cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/6895873
While many believe young people are becoming more liberal, data shows that 12th grade boys are nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative compared to liberal. Around 25% of high school seniors identify as conservative while only 13% identify as liberal. In contrast, the share of 12th grade girls identifying as liberal has risen to 30%. Many factors may contribute to this trend, including the rhetoric of Donald Trump which appealed to disaffected young men, and the focus of progressive movements on issues of gender and racial equality which some young men perceive as a “matriarchy.” However, most high school seniors claim no political identity, and many boys in high school do not actively discuss
No small part of this is economic: income inequality has done a real number on white men (it’s done a real number on everyone, but bear with me, I have a point, here).
The economic ladder’s largely been pulled up, starting with Gen-X and accelerating through the millenials and zoomers. This has taken away a lot of status from men–especially white men–who, for a long time, have had a fair amount of privilege, and the loss of that privilege, combined with an actual loss of status and mobility, stokes the embers of fascism.
The problem is that the Right is so, so much more willing and able to speak to these feelings of frustration and angst. They have an entire playbook centred around validating and nuturing angst and inadequacy and impotent rage; they don’t explain it, they don’t try to ameliorate it, but holy shit do are they good at validating it: “Yes, you are being disadvantaged”, “Yes, your rightful place is being taken from you”, “Yes, it’s shitty that you’re made to feel bad for your privilege” and finally “Yes, it’s the fault of these gays and blacks and Jews that your rightful place has been taken from you”. It’s insidious and disingenuous (especially since the shitheels that promulgate it are doing so for a fucking tax cut and some sweet deregulation) but goddamn does it work.
It’s also ironic because the Left actually has better solutions for the problem: economic opportunity, regulation, a social safety net that addresses basic needs. But the Left is utter crap at speaking to feelings, and I’m not sure if it’s because they find it distasteful, or because the actual message isn’t palatable or (and this is my theory) that since neoliberalism ate the Left, rich progressives don’t really want to talk about economic justice at all, and would rather play identity politics instead.
Frankly, it’s scary. I have a couple of pretty smart boys around this age, and I can see that they’re, frankly, receptive to the idea that progressive identity politics that aren’t helping them at all, and if they weren’t genuinely good kids, I could see some neo-Nazi messaging being appealing, but it’s really hard to explain to them why they should care about rainbow flag day when they see the social safety net fraying and their prospects for, eg, owning a home or having a decent job getting further away.
It’s a confusing time to be a man. Things are shifting in society. A lot of women are deciding that most men aren’t offering them anything they want or need. Unfortunately, when you’re having difficulty figuring out your place in society, and what it means to be a man, you are vulnerable to extremism. Being told your rightful place is on top, and that women, minorities, and LGBTQ are to blame is powerful messaging.
A lot of women are deciding that most men aren’t offering them anything they want or need.
I doubt that’s an accurate description of reality, but I guess that’s a good portrayal of what is perceived by these confused men.
A lot of women are deciding that most men aren’t offering them anything they want or need.
I think this is the case for some women and isn’t just a perception. There are surveys that are showing that single women are the happiest and most satisfied with their life while married women are the least. The old threat that you will die single and alone isn’t working anymore. The helpless men (the ones who can’t cook, can’t clean, can’t support emotionally) used to skate by since women needed men. They don’t anymore and they are scared.
It’s sad because the expectations to be a “good” partner are so low for most men and most still don’t meet it. Most women I know want someone with a job, whose clean and nice to them but can’t find someone who fits all three.
As a demographic men need to step it up and as a society we failed them. It’s so sad the number of men who can’t cook a single meal or clean anything. These are important life skills that their mothers and fathers didn’t prepare them for because of outdated gender roles. Mother’s prepared their daughters for these changes but didn’t their sons. That is the issue
Bingo! Say it louder for the fellas in the back.
I sometimes frequent forums where women air their grievances, and so many of the complaints about men particularly are just sad as hell.
One I can recall from a month or two ago was a woman ranting about how she doesn’t want to be expected to give blow jobs on her knees, and doesn’t want to always do 4-5 positions during intercourse with the strange men she’s dating. She says “what’s wrong with missionary anyway?” And “all I want is to be treated like a human being, not a throw away sex toy”.
Women as a group literally could not make it any easier for men today, and still the throw away/instant gratification/porn culture of it all just persists in many young women’s lives, thanks to exactly what you said… Society let men down, and has to do better to change it.
It’s the old sad boomer joke that the mothers least favorite child is their husband
think this is the case for some women
Maybe? Big difference between “a lot of women” and “for some woman”. And even so, I don’t buy that line of argument.
