Male adolescents generally believe that current feminism has harmed them and that it has made them lose the presumption of innocence. They understand sexual consent in “contractual terms” and, although they see the values associated with “traditional masculinity” as something of the past, they assume that the “real” man is the “self-made man”. This is reflected in the latest report from the FAD Youth Foundation, which warns of a growth in “anti-feminist sentiment” and in the denialist discourse of gender violence among Spanish adolescents.
“In recent years we have seen an anti-feminist retreat among adolescents who consider that feminism has imposed a single thought,” the Foundation emphasizes in the qualitative research that compiles the conclusions of interviews with adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17, gender experts and “co-creation” workshops with young people.
As Beatriz Martín, general director of Fad Juventud, stated this Wednesday, it is not that boys deny gender violence, nor the progress achieved thanks to feminism. The general perception, she has pointed out, is that current feminism “is extreme” and “goes against equality” and that “the one from before was positive”. “One of the most repeated ideas during conversations with adolescents is that you are guilty until proven guilty.. They are sure that the presumption of innocence has ended,” he stressed during the presentation of the results of the study.
They also tend towards blaming the victims of sexist violence, which, according to Martín, “constructs male victimhood” or enhances the perception that men “are victims of a gynocentric society” in which they “have lost their defense capacity and privileges”.
They relativize sexist violence
All in all, when they are presented with different scenarios related to gender violence, the speech of adolescents is “laden with ambiguities” in many aspects, which shows that “the imagination is full of confusion and denial,” Fad points out.. The Foundation also observes a “growing polarization between adolescent women and males”, because while boys “approach post-sexist positions”, girls continue to defend feminist positions, “although they do not always define themselves as such”.
In this sense, male adolescents do not completely deny the existence of gender violence (they recognize above all the most extreme ones), but they do “trivialize” or “minimize” its importance.. “Being toxic is not being sexist”, “machismo is something of the past”, “gender violence is inevitable”, “they do it too” or “it is a magnified phenomenon”, are some of the positions expressed by those surveyed.
“A series of shared ideas that, however, were nuanced in the discourse. Being adolescents, they do not have established opinions, and when they were allowed to speak, the discourse fell into contradictions and many times they ended up defending contrary positions, especially when they imagined solutions or talked about close situations”, detailed the director of Fad Juventud.
Consent as a contractual figure
Another striking point highlighted by Martín is the confusion that prevails around the term sexual consent.. “They understood it in contractual terms, and this has to do with all the speeches that circulate as a result of the 'only yes is yes' law,” he asserted.
As she has reported, many assured that they preferred to “put on record” beforehand that she “will not regret it”, writing to her on social networks questions such as: “Hey, do I have condoms?”, to leave on the record that it is a matter of two. They don't view consent as something that can change from one moment to the next, but try to ensure prior approval.
In addition, “they understand consent all the time in terms of non-verbal signals: I touch him and he does not withdraw his hand, he does not say no…”, which, in Martín's opinion, shows that the change “does not quite sink in” paradigm towards an affirmative consent that has been promoted at the legal level with the new law guaranteeing sexual freedom.
A self made man
The research also addresses masculinity, and how young men feel about what it means to “be a man.”. When asked about it, the majority linked this concept to the traditional image of a “lonely” man, “who takes the reins of his house”, “serious”, “fiery”, etc.. “It was the whole string of adjectives that have traditionally been awarded to masculinity,” Martín pointed out.. However, when asked if they felt represented by this model, the adolescents answered no and saw it as something of the past.
“They felt more like the idea that the real man was the self-made man, that he was how he really wanted to be, that he did not allow himself to be influenced by others and that he had personality,” he added.
This, according to Martín, is positive because it breaks with stereotypes and they feel “less corseted”; but, at the same time, it hides some very specific limits. “There is the 'stigma of the fagot', as we have called it, which is that surveillance of what it means to be a man, the fear of being associated with femininity…. it continues to be a limit that prevents them from building themselves as sensitive and empathetic beings”, he pointed out.
The consequence, according to Fad, is that they are much more reticent when it comes to seeking help or talking to their friends about a mental health problem, because they have this entrenched belief “of the leader who does not rely on others and who somehow way I put up with it all by myself and doesn't seek help”.