Feature and interview by Kerrie Draghi
“For the loud, insecure and lonely bunch, it’s easy to get sucked into the manosphere.” says Thalia, age 21.
“We need the matriarchy yesterday.” – Julia, age 23.
Earlier this year, new research from UCL was publishing showing that sexual harassment and sexual assault is more common among gen Z at age 23 than during their late teens, especially among young adults who attended university. In the study, a quarter of women reported having experienced sexual harassment, and one in seven experienced emotional abuse from their partner. 11% of Gen Z (those born between 1995-2012) reported emotional abuse and 3% experienced violence from a partner in the last year.
Additionally, research from King’s College published on 5 March 2026 showed that Gen Z now hold more traditionally sexist views about women than their grandparents, aka the ‘babyboomer’ generation. 31% of Gen Z men and 18% of Gen Z women believe that a wife should obey her husband. That’s compared to just 13% of men and 6% of women in the ‘Babyboomer’ generation. Furthermore, only 7% of Babyboomer men and women believe that a real woman should never initiate sex, and 21% of Gen Z men and 12% of Gen Z women agreed with that same statement.
In all of the questions asked, Gen Z men and women showed higher rates of sexist thinking than their older counterparts. This is especially shocking considering we live in an age where most people believe that feminism has gone too far, and young people are “too woke.” “It’s attractive to feel like domestic responsibilities and gender roles are inherent rather than a choice,” Thalia, age 21, says, “especially if many are somewhat raised that way already.” One answer to why sexism and gendered violence is on the rise for young people is the increasing popularity of the ‘Manosphere’ since early last year. There has always been sexism on the internet but it appears to have become a lot more mainstream more recently.
The manosphere is defined by the UN as “a loose network of communities that claim to address men’s struggles – dating, fitness, fatherhood – but often promote harmful advice and attitudes towards women.” The ‘Masculunities’ report from Movember found that two-thirds of men in their study regularly engaged with this type of content, many young men reported acting upon these male influencers advice – describing it as entertaining, inspiring and motivating – and young men who engaged with this content were more likely to have worse mental health outcomes. Additionally, 9 in 10 girls and young women in schools have experienced sexist name calling or received unsolicited images of a sexual nature.
Julia, 23, says: “I think the ‘canteen culture’ that boys experience in school is really harmful. Young boys often crave approval from one another and have a fear of being outcast. She believes that popular media is a major factor: “Popular media pushes a certain rhetoric that is exciting to them as they feel powerful and in control – usually unlike at home amongst their family.”
Thalia agrees: “For most young men, even though they will claim to be an ally or make friends with women, there is still a stigma and discomfort towards confronting gendered issues and violence.” She adds, “They want to believe that we’ve already moved forward. Then they’ll dismiss issues of gender roles because they don’t feel the stakes or don’t want to.”
On the role of social media, Thalia explains: “Ideas and ideals spread like wildfire on social media, and more and more people are unable to realise that online trends are not always the truth or reality.” She points to the way algorithms exploit insecurity: “This is especially true when we are all encouraged to be highly insecure by companies’ deliberate algorithms and societal expectations. It bleeds into real life and vice versa.” The result, she says, is that “the loudest, most awful people will influence those who are most insecure and often not encouraged to confront it – young boys and men.”
“In short,” Thalia continues, “a lot of them just find it easier to laugh it off or dismiss it rather than really reckon with what it does to their own lives, especially if it’s not in front of them and they’re surrounded by other men and even women who also dismiss these issues.” She believes “insecurity is even more enabled by society and social media when today you are expected to know a lot more than you actually do, forcing answers instead of asking questions.”
Furthermore, a report published this month by The Global Misogyny News Coverage Tracker, which tracks globally the news’ levels and quality on coverage of violence against women and girls, revealed that “despite the extraordinarily high real-world prevalence of sexual misconduct and violence against women and girls, and a series of high-profile cases involving abusers, misogyny-related coverage averaged just 1.6% of total online news output and hit a decade low of 1.3% in 2025.”
The report also mentions: “the terms systemic and sexism, patriarchy and misogyny appeared in less than 1% of all online Epstein-related news coverage. The term structural appeared in 0.5% of this coverage while the phrase violence against women was present in a mere 0.1%.” This show that even in news stories that are about sexual abuse against women and girls, media coverage fails to actually address the problem of violence against women and girls, or what is at the heart of it.
Another interesting outcome of the previously mentioned UCL research is that out of the young adults they surveyed, those who attended university were twice as likely to report experiencing unwanted sexual approaches than those who did not attend university. Generally speaking, this could indicate that most universities are doing a good job of educating their students about sexual harassment, and making them feel confident to report it.
On the other hand, figures from SafeLives show that young people aged 13-17 experience the highest rates of domestic abuse of any age group. 33% of girls and 49% of boys they surveyed thought hitting a partner would be ‘okay’ – showing that education around domestic abuse is lacking for teenagers. The Assistant Commissioner and the national policing lead for domestic abuse recently told The Telegraph that there is a direct link to violent sexual imagery online, the prevalence of misogynistic influencers on social media and high rates of teenage domestic abuse.
Julie continues on the topic of social media: “It is those damn phones. These poor boys can’t escape it. Young boys stumble upon something by accident and then the algorithm sucks them in until there is no escape.” She believes parents have a responsibility: “It is partly the parents’ fault for not controlling how much their children can consume. It is really important for parents and parental figures to instil good values from the beginning, so that boys grow into good people who can treat women with respect and have a mind of their own, rather than always wanting to follow trends.”
“Not just women,” Julia adds, “it is people, animals and the earth in general. I am so sick of always hearing men speak,” says Julia, 23. “we need the matriarchy yesterday.”
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