I take issue with the wording and that’s why I doubt this is a truthful phenomenon:
A lot of women
What is a lot here? 10% of women? 1%? 80%? Does this come from a survey? This is being offered as an explanation, so I think it’s important to not handwave this kind of qualitative analysis. If you’re going to put some responsibility on women’s attitudes, I think it warrants proper research.
are deciding
Is it a decision? Do women get to decide the consequences of the behavior of men?
There are surveys that are showing that single women are the happiest and most satisfied with their life while married women are the least.
Okay. There are also surveys that say otherwise. And even if we’re to believe that single women is the happiest cohort, can you establish a real link between that and more teens getting exposed to sexist ideology?
This all feels cheap philosophy and it’s ridiculously close of shifting the blame of men’s bad upbringing towards women being less accepting of garbage relationships. Maybe teenage men getting out of high school talking shit about alpha/beta/sigma is the reason why single women is the happiest cohort, not the other way around.
Yeah a lot of my (happily single) female friends say they don’t want a man-child to take care of, but a partner to be with. I think one of the failings of patriarchy is that men are taught that they will have a woman to do house stuff, but women, as it turns out, are just as uninterested in doing that as men are.
Supposedly it actually is.
If you think about it it’s not that surprising. Sexism was basically a way to subsidize substandard men and guarantee them a sexual partner. If you can’t open a bank account without a man, you find a man, even if he’s an angry ball of mush.
In fact I agree many men don’t have a net positive to offer. What I disagree with is the framing that women are “deciding” that, and I wouldn’t discard the idea that the increase in women freedom is contributing factor for an uptick in extremist sexism but I also think that warrants some proper care to back it up as a claim.
I’m confused by what you mean. You mean this is less a revelation about men and more an increased ability to walk away? Sure. I’m damn sure our great grandmammies knew their hubbies weren’t shit.
Yes, that’s the point. I might be splitting hairs here, but I think the portrayal of these “confusing times” as a consequence of women walking away is part of the problem. Them walking away is part of the remedy for extremist sexism, not a cause for its increase in strength.
I think it’s just a matter of wording that might be causing a misunderstanding. I don’t think he said that this is caused by women ‘deciding’ to walk away, but rather, for the first times in history, women as a whole have far more agency than they ever had in deciding to be in a relationship or not.
Take everything I say with a grain of salt because I’m not a man. I’m going to make a lot of assumptions about cis men here.
Under the patriarchal norms, many men are raised to derive their self worth based on things that are not always fully within their control such as wealth, looks, employment, etc, many of which are conflated with their ability to attract a partner. Some of these men may have also been socialized into believing that finding a sexual partner is a valid subsistute for emotional connection, because horniness and anger are the only acceptable emotions. This leads to the idea that all women exist to resolve their repressed mental health issues and sexual frustrations.
It’s a confusing time for these men because not only are many women becoming more selective towards feminist men who don’t adhere as strongly to these ideologies, but many women are also just happily single. Feminism has taught many women, but not enough men, how to live a fulfilling life beyond patriarchal norms. It hasn’t done enough to teach men how to find self worth independent of women, how to embrace and process emotions, how to address mental health issues, how to recognize male sexual assault, how to live by yourself, how to empathize with peers, etc.
Women walking away from men is a symptom of feminism teaching them how to fulfilling lives as people, and we have yet to do so as effectively with men. It’s not that feminism is teaching women to become single, but that a partner with antiquated views is no longer a prerequisite to a fulfilling life.
There’s all the wrong heros out there for boys. My 9yo was asking about Andrew Tate the other day.
It’s amazing that Tate, a failed athlete turned failed reality TV show participant turned literal sex-trafficker has any pull anywhere…
But the reality is that rich assholes like Peter Thiel want him and his radically regressive beliefs to be popular so they fund him and give him top spots on their platforms (e.g. Rumble, which is owned by Thiel and has him as a featured channel next to Newsmax and Alex Jones).
I wonder if the fact that they have the anchors set to “very conservative” and “very liberal” has an effect. If you had asked me in high school whether I was a liberal, I would have said no. Because I am/was a leftist, not a liberal.
I would like to caution folks against concluding that these boys are simply following a longstanding trend. Looking at the numbers over time definitely shows that liberal identification among male high school seniors has reached an all time low (based on the Monitor the Future dataset) since 1976. I would also say that there does not seem to be very much conversation regarding outreach so as to reverse this decline.
It’s not just boys, it’s white boys. That’s an important distinction.
*Black Americans
Conservative rates among Asians, Latinos and middle easterners is rising globally, as are rates for black boys in Africa.
High school boys especially white ones are essentially assholes. Many will grow out of this phase. Others will be assholes and idiots their entire lives. Go to a high school reunion for examples.
