To think primary schools now days are more misogynistic amongst the boys, than in the past?

[Thatcastlethere]

I hate to be all 'back in the good old days' and tbh I don't even think it was that great in the past... I think I just expected it to be better now days.
But am I wrong for feeling like there's been a massive upsurge in misogynistic feeling amongst primary age boys?
My two eldest are at primary school. It's a state school but it's regarded as a good school in a very middle class area. It's also considered a faintly hippy/alternative place.
Yet some of the things I've seen and heard regarding my 9yo son and my 6yo daughters experiences at school have really shocked me.
My son for example uses all this language 'sigma' 'alpha' etc... well he did until I explained to him that it was harmful macho nonsense. He's also asked me about andrew tate and trump etc as these people seem to be hero's for some of his male friends. These boys are 9!!
My son doesn't have unsupervised access to the Internet. And the access he does have is limited to one hour on his tablet in the living room on weekend days. During which he just plays roblox and Minecraft. We have disabled YouTube from the TV and he is not allowed YouTube on his tablet.. yet he still seems to come across endless misogynistic content at school somehow.
My son is a sweet boy imo and he forms his own opinions.. he was telling me how he disliked andrew tate for example, without me even having said anything
So it's not that I'm worried about him absorbing these ideas.. it's just a bit concerning that it's so prevalent!
I've also overheard some of his friends in the park sating horrific things about girls and women. Once I even heard one of them threatening to punch a girl. I did step in at this and told him it was disgusting and the boy did look faintly ashamed at least.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Also my 6yo has been subject to comments on her appearance by boys! Already at 6!
I'm sure it wasn't quite this bad wen I was at school or perhaps I just didn't notice?
My husband is a fair bit older than me and was also remarking that he never knew anything like this at school..
Altho obviously misogyny was alive and well when we were kids.. you just never really heard this so directly

Schools are just micro climates of wider society and this is definitely a wider societal issue. Lots of children are being allowed unsupervised access to the internet and are also parroting what their older siblings are saying. Toxic masculinity is on the rise and it is everyone’s job to call it out for what it is.

It's not just boys at all...

Children have changed and unfortunately social media is to blame. Your ds may not have access to this stuff, but plenty of other kids do...and not just in his year group.

Plenty of girls I've seen commenting on boys appearances and being generally unpleasant/aggressive.

The fact that children are given unsupervised access to the Internet is definitely evident. I teach in a secondary school snd have noticed that pupils in y7 have surreptitiously started making sexual noises in.lessons. This is very concerning. It would not have happened a few years ago

There are concerns that gen z men are much more conservative than millennial men, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that trend continues to gen alpha. It’s supposedly also one of the reasons why Trump got re-elected - a big vote share in young men.

One of my friends teaches primary and she says that the way the boys talk is so sexual, despite them being so young, and the girls are targets of aggressive sexist bullying. She says it scares the life out of her for what the future will be like.

It doesn’t surprise me though. The rise of feminism was always going to produce a massive backlash from men, and boys get drawn into it early.

Children have always been unkind to one another. What she is describing though is young boys attitudes towards girls and women being warped from a very young age. The idea that boys are “ultra” and “sigma” I.e. brave, breadwinners, strong, masculine, protectors, aggressive, dominant. Girls are there to be protected and to require men or boys. It’s very alarming for young boys to think like this and it is specific to boys the behaviour she is describing. It comes from online though.

I was outraged that Rumpelstiltskin is still a story being sent home as part of the Oxford Reading Tree and everyone thought I was a raving loon.

I know what the OP is describing @Combattingthemoaners

I have a ds, he mentioned Tate to me once as he had heard about it from kids at school. We discussed it, he reflected for a few minutes and moved on. That was it. I understand the prevalence of these topics coming up but it's not boys to blame, it's social media and easy access to the world and warped views across a myriad of topics. Boys and girls are all impacted by this and their minds are being influenced by all sorts of things.

I'm just a bit fed up of the constant boy bashing on here to be frank.

I don't know that story.. what's the issue with it?

