Are attitudes to women worsening, from Afghanistan to the online manosphere?

[Sillyme1]

I know Afghanistan is not typical but I was shocked to read in the guardian today to read of the woman who was told by a judge that ‘a beating won’t kill your’. Also interesting programme on I player about the ‘Mano sphere’ presented by Louis Theroux.
are we going backwards?

Yes. Some comments Ive seen are really disturbing. Its scary how some peoples minds work. It seems to work both ways too. Its no wonder so many people are single.

What seems to work both ways too?

Yes it is getting worse , I feel really sad for my teen and tween DDs. When I was their age in the 90s there were issues of course but it felt like a better time to be a young woman than it does now

Yes. It's a strange time. The repressive ideologies are getting worse. On the other hand what we thought was freedom [ the pill, sexual liberation etc] is taking a very nasty turn.

Yes.

Misogynistic pornography has changed people’s expectations of sex. Young women now accept, as normal, acts like choking and hair-pulling that were recognised up till recently as abuse.

Women’s long-established rights have been overturned by men claiming to be women — a tactic so ludicrous it would never have been taken seriously 30 years ago.

Violence against women and girls is increasing.

All these things are spread by the Internet, but you can’t blame a technology for the people who use it to find others to share and spread their cruelty.

Just seen this:

Women’s Aid responds to Louis Theroux: Into the Manosphere documentary

Isabelle Younane, Head of External Affairs at Women’s Aid, comments:

“Louis Theroux’s Inside The Manosphere made for uncomfortable, yet absolutely essential viewing. While so many of the influencers in the ‘manosphere’ claim to provide young men and boys with a ‘cheat code’ to being successful, the reality is that this alleged success comes hand in hand with misogyny. This, coupled with the rise in popularity of ‘trad wives’, which reinforce gender stereotypes and encourage women to be submissive, is becoming a worrying trend. Women’s Aid research clearly demonstrates that young people who view misogynist content online are five times more likely to view hurting someone physically as acceptable if they say sorry afterwards.

“The reality is that misogyny is, and should always be, completely unacceptable. Relationships must be rooted in consent and respect, and seeing the opposite promoted to so many children and young men is enormously disturbing. We must do more – technology companies must be held to a higher standard and they must be vigilant about the content they show to young people. Equally, we must meet young people where they are, providing them with education on what healthy relationships look like.

“Misogyny is at the core of all violence against women and girls, and it is only by eradicating these archaic and damaging beliefs that we can hope to build a society where women and children are safe”.

https://womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-responds-to-louis-theroux-into-the-manosphere-documentary/

Yes, we live in dark times. Easy access to increasingly extreme pornography is rotting men's brains and normalising stuff that should never be normalised.

Anecdata but I’ve noticed a link to anti woman and girl attitudes amongst boys who have unfettered access to phones/ certain screen types*. The demographic tends to be the lower socioeconomic areas and the higher socioeconomic areas (private schools, extremely rich parents who’ve given access to everything from a young age.)

*eg Fortnite, grand theft auto, ro blocks, YouTube, social media etc at an early age. Not cbbc and closed computer games.

I think it was King’s College London that recently published the results of a survey that showed that a third of young men believe men to be superior to women and that women should obey their husbands.

And that’s before we get to some of the depraved attitudes to sex that one reads about, including on Mumsnet - often based on degrading the woman.

Frightening indeed.

Yes

The thing I can't fathom is that the Spice Girls had already formed before the Taliban was in existence

Spice Girls march 1994.

Taliban September 1994

This week in the manosphere:incels who spend thousands renting out women to be pliant girlfriends

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/mar/18/inside-the-incels-who-rent-girlfriends-zandland-ben-zand-interview

There’s entire tribes of these men gathering together online trying to figure out how to unlock the secret to getting compliant & sexy girlfriends. They speak to each other in ways that show they know very little about women and that they don’t even see women as human beings.

These men are actually making each other less attractive as potential partners, they reinforce all of each other’s negative attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. I honestly think it’s a case of misery loves company for some of them - sabotaging other men makes them feel less crap about their own failures.

Both my daughters are experiencing sexism and misogyny. Eldest is at college and on a male dominated course. So many have asked her out. She has said no to them all. They pester and can't understand the word no. Some have haved in disturbing stalker type behaviour and have had to be reported. She thinks it is their pornography use they totally objectified women.

Other young daughter is a Sergeant at cadets and is getting zero respect from the mostly male cadets below her rank. Her captain told her to get one of the boys to do the jobs they didn't do for her!

I feel for them both so young to be learning this crap.

So sorry to hear this.

But from so many personal stories let alone those that get into the news, the moment anywhere is male dominate they all see to revert to primal male ape behaviour (apologies to apes who I am sure are better behaved) that makes live just so uncomfortable for women.

How is it that this young generation (I am assumping) have completed ignored and not been impinged on by the many, many stories about women's oppression in the work place and elsewhere,

Do none of them have sisters, or females cousins that they would be shocked to find a man or men had treated them with such disrespect.

honestly think it’s a case of misery loves company for some of them - sabotaging other men makes them feel less crap about their own failures.

Yes the Alpha male / Giga chad thing is as much about punching down on what they define as "low quality males" who seem to self identify as incels

A third! That's mental.

I definitely think they have got worse and also alot of "progressive" moves such as increasing the age of criminality and more undocumented immigration impacts negatively upon woman and girls but helps boys/ men.

Yes, they are young. The boys on the college course aren't even masculine types body wise (skinny, short) and daughter says they are 'chopped' (ugly). These boys are going to go into the police force and such as it's a public service course.

I wonder if they do have sisters. They are just so entitled and disrespectful.