Note that this poll only targetted around 3000 UK adults aged 16+. Nonetheless I personally think the trend this poll highlights is worrying and worthy of discussion.
Also note I changed the original title to not use the terms “Gen Z” and “baby boomers” since I think putting in the ages is clearer.
Some choice quotes:
On feminism, 16% of [16 to 29-year-old] males felt it had done more harm than good. Among over-60s the figure was 13%.
One in four UK males aged 16 to 29 believe it is harder to be a man than a woman.
37% of men aged 16 to 29 consider “toxic masculinity” an unhelpful phrase, roughly double the number of young women who don’t like it.
The figures emerged from Ipsos polling for King’s College London’s Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.
“This is a new and unusual generational pattern,” said Prof Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute. “Normally, it tends to be the case that younger generations are consistently more comfortable with emerging social norms, as they grew up with these as a natural part of their lives.”
But Duffy said: “There is a consistent minority of between one-fifth and one-third who hold the opposite view. This points to a real risk of fractious division among this coming generation.”
Prof Rosie Campbell, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s, said: “The fact that this group is the first to derive most of their information from social media is likely to be at least part of the explanation.
In the meantime, social media algorithms are filling the vacuum, she said. “This could be something that changes when young men enter the workforce but we can’t take that for granted given how important social media is in the way we understand ourselves.”
To be honest, when I was younger I would have said that I wasn’t a feminist for the reason that I found such generalized criticism to be hypocritical. Since then I’ve kind of grown to be pretty numb to such statements, since I think I understand the intention behind such generalizations (I think being important here, when it comes from strangers I never feel certain whether they’re being hyperbolic or not when they’re generalizing things). There’s additionally the whole punching up vs. punching down argument and, personally for me, such generalized statements do make me reflect and reconsider my behaviour.
But this article is seriously making me think again whether I should be numb to these things. Does such comments, no matter how well intentioned, contribute to making young men vulnerable to getting influenced by people like Andrew Tate? I can see how folk could become more drawn to someone who seems to care for them above a group of people who appear to hate them.
I’m going to have to reflect on this some more, certainly.
Edit: I’m sure there’s many in the 16% of 16 to 29 year olds quoted in the article who are just… nasty folks where it would be incredibly difficult to convince them that women deserve rights in the first place. But if even a small number of these men were otherwise reasonable folks but have grown up to be nasty due to being turned off of feminism in their formative years, then that’s just… well. It makes me feel like I’ve failed them and humanity as a whole.