Teachers across the UK have reported a marked deterioration in behaviour and attitudes among teenage boys, which they say is fertile ground for misogynistic influencers such as Andrew Tate. Mike Nicholson, who runs the Progressive Masculinity programme, holds workshops with teenage boys and says that mentioning feminism can cause a palpable shift in the room. “As soon as I mention feminism, you can feel the shift in the room; they’re shuffling in their seats,” he said.
A recent survey by Ipsos for King’s College London’s Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership found that 16-29-year-old men are more negative about feminism than men over 60, with one in five holding a positive view of Tate, the self-professed misogynist influencer. Professor Bobby Duffy called this a “new and unusual generational pattern”, as younger cohorts have traditionally been more liberal.
However, not all educators agree that attitudes have shifted significantly. Keziah Featherstone, executive headteacher of Q3 Academy in Tipton, West Midlands, said: “I have not noticed anything significantly change. And I have worked in education for 30 years.” She is more concerned about vaping and school absences than a spike in misogyny. But other teachers, trainers, and parents told the Guardian about shifting values against the backdrop of ubiquitous social media.
Anna, a secondary school teacher for 15 years until 2019, said she witnessed a decline in feminism among young men, accompanied by an increase in troubling behaviour. “We interviewed our students talking about the everyday sexism they encountered. The upskirting, slut-shaming, predatory behaviour and casual microaggressions. It was horrifying to see how the girls saw it as just another part of life,” she said.
Michael Conroy, a former teacher who now runs the consultancy Men at Work, described a deterioration linked to widespread smartphone use. “That shifted what we were used to in school. So instead of, like, a dick pic a month, it was five every week. And it wasn’t just year 10, it was year eight,” he said. He added that educators have reported “an obvious harshening of the way boys talk about women; and a growing sense that somehow they must be mistreated and hated because they are boys and men.”
Daniel Guinness, managing director of Beyond Equality, which runs workshops on masculinity, said many young men feel under pressure from internalised expectations. “It’s not showing that emotional weakness. It’s also the expectation to always be right. Like you are not able to show that you can fail,” he said. Guinness stressed that many men have positive attitudes to women, but some feel stereotyped or blamed for others’ actions. Andrew Tate, who is facing charges of human trafficking and rape in Romania, has denied the allegations. His videos, often delivered shirtless and cigar in hand, combine exhortations to work hard with misogynistic attitudes.
