Boys don’t need anti-misogyny lessons

Article here. Excerpt:

'This experience came to mind when I saw the news yesterday that “anti-misogyny lessons” may be on their way to British schools, prompted at least in part by the new Netflix series Adolescence, which has dominated the national conversation over the last week. Questions have been asked in Parliament about the rise of influencers who push “toxic masculinity” and encourage “incels” to resent and despise women.

It is clear that there is a problem with many teenage boys in Britain feeling alienated from mainstream society, or coming to believe that it is rigged against them. The deeper question is what ought to be done about this, beyond well-meaning moralism. Public figures talk about “reaching out” to young men; or providing better role models, as former England football manager Gareth Southgate proposed recently; or correcting their allegedly problematic views. But there is a striking vacuum at the heart of this discourse. No one seems genuinely interested in addressing the material concerns at the heart of young male ennui.

That’s because it is hard to even discuss topics such as the mass entry of women into the professions, the disempowering of men in modern divorce law, and the erosion of all-male environments without being accused of wanting to return to the bad old days. Very few people in positions of authority would even know what you meant if you lamented the way in which society increasingly rewards classically feminine characteristics — consensus, inclusivity, and the therapeutic mindset — while penalising typically masculine ones, such as a preference for directness, individual action, and robust but non-personal disagreement.'