The Women & Equalities Committee of the House of Commons consists of 10 women and a gay black Labour MP, David Burton-Sampson, who is married to Mark.
Our thanks to K for providing us with the link (video, 2:17:00) to yesterday’s meeting of the committee with Jack Thorne, Creator, Writer and Executive Producer of Adolescence, and Emily Feller, Executive Producer of Adolescence. The witnesses (who we can confidently assume agree that there is a major problem with misogyny among young men and boys) are Matt Pinkett, English teacher, Misogyny and Gender Equity Specialist, Engendering Change; Dr Daniel Guinness, Co-founder and Managing Director, Beyond Equality; Darren Northcott, National Official for Education, NASUWT.
What dark times we live in…
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Justice for Men & Boys 
Beyond disgusting!
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Well to be honest I didn’t far into this pantomime. What did start forming in my mind was Caroline Lamb’s quote about Lord Byron, “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know”. Byron being Europe’s first rock star celebrity with hardly a town in Greece or Italy without at least one street or building named for him. I cannot imagine anything other than the complete reverse of the intended outcome if teachers are going to be employed to inform teenagers that Andrew Tate is indeed mad. bad and dangerous to know (as are the “others like him” who sadly for their publicity don’t get a name check). Fortunately the leaders of the moral panic don’t consider that maybe the ramping up of anti male propaganda in schools in recent years has generated a skeptical response from the ones it labels as “toxic”, I doubt anybody takes kindly to being for blamed everything when in fact they’ve done nothing. Nor it seems the remarkable idea of being “counter culture” so attractive to the young, meaning of course anything that parents and teachers in particular tell them is mad, bad and dangerous to know. I really think doubling down on pompous lectures about how bad boys are and how satanic the Andrew Tate is, will simply make them all the more likely to rebel and seek out Mr. Tate’s greatest hits.
Feminism is mainstream orthodoxy now, blithering on about 32 “genders” , “what is a woman”, “all sex is rape”, toilets, quotas, brain fog, period poverty, the countryside is misogynistic and so on is no longer confined to the better Universities and all the politicians who did PPE at Oxbridge. It has entered the local Comprehensive, the Council offices down the road, sports drawing huge crowds. And comes out looking bossy, contradictory, insulting and oh so precious.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly Movember have done a survey of the use of “manosphere” “influencers” on young men (16-25). Given the rarity of any surveys of actual young men, rather than TV dramas I read the full report. In contradiction to the narrative the proportion “engaged” increases with age and measures of wealth, an important finding glossed over. Also interestingly both the engaged and “unengaged” generally have traditional views of gender roles (of concern to the Movember surveyers given its roots in the Gay community ). Also interestingly the main findings are that the engaged find the influencers entertaining and useful and promote self improvement, emotional self control, increased self worth. Again given the link with age it is perhaps not surprisng that young men in their early and mid twenties are seeking to become more established.
“Our research has shown that men and masculinity influencers can reinforce rigid and limiting views about gender roles and masculinity, but that there are also positive outcomes for young men from engaging in this content. These positive outcomes are likely related to the more motivating messages that are part of a broader mix of themes discussed by influencers, and the range of influencers who are part of this ecosystem.”
Again unsurprisingly one of the areas of interest is dating and forming relationships. And here the “engaged” have a more skeptical view of the dating scene and process, but the unengaged are almost as skeptical. This is presented as being negative about women but of course another interpretation is it simply reflects the young men’s experiences, particularly given the “engaged” are in the older cohorts and can be assumed to have more experience of dating and relationships than the 16/17 year olds.
“When it came to young men’s views of gender roles and beliefs about women and romantic relationships, we found that regularly engaging with this content was associated with more negative and limiting attitudes towards women, their roles in relationships, and more frustrations with dating. These findings align with narratives promoted in the content depicting gender-equality as a zero-sum game disadvantaging men. However, it’s important to note many young men still held limiting beliefs about women even if they weren’t actively engaging with men and masculinity content.”
So to sum up. Like surveys of young women, generally young men think in terms of traditional gender roles, we know this about young women because each time the Social Attitudes surveys find young women aspire to find a man and form a family the Fawcett Society says young women need to be educated out of these aspirations. Young men find dating difficult and frustrating and as they grow up a bit seek advice and information from “engaging” with influencers. This results in a lot of self help, to get fit, get a good job, be stoical and resilient. Oddly enough precisely the qualities young women say they want in a husband/partner. And this advice is more sought as the young men grow up a bit and probably get a bit more serious about finding a partner.
No massive number of teens worshipping Andrew Tate, no hatred of women, just disappointment and caution and confusion (should you pay for the date? etc.) And the obvious observation that if you discriminate in favour of one group the other group you discriminate against will see it as a “zero sum” policy. Oh and no Incel 16 year olds plotting a stabbing.
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Remember when you were thirteen, and your mum forbade you to do something…?
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Haha indeed! Thanks.
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I rather like this line following the CH 4 documentary https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/forget-adolescence-keir-starmer-must-watch-groomed-a-national-scandal/ As it points out this is not fiction and one case but the nation’s most horrific child protection disaster. Even the Guardian professed to be shocked by the revelations. No cry of Islamophobia or its white men’s fault this time. Anybody know any journalists who might ask when the PM will view the programme and get it shown in all schools?
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