Do teenagers think feminism is ''uncool"?

[Tylee]

Just that, really. Someone told me their daughter thinks feminism is uncool, and I'm wondering if most teenagers think that. And if so, why?

I've noticed over the last couple of years the language of MRAs sneaking into boys' discourse. It's a bit galling, tbh, to be told by a 15 year old boy that the gender pay gap isn't a problem, that women choose to go into lesser paid jobs, that women have it better than men and get the kids on divorce and so on. But it has happened to me (as a teacher) on several occasions.

NoLoveOfMine - He's seen his black friend (top grades, funny, popular, impeccable behaviour) get more police attention that he as a white boy does and has been shocked to learn that white privilege is real.

I've watched the Inbetweeners with both ds and dd and I've asked how it tallies with their school experience. In primary school dd had male and female friends but since starting secondary school, she says that these boys have changed to characters like the ones in the programme. They see girls as a means to having sex and see no shame in asking disgusting questions to girls like if they are hairless down there. These are boys who would play Tag with girls a few months before at primary school.

Ds has a totally different reaction to the programme. He sees them as sad because they get into disastrous situations and only talk about sex. He doesn't think that their attitude to girls is gross. In fact, he thinks that if we saw the programme with girls as main characters then there would be as many jokes about dicks and sex.

When stories about potential abductors do the rounds every few months on social media, he always talks to his sister about it as he feels that she is vulnerable to assault and abduction. He believes that she is more vulnerable because she's weaker and has less experience fighting because she's a girl.

Discussions about this always end up with him being defensive and NAMALT.

Today 11:01 Infowars1

Your interpretation of that sign is so flawed...

Seriously? You're actually telling me that my own personal interpretation is at fault?

That the woman holding the child's hand, not the man, is an hallucination?

My dd has long hair and make up but openly says that it's not for the boys - how would they know if her makeup looked good? She is very conscious of getting approval from other girls though.

"Your interpretation of that sign is so flawed..."

Really? What did it really mean, then? "This way to the lifeboats"?

eyebrowsonfleek I don't know why seeing white privilege is real would mean he can't understand male privilege? Two of my closest friends are WOC and feel feminism is even more important to them. One of them has relatives involved in feminism in India. If he can understand he has white privilege, why can't he understand he has male privilege?

I have never seen the programme or films so can't comment in great detail but the way of talking to and about girls described certainly isn't rare. It's demeaning, degrading and often belittling - not to mention potentially threatening. In a culture where so much is geared towards girls being sexually attractive to men and boys and where boys hold the power in terms of the dynamics of an interaction (as he himself points out in terms of girls tending to be weaker), this kind of attitude is incredibly damaging.

Can he see that his being stronger than his sister is an example of male privilege? Why is it that his sister has to be spoken about in terms of being vulnerable to this sort of thing? You could also tell him it's not "every few months" as most instances of women and girls being attacked by men (and boys) unknown to them don't make much, if any, news. In this very thread I've posted examples of teenage girls being sexually assaulted in one small part of London which barely got covered (one man never caught). Why should his sister have to fear this kind of thing and be vulnerable to it? Who is causing him to feel he has to talk to her about it? It's quite clearly not all men but how are girls and women supposed to know which it isn't going to be? He says himself she's more vulnerable "because she's a girl".

I'm asking why you interpret that as being submissive, non authoritative and dare I say sexist? if a woman wants to wear a dress it has no bearing on how she carries herself or the values she stands for, are all women that wear "prettt dresses" demonised by feminists for pandering to their male overlords?

Is it worth engaging with someone with the username 'infowars'?

Ah. So you think it's the dress that's the issue........

Infowars1

So you agree that including the child in the picture is sexist, but the dress isn't?

Teenagers have traditionally been interested in "normal teenage things" - like fairness and social justice.......

indeed, in fact it is often the young that are far more liberal and interested in social justice instead of propagating the old structures.

While you're at it, Infowars1 you might also want to google gender stereotypes and the role they play in feminism.

Is it worth engaging with someone with the username 'infowars'?

Not with this one, for sure.

Inforwars You did hear about Alex Jones admitting in court that his role is pure fiction, a persona, a character he plays to get money. Ironically, he admitted it only when it was used against him in custody battle. And he lost anyway. :)

I thought it was uncool as a teen, in hindsight it was the liberal feminism that seemed only to support men and berate women that I disliked. And my mother's mysogynistic brand of it.

I couldn't care about cool or not now.