All parents and teachers of teenagers will know two things. The first is that teenagers are the human equivalent of seismometers when it comes to perceived unfairness: they are acutely sensitive to any injustice or unequal treatment, and if they feel they are not being treated the same as their peers, this can quickly erupt into an outburst of outrage or denial.
The second is that, try as we might, parents and teachers are not cool. We are not cool at the best of times, but we are definitely not cool when we are telling teenagers not to do something – and there is always the risk that lecturing them about how dangerous or transgressive something is only makes it all the more appealing.
It is for these two reasons that Labour’s plans to ‘tackle misogyny in the classroom’, however well-intentioned, will most likely backfire. The proposed £20 million package includes specialist training for teachers, behavioural courses for high-risk pupils and a new helpline for teenagers to get support for concerns about abuse in their own relationships.
We cannot put voices like Andrew Tate’s back into Pandora’ box
These are all good ideas in principle, but teachers and schools simply do not have the time or space to explore these issues in a nuanced, careful way. The government may now be setting policy agendas according to fictional Netflix dramas, but the outcome is not going to be like some old-fashioned Hollywood movie. This is not going to play out like some rousing scene where an underdog activist magically opens the minds of their students to a new world of equality and justice against all odds.
At best, these proposals will become a quick box-ticking exercise. At worst, this perfunctory approach will only demonise boys further, feeding the feelings of victimhood, failure and resentment that drive young men to the ‘manosphere’ in the first place. Telling boys that they are bad apples only leads them underground, where the rot really sets in.
It is easy to talk about why ‘red-pilled’ podcasters and incel ideologues are so poisonous. Of course these cynical scumbags are awful: they encourage men to be embittered, entitled and self-loathing. They get rich off men’s feelings of alienation and loneliness. These online spaces are cesspits of hypocrisy, narcissism and resentment, swilling with noxious messages about worthlessness and suicide.
It is much, much harder to talk about why these online worlds are so appealing. For some students, liking or following influencers like Andrew Tate is about shock value; it’s another form of ‘acting out’, like listening to drill rap or death metal. For others, it’s about feeling valued: one survey shows that almost a third of young men think society does not care about them. In a world seemingly lacking opportunity and support, they withdraw into these dark spaces, where they truly believe they have found a supportive community, affirmation and empowerment.
We cannot put voices like Andrew Tate’s back into Pandora’ box. Instead, we need to think about the other voices boys hear. We need positive, empowering messages around them; we need to acknowledge the good aspects of traditional masculinity; we need to give them a vision for what they can offer the world and ensure they know that being a boy is not a crime. As Colleen Harker sagely writes, we need to teach them that women are neither their enemies on the battlefields of the culture wars nor damsels in distress.
We also need to offer them more male role models and authority figures. Rather than asking already overworked teachers to keep an eye out for another problem that they simply do not have the capacity to solve, a far better thing to do would be to encourage more men to get into teaching.
Almost 3 million children in the UK, or one in five, have no father at home (in Black Caribbean households, this rises to 63 per cent.) 85 per cent of primary school teachers are female, and nearly a third of primary schools do not have a single male classroom teacher, meaning nearly a million children have no male role model in an education setting. In secondary schools, two thirds of teachers are women: therefore if a student is flagged by a female teacher for holding misogynistic views and given a behavioural course by a female teacher on why they shouldn’t hold these views, then I think we are unlikely to change their minds here.
This lack of male contact and interaction has implications even from birth. This void is being filled by callous, manipulative influencers who profit from boys’ feelings of alienation. Misogyny is a real problem, but so is the fact that young boys are more likely to be unemployed, to be drug addicts, to be victims of violent crime, to commit suicide, to go to prison. Strong male role models could be one way of starting to solve all of these.
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