It has long been the case that American women are generally more liberal than American men. But among young Americans, this gender gap has widened into an enormous rift: According to recent Gallup polling, there is a 30-point differencebetween the number of women age 18–30 who self-identify as liberal and the number of men in that demographic who do the same.
That’s largely because young women have gotten much more liberal, while young men have stayed ideologically more consistent—or, according to other analyses, become more conservative and anti-feminist. (Of course, not every person identifies as a man or woman. But gender roles still play a big part in shaping our lives and politics, and in the context of this column, I am focusing mostly on the vast majority of Americans who identify as one or the other.) It’s not happening just here either; the political divide between the sexes is a trend that researchers are observing in some other countries too.
Good point, however there is more to this situation than the raw numbers. Women are a minority and simply face a different kind of oppression and violence. I mean think about women’s health outcomes, anti-abortion legislation, etc. Plus, you can break those statistics down further.
By the time they’re 17, 1/3 of women have experienced a rape or attempted rape, whereas the same is true for 1/4 of men.1/3rd of women rape victims experience it before age 17, whereas the same is true of 1/4 of male rape victims.In reality, only 2.6% of men reported ever being raped, which even accounting for underreporting utterly pales in comparison to 18% of women.
Source: https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics
Regardless, just because one thing is maybe more prevalent than another doesn’t mean the other isn’t a problem. I do not mean to downplay violence in any form against anyone.
What I mean is focusing on violence against women isn’t inherently an issue, and I don’t think that’s what is driving young men toward conservatism. We can focus on more than one thing at once. I think that conservatism empowers young men, elevates them. It is the path of least resistance for most because men-on-top is ingrained deeply in our society. I think that young men are gravitating to the most attractive worldview presented to them, no matter how selfish and regressive it is because it feels right.
EDIT: I got the stats wrong.
Are they? Last I checked, women were actually the majority across most of the world by a very slight edge, mostly because men die earlier since hard physical labour and wars disproportionately kill men.
Why bring it up then? What’s the point?
If they face a different kind of violence, that would imply men face a different kind of violence, too, right? If they are different from each other, that means both sexes need special attention on issues disproportionately affecting them, don’t they?
The problem is not “focusing on women’s issues”. The problem is “not focusing on men’s issues”.
Women are a social minority. Whites in South Africa who perpetuated the apartheid were the majority oppressing a minority, despite being vastly outnumbered. I am referring to sociological minorities, not statistical.
I edited my comment. The numbers are far more disparate than I initially misread. I only brought it up because we’re getting into specifics and I had to do some research. Women are indeed more affected by sexual violence. What’s more, over 90% of sexual violence is perpetrated by men.
Definitely.
This is fair, but it sounded to me like you were implying this was a zero sum game. We can do both.
My primary assertion is that conservatism (and figures like Tate) is attractive to young men because they reinforce what society has taught for their whole lives, and if not, then it’s at least a power fantasy that places them in control, which is preferable to the alternative. Reality (which some refer to as “wokeism” or “leftism”) is not as tantalizing. Realizing that you as a man have implicit biases, privilege, and toxicity embedded deep within you requires a level of introspection and empathy that most young people do not possess.
I struggle to see how “the left” can capture the minds of young men in the same way when taking an objective view of reality.
This is such a problematic statistic to bring up. It means nothing to the victims and their needs, or how should we help them. It also doesn’t matter from a prevention point of view, since the vast majority of men are not rapists. It only serves to reframe the issue from “abusers against victims” to “men against women”.
What is that alternative, then? That’s the problem, I do not see anyone proposing an alternative role to men in society.
I dont think it is problematic in itself. I am merely pointing out that my previous statements about the disparities between men and women were correct.
The mentality is certainly “abusers vs victims,” but we cannot bury our heads in the sand and ignore the context. I.e. we must recognize that most rapists are men. Most rape victims are women. Why this is the case is important to examine if we are to improve things.
Why do men need a “role” in society specifically? Is it the case that men simply feel aimless and this leads them to conservatism? To violence, even? I don’t know. I don’t think women go about feeling assured about their role in society which in turn makes them end up more liberal. Why would the inverse be true for men?
Again, this isn’t to say we don’t need support for young men or that they are never victimized. The only messages I can think of are: acknowledge and understand your privilege, act with empathy, emotions are important and should be discussed, etc. Way less sexy than shooting boar from a helicopter with a minigun or whatever it is men’s role in society boils down to.