Masculinity and misogyny in the media

The realities of rising toxic masculinity amongst boys and young men.

In March, the release of the Netflix series ‘Adolescence’ generated conversations and commentary about misogyny among teenagers and young men. The show dealt with several complex themes that are highly relevant to current problems facing this country; rape culture, gender-based violence, the “manosphere”, and incel cultures online. There is much to unpack from the series, but in this article, I’m going to touch on some of the themes that are playing out in real life.  

‘Adolescence’ disregarded the trope that we should “blame the parents” for the harmful actions of the child. The content that can be accessed online, and the friends that men choose to surround themselves with, are also some of the many factors that influence how they relate to women. It is true that boys who lose a male role model are more likely to experience negative outcomes, such as going to prison and having mental health problems, according to the Lost Boys report. Yet, an absent or a negative male role model is not the only factor that leads men down dark paths. Many men who have turbulent and unstable lives as children, including having an absent or inconsistent male role model, grow up to be normal people and contribute to society in a positive, healthy way.  

Incel culture was a central theme in the show; it refers to online communities of men who identify as ‘involuntarily celibate’ and believe that the world is against them, including all women. Some of the terminology used by these groups include the “80/20 rule” and the “red pill”. The misogyny promoted by people such as Andrew Tate has had a pernicious effect on many teenage boys, who are receiving warped ideas online of what masculinity means. TikTok seems to be the biggest culprit when it comes to misogynistic content; research from UCL and the University of Kent found that the algorithms used by apps such as TikTok favour extreme material. The study found that there was a fourfold increase in the amount of misogynistic content shown to users on their Four You page within 5 days of being on the app.  

There are, of course, no simple answers to these problems but there are some small steps that could have a positive effect.

Misogynistic inappropriate sexual behaviour often starts in school; things such unsolicited explicit images and the spreading of explicit images is so normalised, as was referenced in Adolescence. Street harassment from grown men also starts from a young age. In adulthood, 97% of women aged 18-24 have experienced sexual harassment in a public place. The availability of violent pornography to children as young as 11 can contributes to rape culture, trivialising sexual violence. 

Everyone’s Invited is a not-for-profit that revealed the scope of the problem in the UK, providing education in schools as part of their mission to “expose and eradicate rape culture with empathy, compassion and understanding”. Misogyny and rape culture exist on a spectrum; if low level inappropriate behaviour goes unchecked or is not called out, it gives permission for men to go further in the future. Normalisation can act as a gateway to more extreme acts. This is why it is so important for men to hold their friends accountable and call out other men’s inappropriate behaviour or language regarding women. 

There are, of course, no simple answers to these problems but there are some small steps that could have a positive effect. A social media ban for children under 16 seems like a good idea; Australia has made a new policy that fines social media companies up to £25m if they fail to prevent under-16s from making accounts. But it can be avoided using VPN, so the policy probably won’t work in practice. Pressure should instead be placed on the social media companies to do better in taking down extreme, harmful content from their platforms. Not just misogynistic content, but other harmful content such as posts that promote eating disorders. Furthermore, banning phones in schools during the day wouldn’t do any harm. Lessons in schools about media literacy would be a good addition to the curriculum and can be provided by organisations such as Everyone’s Invited. 

A recent Substack by Jack Conneely entitled “Not a crisis, but a choice: masculinity with compassion”, is an extremely informative and palatable explanation of the issue; one I recommend. What particularly stood out to me was the belief that masculinity itself is not the problem, “it is patriarchy’s version of masculinity, the one that disallows tenderness, equates dominance with worth, and renders emotions other than anger suspect”.  Ultimately, closer regulation of the media young boys are consuming, and an approach of compassion is the way to counteract the rise of male violence.

Published 7 May 2025