I voted YANBU, but I don’t think anyone should be panicking.
I’ve since spoken to a few teachers, and found it interesting that there’s a mix of opinions. Some say it doesn’t reflect at all on their experiences, some felt it was very well portrayed, interestingly from some there is a mix of opinions when working in the same schools. Some of my son’s teachers come across as weak and ineffective, others stronger and more likely to have a positive impact on children, so I think that’s down to personality, and that will change how they view certain situations.
It’s the same if you talk to people about porn - some love it and see no issue, some hate it and only see problems.
I think we’re at a point where we have to somehow address what’s going on. It’s being brushed under the carpet too much. How girls are taught from a very young age to make way for boys, being made to take responsibility for their behaviour.
When porn comes on the scene, earlier and earlier, it’s too easy to access porn that would have been off limits to most pre internet, so young boys, even those with excellent parents who have great parental controls, can view porn that teaches them that violence during sex is normal, that women should largely submit to this violence and even enjoy it. That dangerous practices like choking is fine.
When sexual red flags in schools are routinely dismissed as boys lacking the social skills to treat girls with respect. When bullying is ignored. It all passes as acceptable and normal, when it shouldn’t be.
You can be the best parents in the world, but when your perfect son goes to secondary school, in this world where porn and the manosphere are huge and influential, you can’t rely on your son’s early years to keep them, and girls in their lives, safe. Yes you can limit screens once home, but that only shelters them so much.
What actually needs to happen is for decent men to become louder. To call out the shit that men very often banter about. To call out the disgusting stuff that men often joke about when referring to women. Call out this nonsense that feminism, and women’s desire for equality, is somehow oppressive towards men.
Right now there are very few men calling this stuff out, and very often those aligning with women to speak up for/with them have placed themselves in order to access them in a predatory way.
At the moment the expectation seems to be on women to fix it all, and this is easy to see in rl. Mens’ talking groups and mental health orgs are so often set up and run by women. Men need to step up and put things into place to stop the growing vacuum that allows the Andrew Tates of the world to take that space. They are not helpless babies, so why rely so much on women having to fix things for them?
Internet should be heavily regulated, particularly for under 18s. No child should be able to access porn ever. This stands for 4/5g networks as well. You shouldn’t have to rely on parental controls, which are easy to change, and useless if your child’s friend has no controls, to prevent children from seeing porn. I also think things like choking and slapping should be classified differently, (I’d like to say banning but that doesn’t work) so it’s more difficult to find and isn’t as mainstream as it currently is.
It’s a man’s world though. They’ve created this. They need to take responsibility and make it better.