Mind the Generation Gap: A Crisis in Masculinity

Is it time to rebrand feminism?

Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day, a new study conducted in 31 countries by Ipsos in collaboration with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College published some surprising findings. Younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials) have repeatedly been criticised and stereotyped for their ‘wokeness’, but according to this study, the reality is that they are actually more conservative on the issue of gender equality than previous generations, including Boomers. As a Millennial, I have to admit that I was shocked by some of the statistics.

In one of my previous articles on the Mid-Motherhood Crisis, I saluted Millennial fathers for adopting a more hands-on approach to parenting, based on my observations of my husband and most of my male friends. But, to my surprise, the study reports that 25% of Gen Z and 27% of Millennials believe that a man who stays home with his children is ‘less of a man’. This is compared to 20% of Gen X and 11% of Boomers. Even more worrisome, more than half of Gen Z (57%) and Millennials (60%) believe that things have gone ‘far enough’ in their country regarding giving women equal rights with men, compared with 43% of Boomers. What’s more, over 1 in 2 Millennials (57%) and Gen Z (54%) think men are being asked too much to support equality.

However, amongst Gen Z, there appears to be more disagreement between genders, with 6 in 10 men agreeing that the issue of equality discriminates against men, compared to 4 in 10 women. Indeed, a whopping 1 in 4 Gen Z boys and men (aged 16-29) believe that being a man is and will continue to be harder than being a woman. In general, recent studies show that Gen Z young women and girls tend to be more ‘hyper-progressive’ while young men and boys tend to feel more negative towards feminism.

‘In countries on every continent, an ideological gap has opened up between young men and women. Tens of millions of people who occupy the same cities, workplaces, classrooms and even homes no longer see eye-to-eye.

- John Murdoch-Burns, ‘A new global gender divide is emerging’, The Financial Times

Many blame these divisions on recent socio-economic developments: the pandemic, which caused us to expose more of our lives online and led men and women to inhabit different, often opposing, social media realms; the #MeToo Movement, which increased fiercely feminist sentiments in young women and empowered them to speak out against longstanding injustices; and finally, the current economic outlook, which has pushed men to feel more financial pressure and adopt more conservative as well as nationalist stances. As highlighted in a recent Fortune article by journalist and researcher Luba Kassova, online hard-core porn also has an important role to play in this, as we know that men have a higher consumption of it and this directly impacts how they approach women in a way that objectifies them, playing directly into the hands of sexist (and dangerous) influencers, such as Andrew Tate.

I don’t wish to give Andrew Tate, the British-American former kickboxer-come-social-media-influencer, any extra attention, but his influence can’t be ignored. Along with his brother, Tate has been charged with rape, human trafficking and creating a gang to sexually exploit women. And yet, according to The Guardian, 1 in 5 young men aged 16-29 in the UK have a favourable opinion of him. It’s easy to dismiss his fans as simply playing into a fantasy of male domination, but the reason may be deeper than that.

Aside from his overtly misogynistic proclamations, his real business model is a course on how to get rich online, called the Real World, which subscribers pay £40/month for. Through this, he teaches followers how to become a ‘high-value man’ (aka rich), which is the only thing acceptable to him. Interestingly, as cited in another article by The Guardian, based on YouGov data, of the 12% of men who like Tate, just over half say they agree with his views on women. What really resonates with his — and similarly, the Canadian psychologist and media commentator, Jordan Peterson’s — fans is this idea of a return to the Golden Age of ‘straight man masculinity’ (as cited in the article), which they warn is in peril. Their whole marketing strategies prey on an ‘inferiority complex’ many followers seem to suffer from and the idea that feminism is a threat to their existence. They feed on vulnerable and impressionable young men, and when you add this to the fact that men in 183 countries between 2000 and 2019 were twice as likely as women to take their own lives, you get a fuller picture of the crisis we face.

There’s no denying that a problem exists and we need to talk about it because in a fragile world that is already in dire need of social cohesion, we can’t afford to become more alienated and divided when it comes to the issue of gender equality. As stated in the Financial Times, the ‘ideology gaps are only growing’. Now is the time to act.

Feminism is the fight for equality, yet somehow, that message has been lost over the past decade. Young women have become more outspoken about injustices and sharing their personal stories, as with #MeToo, which has, perhaps, left them feeling, whether consciously or not, more anger toward the opposite gender. I’m the first to admit that after hearing some stories or through my own experiences, I sometimes tend to make generalised declarations: you don’t know what it is like to be a woman, the world would be a better place if women were in charge, etc. I can see now how that may have the opposite effect. On top of that, discussions around gender neutrality add a further layer of confusion to the matter. When you add up all these factors, it becomes clearer why many young men feel lost when it comes to finding their own identity and answering: what does it mean to be a man in this new narrative? Biologically, physically and emotionally, women and men are different. There is no denying this. Rather than pretending that these differences don’t exist, what would happen if we fully embraced them and viewed them as allies of each other? What if embracing our womanhood or manhood didn’t mean we had to denigrate the other?

I’m going to reiterate my bold statement that it might be time to give feminism a rebrand. What about: fem-men-ism? Okay, that’s not my best work; nevertheless, what we really need is a movement that fully includes both men and women, and where they can feel fully united in the fight for a more equal society. Men have long suffered from the patriarchal narrative that they should be the primary breadwinners and that their only worth is net worth (Tate likes to state that women only like rich men, playing into that insecurity), whereas women need to be the carers for all those around them. Each gender is confined to a specific space and there is little crossover, rather than equally distributing the weight and pressure of such a society to work as a more balanced, efficient, and ultimately, happier whole. Only if we join hands can we truly achieve a sense of purpose, place and overall equality for both genders — and by equality, I mean the freedom to be individuals within a team (or partnership, if you prefer).

I’m suddenly reminded of the Barbie movie. Who is Ken without Barbie? And what is his place in a world where the patriarchy has been dismantled? As much as Greta Gerwig’s movie has been hailed for its message of female empowerment, it also makes some bold statements about masculinity. Neither Barbie nor Ken need to dominate or control the other; they live in harmony once they accept that they are foremost individuals with their own agencies and dreams. The patriarchy is a societal construct that benefits neither of them, as the movie clearly shows, for Ken is left feeling just as empty once he brings it back to Barbieland. The message in the end is that Ken’s worth is not defined by the things he can own, including Barbie, or his role compared to the other Kens. It is defined by who he really is inside, as Barbie learns, too. There’s Barbie and Ken: two distinct stories intertwined.