“These boys don’t even know what feminism is. They don't know what it means,” says Luke*. The 26-year-old from Hertfordshire plays a lot of sport and often hears what we might call «dressing room talk». Although his own views are progressive, he is often shocked by the way his young teammates talk.
“They talk about using prostitutes and cheating on their girlfriends, as if they have every right to do both, but would be furious if their girlfriends behaved this way,” he says. “Some of the things I hear are outrageous.”
The millennial men (those born between 1981 and 1996) he met through sports tended to have a better understanding of what was acceptable and what was sexist. , he noticed. «I've heard older men say to younger men, 'It's crazy you have these views.'»
Did he ever challenge them himself? «It's like talking to a brick wall.»
Oscar*, 25, from south London, says his own friends make sexist jokes after growing up watching comedy shows such as Intermittents on Channel 4. «Within a few years the humor they grew up with became completely unacceptable,» he says.
These young people and their peers belong to Generation Z, a cohort born roughly between 1997 and 2012. This is a demographic group associated with socially progressive positions: they are, we are often told, much more relaxed about gender and sexuality than their older generations; they are naturally comfortable discussing their mental health in ways that other generations have had to learn. And they are very online. True digital natives.
But there is a surprising trend among some male members of this group who seem to be at odds with their female peers when it comes to views on feminism. This week, research from the Institute of Politics at King's College London and the Global Women's Leadership Institute, in partnership with Ipsos UK, revealed a gender split among young people on how useful the term «toxic masculinity» is; Is it more difficult to be a man today than a woman; whether feminism has brought more benefit or harm to society; and the endorsement of influencer Andrew Tate.
Less than half (43 percent) of young people believe feminism has done more good than harm to society, according to the study. One in six men aged 16 to 29 believe feminism has done more harm than good, compared with one in 11 women.
Young people were also the most likely group to approve of a controversial influencer in social networks of Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist, and his statements.
Andrew Tate was banned from Facebook and Instagram for “breaking the rules”, but his misogynistic videos are still posted on TikTok. Photo: YouTube
This pattern is being repeated outside the UK, with ideological differences opening up between young men and women in many other countries. In the US, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male peers, according to Gallup. This follows decades in which the sexes were much closer in political and social views. The gap between conservative young men and progressive young women is similar in Germany.
So, what's going on? Why are young people increasingly turning away from feminism and progressive ideas and moving more to the right? In her 1991 book Backlash: The Undeclared War on American Women, feminist writer Susan Faludi argued that the backlash against women's rights is a «recurring phenomenon» that «returns every time women begin to make some progress toward equality.» which would seem inevitable at the beginning of frost.” to the brief flowering of feminism.»
The progress followed by the current backlash has been significant. When the MeToo movement went viral in 2017, women everywhere suddenly began telling their stories, sharing experiences of everything from sexist treatment to rape. #NotAllMen launched a counter-hashtag to protest the tidal wave of shared anger. This spoke to the discomfort around this new story that at least some men felt.
“Part of the issue is that there are more narratives and public discussions about feminism and women's rights [about them],” says Jemima Olchawski, executive director of the Fawcett Society. «Young women are more comfortable using the language of feminism and toxic masculinity, and the rise of the MeToo movement is part of that and has given women the opportunity to name names and talk about things,» she says.
In 2020, the UK's Everyone's Invited movement saw the debate extend downwards to what happens in our schools. And what was happening, girls and young women reported, was an endemic “rape culture” in which nude photos spread from phone to phone like wildfire, girls were routinely groped at parties, and sexual abuse was commonplace.
“Porn was the wallpaper that beautified our lives, normalized it,” Soma Sara, the movement’s founder, told The Telegraph in 2022.
If rape culture flourished online, so did its exposure, and the subsequent backlash against exposure. p>
“There is a polarization and hardening of attitudes,” Olczawski says. “Where there is progress, there is backlash, and now we are seeing a backlash.”
Since 2020, the pandemic and associated restrictions have kept young people confined to their bedrooms. Their time spent online has increased dramatically. For some, this meant more opportunities to influence the so-called “manosphere,” an umbrella term for misogynistic communities online.
“In many cases [the internet] has been a positive thing for them and a lifeline for connection and staying in touch,” says Jessica Ringrose, professor of sociology of gender and education at University College London, who conducts research in schools. «But we're seeing a huge rise in these [misogynistic] influencers, and they're normalizing certain types of behavior that were previously considered a little more marginal.»
Influential people like Tate can justify their opinions. content, for example, in “rational” ideas about the need to earn money and have employment opportunities. But they are also pushing an anti-feminist agenda on young men, Ringrose suggests.
«Young people are so exposed to all these forms of misinformation that they can't figure out what's true,» she says. “These platforms that they go to just feed them content, and the algorithm creates a huge echo chamber. It gives you something you said you like, and it reinforces this polarization.”
Ringrose argues that young people being deprived of proper sex education during the pandemic hasn't helped either. “Whenever young people are isolated and spend huge amounts of time on online platforms, issues and problems are likely to arise. In schools after the pandemic, teachers said some boys had trouble switching scripts.”
All this took place against a certain political backdrop: Donald Trump was in the White House; Boris Johnson on Downing Street. Neither leader was particularly famous for their feminism.
“Existing power structures allow extreme hateful views to be perpetuated,” Ringrose says. «It's not surprising that young people share some of these views.»
Young people are now entering the workforce at a time of economic uncertainty, potentially making them more susceptible to messages that not only tell them that life is unfair to them, but also point fingers at who is at fault. «The economic context is brutal,» says Ringrose.
For some, gender rights have become a zero-sum game. The logic seems to be how women's successes cannot come at the expense of men.
Part of the answer lies in better education, Olchavsky said. “[Children] learn about [gender inequality] as things that happened in the past,” she says. «For example, 'We didn't have the vote, then we had the suffragettes, but now we do,' as if everyone is equal now.»
Tech companies that profit from disseminating controversial content should also held more accountable, she argues.
Boys, for their part, need to be made to feel part of the debate and to listen to them, says Ringrose. “We need ways to engage boys in conversation. Don’t reject their experience, their views.”
*Names have been changed
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