I'm not bashing boys! I have a son.. who is lovely. I'm sure there are many lovely boys. I'm just alarmed that a lot of very young boys are having access to this stuff abd it seems quite a few are accepting it and internalising it.

I have a year 8 boy. I haven’t heard him talk like this, nor his friends or him team mates in the sport he plays. Not saying they’re all perfect and I’m quite willing to believe they talk about inappropriate things when adults aren’t around but no, I’m not seeing widespread misogyny amongst my son’s peers. He also goes to a state school which I guess is pretty middle class.

Should have added, I didn’t see it when he was primary either.

It's unmitigated access to the internet by neglectful parents. I've read reports on the rise of sexual assault in primary school and boys addicted to porn.

Australia has banned social media for under 16s and I think we should follow suit. Apparently it's to blame for the mental health crisis children are experiencing.

The manosphere has created a global backlash to women's rights. Incels have killed women and proponents of toxic masculinity such as Tate and Trump are hailed as heroes.
I think part of the problem is lack of decent male role models.

My DS5 has mainly female friends. He’s not interested in spiderman, football etc which the majority of boys in his class seem to be and so gravitates towards the girls. They do lots of drawing, play imaginary games etc. Added to this he has longish (bottom of ear length) hair and likes bright colours. He frequently tells me that other kids ask him if he is a girl, ask why he likes ‘girl things’… Added to this some of the boys do the whole “girls are babies”, “girls can’t be firefighters” etc etc. I overheard a female friends the other day say “you’re more like a girl really because you like rainbows and boys don’t like rainbows”.
I know this isn’t quite on the same lines as commenting on Andrew Tate but I feel like these attitudes at 5 will lead into that in the future. I just can’t believe that this has started already, he’s 5!! All 5 year olds should like rainbows and not have to worry about filling some kind of fighting, superhero brawling mold.

Rumpelstiltskin is an old fairy story.
My issue with it the father arranged for his daughter to marry the king because she can spin straw to gold and the language at the end of the story is the king let's his wife live in his castle.
It is such a horrible story which used to anger me 50 years ago as a child. But why the hell is it still part of the Oxford reading scheme used in schools.
It's got arranged marriage, elements of slavery and domestic abuse all normalised and the king then ALLOWS his wife to live in his castle. It makes me rage!

This is very concerning. My 10 year old boy hasn’t mentioned anything like this to me. When around his friends they seem to chat endless nonsense about football, sweets, holidays etc. he is not allowed youtube at all.

Completely agree.
This has got nothing to do 'boy bashing’
It’s what people are seeing and experiencing.

I also think it’s concerning that we can’t discuss misogynistic traits that we’re seeing in young boys without being accused of boy-shaming.

Nobody is saying that boys are born wrong, or are all terrible, we’re saying that they’re mirroring worrying aspects of our society at a young age. Are we just supposed to not comment on it and let it pan out, not do anything to try and stop it, otherwise we’re on a vendetta against boy children?

It isn’t boy bashing to point out an increase is misogyny. No one is saying it is young boys faults but to pretend it isn’t a problem is not helping the issue. We don’t want some young boys to grow up into the types of men we frequently read about on here, we want a better future for young girls and women.

Andrew tate is alarming. Maybe have a chat with teacher? Trump is not that bad. I’d rather my kid to think trump is idle than Angela Rayner.

I am a teacher. I have noticed a rise in interest in people like trump . Loads of teenage boys thrilled about the result the other day.
Agree with the year 7s making moaning sexual noises in lessons. The girls do not do this.

I’m pretty sure those aren’t the only two options.

I'm not at all keen on my sons admiring a rapist and repeat sex offender against women. I don't care if he is the POTUS.

Some twenty years ago, I was talking to my Year 2 class and mentioned I had a motorbike. Shortly after, one of the boys said to a couple of others (whilst mining holding onto handlebars) "This is Mrs Freaks on her motorbike... 'Aaargh! How do you stop this thing!!!" They all laughed.

Not misogyny perhaps, but certainly sexism. At six. I guess they must have learnt it at home.

If you have a nine year old talking about Andrew Tate you report it to school as a safeguarding concern.

The end.

What are you talking about? It's not boy bashing at all 🙄