Misogyny and sexual harassment are topics that many believe are becoming less of an issue as the years go on. However, recent data shows that the current opinions and attitudes towards women and male superiority haven’t changed in a very long time or, perhaps, have shifted backwards in recent years. According to Kerwin Kofi Charles in The Effects of Sexism on American Women, data on the socioeconomic status and societal gender roles of women in America strongly resembles that of data from 50 years ago. I believe that this is strongly due to the effects of social media on adolescent and young adult males. Additionally, social media has given young boys a desire to impress other men more than in the past, which highly encourages sexual harassment and sexist ideas.
With the ongoing development of social media and its perceived necessity in developing a social life, conformity in opinion, action, and appearance grows greater every day. Anyone who uses the internet and social media can see trends surrounding men’s appearance and behavior. Because of this, young men have developed a vulnerability of being influenced by the content they consume and who they surround themselves with. Of course, this is the case with both genders, but young boys are susceptible to a very specific, more sinister and outward version of this. While many young girls are influenced by trends surrounding body image and other personal issues, young boys are primarily surrounded by judgements and influences that change their outward behavior.
According to Children and Screens Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, young boys are highly exposed to not only ideas of “toxic masculinity” such as extreme independence, lack of emotional education and transparency, and aggression as a form of emotional release, but also patriarchal ideas that exacerbate an already “male-first” society such as hypersexuality, traditional gender roles for women, and seeing women as useful for sex but not friendship or professional environments.
Influencers such as Andrew Tate, Clavicular, and Joe Rogan rising to fame and establishing a primarily young male fanbase has had an irreversibly negative impact on the vulnerable minds of their followers. Additionally, the creators we follow on social media have a large impact on who we interact with in daily life; our humor and opinions are influenced by what we consume digitally which is then affirmed by others who subscribe to the same ideals. This means that young males who fall victim to this type of content are surrounded by it both online and in daily life.
Another influence that the digital age has on young boys–and girls as well–is the pressure to consume pornography, and the aggression and gender stereotypes that go along with it. People enjoy a variety of sexual fetishes which are not necessarily rooted in patriarchal standards, but negative or aggressive attitudes towards women in porn have shifted from being specific fetishes to being considered the norm.
As parents allow children onto the internet at younger and younger ages, males are exposed to porn at an average age of 12 and roughly 60% stated that their first time viewing it was unintentional, according to scienceinsights.org; most were exposed to it through social media, pop-ups, or friends. A young, prepubescent child exposed to the aggressive porn of our day-and-age can easily develop hypersexuality, porn addiction, and aggressive and hateful attitudes towards women when they don’t fulfill their sexual desires.
Social media is certainly not the largest contributor of this phenomenon, however. In order to fit in, young boys often must relate to, or at least tolerate, misogynistic humor and actions in school and extracurricular activities. Even if they know or are taught different ideals, the sheer amount of negative or hateful messages they are commonly exposed to is sure to alter their behavior and opinions towards women.
Furthermore, the necessity to fit in often causes young males to commit acts of harassment and assault to establish social status or power. Unwanted sexual comments or requests are often given with other male peers as witnesses; this is because this form of sexual harassment is typically done as a way to impress others and/or establish power over women as a whole, not with the expectation of actually getting sexual attention in return. The trend of sharing nude photographs between friends, mocking women for sexual activity and appearance, and bragging about sexual exchanges (often with aggressive undertones about dominating women) is done not only to establish gender-power, but to impress male counterparts. In that same vein, common slang between boys to refer to sex includes words connected to domination or violence (bang, smash, crack, hit, screw), which subconsciously attaches sexual activity with establishing power over women.
This misogyny goes further than the most common and basic forms of sexism and sexual exploitation, though. It also relates to trends such as “looksmaxxing” and other actions taken to ‘impress women.’ Extreme standards of appearance are said to be attractive towards women and to get more sexual attention, but the behaviors surrounding these standards suggest a different motivation. I personally believe that most of these trends of hypermasculinity and hypersexuality are more related to impressing other men than they are to impress women or for personal gain. This is evidenced by the aggression and disregard these men have towards women.
Oftentimes, women will point out that men are stupid or naive for believing that women will want a sexual or romantic relationship with those who treat them with aggression and hostility, but I argue that this is not an issue of naivety: I believe that sex and romance are the last priority in these situations. As easy as it is to insult men who behave this way, the reality is that we cannot chalk all of their actions up to idiocy; many of them are intelligent enough to understand that this behavior will draw women away. They are more concerned with social status and praise from other men than they are attention from women.
Another issue with our current society’s attitudes towards young men are the standards that cause extreme insecurity in adolescent minds. These higher standards cause males to believe they are less than and undesirable towards women. In order to combat this, some will have a “sour grapes” attitude towards women which manifests in hate speech and misogyny. It’s extremely common to see young men retreat to hatred and hostility towards women as a defense for a lack of romantic or sexual attention. This allows them to better cope with their romantic struggles because they can convince themselves that they don’t want the attention at all. This is damaging to both men and women as this behavior perpetuates harmful ideals that bleed into darker, more aggressive crimes and actions towards women.
As harmful as social media and group mentality can be on young minds, there are positives; our society has become more and more outspoken not only in terms of hate speech and misogyny, but also in activism and social acceptance. Young women are sometimes exposed to “bodychecking” and promotions of eating disorders, but they are also exposed to criticism of that content as well as media promoting acceptance of all bodies. Young boys are exposed to impossible standards of attractiveness and hypersexuality, but they are as well being increasingly more exposed to accepting communities that allow for emotional vulnerability and self-expression.
If we continue to use social media as a platform to promote positive ideas, we can ensure that young minds are not trapped in the dark rabbit hole of male-superiority and hostility. We can look at social media and social norms from a cynical lens, or we can see them as tools for societal change and a way to ensure our next generation lives in an understanding and accepting environment.