There’s mounting evidence to suggest that young men are becoming increasingly right-wing – and social media platforms could be to blame
Today, it often feels as though men and women are increasingly at loggerheads. Twitter is awash with tweets stating “heterosexuality is a prison” and straight women quipping that the Barbie tagline “she’s everything, he’s just Ken” seems to accurately reflect the dynamic of every single straight relationship they know. Asa Seresin published his viral essay On Heteropessimism in 2019, but five years on, it’s clear that the animosity brewing between the sexes is showing no signs of abating.
Now, new research outlined by John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times has offered up a potential reason why young men and women across the world can’t seem to deeply connect with one another anymore: they’re increasingly split on political issues.
There has always been debate about how much political differences really matter in relationships. The Washington Post argued in 2023 that young people should put their differences aside and try to view “politics as a part of people’s identity but far from the most important part”. But as highlighted by the Financial Times, the yawning political chasm between young men and young women is growing wider and wider.
In both the US and Germany, women aged between 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. In the UK, the gap stands at 25 points. In addition, new research from King’s College London has found that young men are even more conservative than boomers, with a fifth of young men having a “favourable” view of misogynist and alleged rapist and human trafficker Andrew Tate. We’re no longer talking about couples quibbling over issues like HS2 or building houses on the green belt – we’re talking about whether women can foster relationships with male partners who are opposed to abortion rights and gender equality.
Dr Briony Hannell is a sociologist at the University of Sheffield. “I think there’s now greater recognition that while heterosexual relationships are largely beneficial for men, the same is not always true for women,” she explains. “This is what Jane Ward aptly calls the ‘tragedy of heterosexuality’: the entanglement of heterosexuality, misogyny, and toxic masculinity in the lives and experiences of straight women.” Dr Hannell adds that while “a growing feminist consciousness amongst young women” has prompted calls to “liberate heterosexuality from misogyny”, this reckoning has contributed to the widespread feeling of “aggrieved entitlement” among straight white men: “a situation that arises when men have not received what they have expected or felt they were entitled to.”
This affirms a suggestion made by Burn-Murdoch. “In the wake of the #MeToo movement, young women have both become more progressive and more vocal about their views,” he said in a tweet. “Many young men feel threatened and have reacted by taking the opposite position.” On the surface, this may sound like reactionary bullshit which seems to imply that feminism has gone “too far” and undermines the fight for women’s rights. But it’s complicated: most progressive movements are met with backlash.
NEW: an ideological divide is emerging between young men and women in many countries around the world.
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) January 26, 2024
I think this one of the most important social trends unfolding today, and provides the answer to several puzzles. pic.twitter.com/kG4qQReqfT
Dr Hannell explains that these male anxieties surrounding feminist progress are not unprecedented. “Consider earlier patterns, for example, of feminist progress followed by misogynistic backlash – like for example the emergence of ‘lad culture’ in the 1990s,” she says. “When boys and men experience setbacks, like social isolation, bullying, or romantic rejection – all perceived as injustices – they perceive this as an emasculating form of injury and aggrievement. Feminism is often framed as the cause of said injury, and these men are thus attracted to misogynistic ideologies that express a desire for – sometimes violent – retribution.”
Of course, none of this is to say that feminism is to ‘blame’ for men being driven to the right and into the arms of sexist influencers. But it is fair to say that while many young women have discovered progressive politics after being introduced to the issue of sexism and gender inequality via the MeToo movement, young men have been left without any clear idea of what ‘healthy’ masculinity should look like, leaving figures like Andrew Tate to fill this vacuum. And for some, anti-feminism has acted as a “gateway drug” for other right-wing or conspiratorial views on issues ranging from the climate crisis to immigration. “Both the manosphere and the far right are unified by sexist, racist, and anti-immigrant fears about the supposed ‘feminisation of society’ via the ‘softening’ of masculinity – that is, men becoming more sensitive and emotionally expressive,” Dr Harnell says.
It doesn’t help that algorithms are pushing men and women into increasingly segregated corners of the internet. Social media has long been attributed as a cause of mounting political polarisation, but now there are signs online platforms are particularly affecting the young men and women who have spent their formative years in echo chambers, curating increasingly extreme social media feeds.
Algorithms on platforms like TikTok are particularly “aggressive” and can drive male users towards progressively misogynistic content, catalysing this divergence in political beliefs. “TikTok has an aggressive algorithm that inserts very little new or random types of content into one’s feed,” says Dr Genavee Brown, a social psychology researcher at Northumbria University. “If when you first joined the site you watched one cat video to the end, you will likely see many cat videos. This is the same for conservative or sexist content.”
NEW: Young people's attitudes to masculinity and women's equality show signs of an emerging gender divide, with the views of men and women often differing more within younger, rather than older, generations.
— The Policy Institute (@policyatkings) February 1, 2024
Our latest culture wars study with @IpsosUK & @GIWLkings 🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/LovdiswGah
“Many creators start with an innocuous message about health, fitness, how to get wealth, or dating advice and then diverge into more harmful and conservative messages,” she continues. “Once men are hooked into these spaces – whether they be fitness, financial advice – they will start to see more and more of this content based on the algorithms used by YouTube, TikTok and Instagram to show content.” This works both ways, Dr Brown adds, explaining that if a woman watches a ‘feminist’ video on TikTok, the algorithm will show them more of the same type of content. “Thus, men and women are slowly guided into different online worlds based on extremely strongly targeted algorithms.”
There’s little motivation for tech companies to do anything about this, either: the angrier and more anxious people are online, the more likely they are to ‘engage’ with content, the more money execs can make. Notably, back in 2021, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen went as far as alleging that leaders at the social media company choose to use algorithms that fuel division and discord in order to keep users ‘engaged’ with content on their feeds – never mind the fact that this is driving a rise in extremism, hurting democracy, and fueling feelings of isolation.
It’s important to note that men would be better placed to resist radicalisation if they felt fulfilled and secure in their lives to begin with. With stagnant wages, rocketing house prices, rampant inflation, a mental health crisis, and diminished prospects, many young people are – understandably – brimming with anger and frustration. Dr Hannell explains that the economic dislocation of young men has given rise to “simplistic and reactionary explanations” which scapegoat marginalised groups such as women, immigrants, or trans people. “What this does is ignore all the structural issues that have contributed to the social problems young people are coming up against,” she says.
There are reasons to be hopeful. While we may not be able to force the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to do something about their dangerous and divisive algorithms, we can be more mindful of how it’s in these companies’ interests to push us down ideological rabbit holes – or, ideally, spend less time online. That said, research has found that a person’s politics are generally determined for life by their experiences as a teenager and young adult, which seems to suggest that Gen Z men and women could be on track to be ideologically divided for the rest of their lives. Will we ever be able to break out of our “algorithmically walled gardens of TikTok” and find a way back to one another? Only time will tell.