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.”
Modern feminism has a problem with the name: it literally says “female ideology”.
That works fine when females are oppressed out of speaking their mind, and the meaning is obvious to everyone: more rights for the obviously oppressed. Many places, that is still an issue, so the name fits right in.
However, in societies where both men and women already have the same basic rights to life, speech, work, ownership, etc., for those who don’t have a full picture, its meaning turns into a “female superiority movement”. So now there appears a group of poorly informed men who, going just by the name, feel opressed by the “female superiority movement”… which fuels a desire for a counter-movement of “male superiority”… and related grifters like that Tate thing.
One possible way to solve it, would be for feminism to use a different label in these societies, one that would inherently and unmistakeably express the goal of “parity, equality of opportunities”. For example: equalitarianism.
Meanwhile, people who just heard the word “feminism” for the first time, in societies where they can see females walking freely on the streets, then the first explanation they get is from the likes of Tate… well, this happens.
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I don’t disagree, but I also don’t know what word could be used to both point at that, and at the same time not allow being misinterpreted as “female superiority ideology”.
For example, in Spain we have a “Ministry of Equality”, which is basically in charge of implementing the “4th wave of feminism”, without directly referring to feminism by name, while its name leaves no room for misinterpretation:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Equality_(Spain)
Are other societies ready for that? Dunno, even here there is opposition from the right, but I think something like that would be the proper next step.
It doesn’t work because it’s the argument US cops use to do what they do: “All Lives Matter (…starting with the cop’s)”.
It would only start to work, once gun ownership got severely reduced, cops had to pass a rigorous training, including in de-escalation, and had a mandate to protect civilians above their own asses.
Like, I’ve recently watched a video of body cams where cops decided to turn on FBI agents. Most of the involved were white, on both sides, with some black, also on both sides. All the cops, including their supervisors, acted as a bunch of entitled assholes, and only some got dinged for it. “All Lives Matter… but cop lives matter most”.
“Black Lives Matter” will keep working better in the US, for as long as there is racial profiling, and a lack of consequences going on. Hopefully, at some point in the future, it could be changed to “Civilian Lives Matter”… and ultimately to “All Lives Matter”… but the US seems to be far away from that point yet.
If the name was “Black Lives Do Matter” it’d be harder to misinterpret, wilfully or otherwise.
Dunno. They both sound basically the same to me, maybe because I’m not a native speaker. What would be the difference?
They’re meant to, it’s a more specific version of BLM with the same intended meaning, meant to make wilful misinterpretations by talking heads /right wing dingdongs as "Only Black Lives Matter" harder to sell.
Hm, so… “Only Black Lives Do Matter” would not be grammatically correct? or sound too long? or is there a connotation difference that I’m missing?
That’s not the problem at all, the meaning of "Only Black Lives Matter" makes the movement sound like a black supremacist movement.
I understand the problem, what I don’t understand is the solution. Wouldn’t “Only Black Lives Do Matter” make it also sound like a supremacist movement?
When you relate this idea to what raccoona replied to me, do you think ‘patriarchy’ is a fitting term or not?
As in if you accept that it only benefits a section of all men.
I think there are many fitting terms, like “heteropatriarchy”, “toxic masculinity”, “fourth wave feminism”, etc.
What I’m wondering is whether “feminism” is an easily understandable term to describe all these fights, or if once a society gets past some level of advances towards the goal, it rather leads to confusion in new generations and becomes counterproductive.
(BTW, since I had never before, I just watched a piece of an interview with the Tate thing… the cringe is strong with that one, as well as the con artist level, redefining the meaning of words to fit his narrative, or the amount of dog whistles. Then all the sycophants in comments and related videos… 🤮)
My mother wasn’t allowed to study because she was a woman, so it really wasn’t that long ago. Perhaps it just needs time.
I’m sorry to hear that. It definitely depends on the region/country.
Despite all the things that commies did wrong post-WW2, they did offer my mom three different career choices on merits alone. Interestingly, when I went to inquire about career choices at the same place in the post-commie era, they asked for a bribe just to start talking.