Opinion | How the Internet Polarizes Men and Women

One of the things that the internet does is that it exposes what the other sex is saying about you all the time. OK, go on. Yes, no, this is something that — say more about what that means. So what would previously have been locker room talk or would have been women gossiping amongst themselves is public and exposed. And I think that type of talk ought to be private. It’s perfectly normal and natural for people to have mostly homosocial kind of friendships and to say vulgar or unkind things in private. But now, of course, the internet blasts this out into the public domain. I think also, and this has been much commented upon, the extent that the internet encourages people to double down on their ideologies is also part of the problem. I’m sure that this is a big part of what’s going on with young women. Young women are very mimetic. I mean, human beings are very mimetic, but young women, I think, are more mimetic. So, for instance, young women are often the originators of new slang. They’re very socially sensitive, and fashions and so on often originate among young women. And that ability, which is both good and bad, is turbocharged online because the internet is this remarkable tool for mimesis. Hence why I think you see actually greater political radicalization among young women than among young men. Obviously, the young male political radicalization is more commented upon because younger men are more dangerous; probably the main reason that we’re more worried about violence that they might commit. I think the manosphere is unlikely to encourage young men to be violent and dangerous. I think is quite likely to encourage them to be lonely and sad, and that seems like a problem. But in terms of who has actually changed politically over the last 10 years, it’s young women who are veering left and young men who’ve actually stayed relatively still. At least the median young man has stayed relatively still Yeah, you can see that in polls that there’s — I think you’ll get a slight rightward tilt for young men. And you do have some polling that will ask feminist-coded questions about, like, what are your expectations for your wife, and are working women good for society and so on. I think in some of those you do see also some rightward movement among zoomer men. Yeah. But if you’re just asking about general questions of political affiliation, it’s a very stark divergence among young women relative to men. And this is very bad for relationships. It does seem as though men and women de-radicalize each other through exposure, through positive, intimate exposure. And that’s exactly what’s not happening.