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.”
I feel like there is feminism, but also toxic feminism. I once got told off for being a toxic sexist person for giving safety advice in a hiking channel. And I would have given the same advice to anyone posting and always do
The thing is, the question she was asking could have only mattered if she either had no idea what she was talking about, or was planning to do something unsafe.
Obviously though, there is also non toxic too that I've seen (I've got so many female friends who get screwed around by their bfs here in Australia).
But, similar to toxic masculinity, unfortunately the toxic ones always make more noise
I'm not saying this is what you did in your example, but offering advice when it's not asked for IS DEFINITELY a form of toxic masculinity. That's probably what they were referring to, however I don't know the context and I can't pass judgement.
I will say the tendency to immediately be offended if someone accuses you of something is perfectly natural, and it's an abrasive form of communication and "setting boundaries". However, a mature response is to understand they have this feeling regardless of what you've done, why not figure out why?
Sorry morning rant 💖
Highly dependent on context. There's "mansplaining" like you're talking about (though that word sounds infantile for this kind of discussion), and there's the neutral, adding your own two cents into a forum conversion. Especially when op thought they might be putting themselves in danger by doing something they shouldn't be.
It'd be like if he called you a toxic sexist for your response to him. That's stupid, we're all in a forum just having a conversation, and people jumping in mid-thread is to be expected
If not "mansplaining", I don't think there's another word that describes that very particular, yet common, experience. It doesn't read as infantile to me.
Regardless, re. feminism, I wonder if the word's meaning may be growing more muddled nowadays. The word is used by regressive TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists)/"gender critical feminists", who these days are very much loud and visible in the media on their trans hate campaign trails, even as the same word is used by 3rd/4th Wave feminists who advocate/fight for intersectionality and gender and sexual inclusivity. Both groups call themselves feminist and often assert that members of the other group are not actually feminist, so if a study asks "is feminism harmful?" without specifying a definition, the answer might depend on what definition the respondent thinks is being used (from the context around the survey, or from whichever contexts the respondent most often hear the word feminism used in).
'Mansplaining' is basically just sexist patronizing, but the word reeks of unprofessional slang to me. I fully admit it may be my own biases coloring that perception, but I've also only really heard it used by people who hold over-the-top opinions like men spread their legs to try and marginalize women. Like if a woman acted like a father couldn't possibly know how to raise a child and needed to explain simple shit to him, I wouldn't say she was womansplaining I'd just say she was being sexist and patronizing. Same goes for men and mansplaining.