes in the road And if I were a dump truck I'd fill them with my load

Ah, yes, it's every female commuter's dream. Sharing a crowded carriage with a mob of bawling dudebros who see us as strips of uneven bitumen.

The only thing in the song's favour is its positioning of its singers as dump trucks because: a) they're big, loud, and stupid; and b) presumably they could be crushed into very small cubes at a sufficiently resourced scrapyard.

Not that "crushing" and "smashing" are really the best verbs to describe one's plan for the patriarchy if one's platform is anti-violence.

As such I've been trying to think of a pacifist alternative to chant back:

I wish some private school bros Were holes in the road And if I were a dump truck I'd fill them with my reasoned pleas to consider the impact of their steroidal hypermasculinity, grossly bloated senses of entitlement, and tuneless tram chants on other earth-dwellers, because at the moment they really do seem like prime contenders for quarantine on an island reserved for radicalised incels, Harvey Weinstein, and those dudes from UNSW who sang a similar ditty back in 2016

Nah. It doesn't really have the same ring to it.

How did we get here?

When incidents such as this occur (and lately it feels like every nanosecond or so), the commentariat tend to ponder two key questions: why does this abhorrent behaviour continue despite decades of education and attempts at cultural change? And what do we need to do to set things right?

The reason this type of problematic behaviour remains is really very simple: despite the pules of protest you'll hear from the Manosphere, we live in a patriarchal society which discriminates against and disadvantages girls and women on almost every significant measure.

And — entirely unsurprisingly — the powers that be (most of whom are he's) aren't particularly keen to relinquish their privileges.

Further, in the West, this inequitable system is propped up not just by overt acts of oppression but by insidious phenomenon such as unconscious bias, casual sexism, and even academia's tendency to vastly inflate the claims of gender difference that are so often used to justify the unjust status quo.

This creates a disconnect and undermines any messages of respect or "sensitisation" programs boys like those from St Kevin's may be taught formally.

Given the steep hurdles facing those of us battling for gender equity, perhaps the most apt question, therefore, is not "why are grossly sexist phenomena such as #MeToo, misogynist massacres, and Donald Trump still happening?" but "how the hell have we managed to make any progress at all?"

So, what's the solution?

It's tempting to give up in either despair, bewilderment, or chronic fatigue (I often wish island quarantine was available for those of us entertaining the radical notion that the contents of people's characters are way more important than their genital model, gender identity, sexual orientation, skin colour, religious affiliation, Instagram-ability etc).

But, in the interests of keeping up the good fight, here are a few non-island-based suggestions just to get the ball rolling.

1. Issue a secular fatwa against the comment 'boys will be boys'

Firstly, this depressingly common remark flies in the face of clear evidence showing that adults behave very differently towards infants they think are girls and those they think are boys, providing strong support for the argument that many of the supposedly inherent differences between the sexes are actually ones we create.

Also, it normalises and exculpates male harassment and violence. Enough already.

2. Call out bad behaviour

If you are a man, please consider calling out (or calling in) mates and colleagues who engage in grossly un-woke speech or behaviour towards women.

Hint: If you are unsure whether your friend is crossing the line, take careful note of the song he's chanting on the way home from work/school/parliament.

If it contains references to ejaculating on or near women (even women cleverly metaphorised as roadworks), it's probably a good idea to tell him "hush now".

3. Address the insidious sexism in our public and private education systems

My daughter went to a relatively progressive and otherwise excellent inner-city public primary school, yet the gendered nature of many of its activities and much of the correspondence home left me flabbergasted (though I do like to imagine the non-existent "Mr Jane" who kept being invited to blokey Father's Day barbecues would much have preferred one of the perfumed soaps or hand lotions children were encouraged to purchase for their female caregivers on Mother's Day.)

If you are a man, please consider calling out mates who engage in grossly un-woke behaviour towards women. ( Unsplash: Matheus Ferrero )

We need herd immunity to sexism

Oh, and on the subject of schoolyard cultures, don't even get me started on the fact that in Year Five, one of my daughter's dear friends was bailed up by a pack of male peers (also in Year Five) who told her they were going to "post her nudes on the internet".

This kid obviously didn't have "nudes" floating around and didn't even fully understand what her bullies were even talking about (quite possibly they didn't either).

But she knew enough to recognise the threat and the fact that it involved gender-related shaming and she was beyond distressed. For a very long time.

It's true that this particularly heart-breaking example wasn't just the fault of the school.

It probably had as much to do with those bullies' home lives and exposure to various media as well as the unfortunate dynamics of noxious peer group and pack mentality.

To develop herd immunity to sexism and misogyny we all need to do our part, no matter how small.

In the meantime, perhaps someone could volunteer to teach those boys from St Kevin's some commuting tunes that are more appropriate for their behavioural ages. "The Wheels on the Bus", perhaps.

Dr Emma A Jane is a Sydney academic. She will be arguing for an end to gender in a free public talk as part of UNSW's Unthinkable series on November 7.