Denigrated

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, denigrate is defined as to deny the importance or validity. In the reading “Teaching Men to Be Emotionally  Honest” by Andrew Reiner, the word appears in the sixth paragraph as stated, “Boys’ underperformance in school has more to do with society’s norms about masculinity than with anatomy, hormones or brain structure. In fact, boys involved in extracurricular cultural activities such as music, art, drama and foreign languages report higher levels of school engagement and get better grades than other boys. But these cultural activities are often denigrated as un-masculine by preadolescent and adolescent boys.” Now knowing what the word means, the author put this study by sociologists Thomas A. DiPrete and Claudia Buchmann, to convey the idea that young boys struggle to show their emotions and don’t get much involved extracurricular activities. And those that do get involved in extracurricular activities, tend to do better in school.