We’ve posted a number of posts about the appalling Netflix series Adolescence, in which a 13-year-old boy kills a female classmate. Our thanks to Nigel, our most prolific commenter, for comments he posted in response to one of those posts. It takes up the remainder of this blog piece:
“As usual the whole thing is fact free. So I thought I’d research the statistics. I found that deaths of under 19s by knife or sharp object were 53 in England in 23/24 (of a total homicides 64 in the same age group). In that year two of the victims were females. In fact in some previous years there were no female victims at all. So we can be sure that generally over 98% of the victims of teenage “knife crime” are male. Making such things very rare and not the norm in the issue of teenage knife crime. Clearly not about a pervasive “misogyny” because almost all victims are male (in some years all). It turns out my home Greater Manchester is the most risky for teenagers being killed (even than London which leads the overall league table due to its sheer population size). The figures rise, like almost all crime, in the mid twenties age range. And the number of female victims rises slightly too (from almost zero). There is no “trend” upwards over the years (you can have a 100% increase in female victims to 1 if there were non in the previous year etc). So we have a classic “moral panic” in which a real problem, knife crime amongst teenage boys and young men in gangs in major conurbations, becomes coopted into an agenda about misogyny amongst schoolboys.
As for the idea that boys are being turned into “misogynists” I have seen no statistical evidence at all of this. Yet even this article and people commenting appear to believe this is true, based on some anecdotes and impressions. Meanwhile I’m sure Andrew Tate is happy he has such excellent publicity, as anything that is disapproved of by adults is alluring to teenagers. It interesting that though there are vague references to the “manosphere” in fact Tate’s is the only “brand” that ever gets mentioned! However I do think stepping up the “finger wagging” and doubling down on the anti-male propaganda will have the effect of propelling more young men to that “manosphere” and indeed any other escape from such stifling orthodoxy. Much is made of the supposed “shift to the right” of young men. Blamed on the all powerful Tate in reality probably simply a reflection of youthful rebellion and the observation that discrimination for females is discrimination against males and this unfairness against men is now done by the establishment.”
—————————-
If you’d like email notifications of our new blog pieces, please enter your email address in the box near the top of the right-hand column and click ‘Subscribe’.
We shall shortly be posting this piece on our X channel.
Our YouTube channel is here.
Justice for Men & Boys 