this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
116 points (100.0% liked)

WomensStuff

1386 readers
435 users here now

Women only trans inclusive This is an inclusive community for all things women. Whether you're here for make up tips, feminism or just friendly chit chat, we've got you covered.

Rules…

  1. Women only… trans women are women, and transphobic or gender critical talk isn’t allowed. Anyone under the trans umbrella (e.g. non-binary, bigender, agender) is free to decide whether a women's community is a good fit for them.
  2. Don’t be a dick. No personal attacks, no aggression, play nice.
  3. Don’t hate on groups, hatefilled talk about groups is not allowed. Ever.
  4. No governmental politics, so no talk of Trump actions etc. We recommend Feminism@beehaw.org for that, but here is an escape from it.
  5. New accounts or users with few comments may have their posts removed to prevent spam and bad-faith participation.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Trigger warning, obviously. This is dark.

The kids aren't alright.

top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Wren@lemmy.today 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I know why they tried to put a positive spin on it at the end, but those numbers are still staggering. They mean a certain percentage of the people you meet and interact with throughout the day think sexual violence toward you is justified. They think you have too many rights. They don't think you deserve equality. That's goddamn horrifying to put into numbers.

Next we need to poll the bears.

[–] ZDL@lazysoci.al 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What scares me is that it's the younger generation that's regressing to below the supposedly worst of the worst Boomers...

[–] Quokka@quokk.au 6 points 1 week ago

Or the older generation has grown out of it.

[–] applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

new poll shows most bears agree, human women should go away this is their part of the forest. small minority says they should come around more often because they are easy to hunt.

[–] ZDL@lazysoci.al 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Oh I'm saving this picture, thanks hahaha

[–] Wren@lemmy.today 7 points 1 week ago

That's still a better answer than the Gen Z men gave.

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Okay the gen z men/boys data is shocking, but also, what the fuck is going on with Gen z women/girls?! The fact that the percentages associated with any of those questions are non zero is wild. I guess some of those could be explained through religious indoctrination, but it's crazy they would be higher than the boomer women responses.

[–] ZDL@lazysoci.al 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Like I said. The kids aren't alright. 😢

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, no they are not. All of those numbers are shocking. The manosphere is an abomination. I would say social media has really done a number on a significant number of people, but it looks like porn correlates most with these attitudes.

I wonder what the differences are between how and how much the general population uses/views pornography versus the mysoginistic population. The article doesn't really discuss that.

[–] Ashtear@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The math in the study does show a moderate correlation between frequency of pornography use and misogyny.

However, the key finding of the study is that once one accounts for misogyny and other hostile attitudes, the correlation of online behaviors with violent extremism mostly falls away. It's heartbreaking to read that their teacher survey found misogynist attitudes in children as young as six and seven. Meger's recommendations at the end of the study focus at length on catching this stuff early.

[–] ZDL@lazysoci.al 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's a small problem with the "pornography use" framing.

Which pornography?

My SO and I use pornography. But it's specifically "couples porn" most times, not the hyper-degrading stuff that seems to be most popular these days. There's a lot of room for nuance in the pornography discussion. There's a world of difference between Japanese rape porn (and yes, I'm calling it out that specifically!), American degradation porn (and yes, again I'm calling it out that specifically!), and so on down a spectrum that leads to couples-oriented porn.

[–] Ashtear@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

My read here is that the study backs you up on that, since it suggests the misogynistic attitudes are driving so much of the extremism, but the survey didn't get more granular than frequency of use. What I'd love to know is if certain categories of pornography overlap with advertising for the manosphere, since the picture coming into focus here is one of overlapping, rather unpleasant content soup.

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did they work out whether that was from kids being left unsupervised with tablet or from learned attitudes from their psychopath gen z parents?

[–] Ashtear@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Could go either way. Here's some of the quotes from the teachers:

  • “Girls having to clean up because it’s their job.”
  • “Boys thinking girls can’t carry anything heavy.”
  • “Men should earn more money because they work harder.”
  • “Girls can’t play footy/soccer.”
  • “My dad said you are a woman and you don’t know.”

Lots of talk about Andrew Tate videos going viral, too (though I'd hope that's older students).

[–] Ashtear@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago

Meger's article on phys.org on her study is worth a read, as is the study itself. There's a link to it in the article, and this kind of sociology research is approachable.

Her comments on algorithms as a driving factor weren't in the original article for this post, but that's my biggest takeaway from this study. I think we're starting see real danger in how efficiently algorithms accelerate and harden extreme behaviors. It's never been easier to go from extreme content to extreme content to a conversation with a person that validates that content.

Sometimes society tolerates the ugly things, but when the environment they dwell in starts to catalyze them into more, things get untenable. I think it's past time people started pushing for full transparency about algorithmic recommendation design so we can have a real conversation about the dangers of it.

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

this is both depressing and important

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

There was also this absolutely horrifying survey: https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/Identifying%20and%20understanding%20child%20sexual%20offending%20behaviour%20and%20attitudes%20among%20Australian%20men.pdf

On how many men would rape kids if they could/have viewed CP or CP adjacent material.

Now I will say, Aussie masculinity culture is completely fucked. So translating these results outside of the Australian context is not necessarily straight forward.

But like yikes on those numbers, and that left wing attitudes aren't protective to any substantial degree is unsurprising but dissapointing.

It is sometimes hard to trust the men in my life, which isn't necessarily fair to them but like... results like these tqo survey

[–] Domi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Jesus christ I knew it was going to be bad but I wasnt expecting 25-30%. I think we might be cooked.

[–] lemmelemmy@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Misogyny is already an extremist way of thinking and acting?

[–] ZDL@lazysoci.al 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Watch a movie. Watch an hour of television. Watch videos on YouTube or Tik-Tok. Listen to lawmakers discussing laws related to women.

Misogyny is mainstream, not extremist.

It is extreme in the sense that it normalizes horrid things. Obviously lots of horrible things are mainstream right now in many places :(

[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is why we need algorithms to be depolarising and deradicalising, rather than radicalising into fascism.

[–] ZDL@lazysoci.al 6 points 1 week ago

Or, you know, no algorithms beyond "what I ask for is what I get".

[–] chewypoops@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Pretty bold assertion that we need social media algorithms.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago

Because it all comes down to pathological desire for power and control.