It has long been the case that American women are generally more liberal than American men. But among young Americans, this gender gap has widened into an enormous rift: According to recent Gallup polling, there is a 30-point differencebetween the number of women age 18–30 who self-identify as liberal and the number of men in that demographic who do the same.
That’s largely because young women have gotten much more liberal, while young men have stayed ideologically more consistent—or, according to other analyses, become more conservative and anti-feminist. (Of course, not every person identifies as a man or woman. But gender roles still play a big part in shaping our lives and politics, and in the context of this column, I am focusing mostly on the vast majority of Americans who identify as one or the other.) It’s not happening just here either; the political divide between the sexes is a trend that researchers are observing in some other countries too.
I disagree. The divide is not because we talk about “violence against women.” Violence against women is a sadly vastly bigger problem rooted in eons of misogyny. That does NOT take a damn thing away from men and nbs who are abused.
Maybe the left can do more to capture the minds of young men, but how? Conservatism plays at people’s base instincts, fear and ingrained culture. It’s easier to avoid the cognitive dissonance of recognizing that hey, toxic masculinity does kinda suck. Or perhaps that the social construct of women in the home rearing kids is demeaning and repressive and has nothing to do with nature.
I think men have a lot of reflecting to do, and it’s very hard to do that when it’s uncomfortable and challenges you to think differently. Conservatism simply maintains the status quo which places men higher, and that’s a lot more convenient than introspection.
All this isnt to say that men aren’t being left behind when it comes to body positivity, mental health, etc. These are things that are vitally important for men too.
Also, I would avoid the Heard topic which is a beacon of misinformation and misogyny. I exclusively read negativity about Heard from news outlets and Reddit. It was like Depp was everyone’s best friend as they suddenly rushed to his defense against “feminism”. Blegh.
So the proportion isn’t vastly bigger, only about 7%. Also men are much more likely to be the victims of violence generally.
And the proportion doesn’t matter either. All victims of violence deserve help and empathy. Otherwise, the argument is that “minority victims don’t matter”. LGBTQ folks also deserve help and support tailored to their needs, despite being a relative minority.