Dragging it back to this, there was a time when I'd think this sort of stuff is just the over protective dad approach, but really not anymore. I was speaking to my wife about this last night, how in many respects women's rights are heading in the right direction, but then you have things like the manosphere, and the fact that people have somehow people have been convinced that trans people are such a big threat to women's rights that we should get angrier about a trans woman using the women's bathroom than we should about pesky little things like, er, government policy.
And these aren't small things. Republicans/Conservatives in particular are busy telling people that trans people are a threat to women whilst they celebrate the overturning of Roe v Wade, an action that will result in women dying, as a victory. And the manosphere is not a niche movement in the corner of the internet. There is an actual, evidenced problem of teenage boys in schools admiring people like Andrew Tate, whose definition of being alpha is basically being 'strong' enough to ignore the autonomy, feelings and consent of women. It is terrifying, not least because peer pressure among groups of boys was always a problem, and I have a genuine fear of boys who otherwise aren't bad kids being sucked into that environment and heavily influenced by it.
I still absolutely believe that there are enough teenage boys out there that are being raised correctly with good role models and are sufficiently resilient to these pressures, but the risks for our daughters are so prominent now. It is a scary time for them and us.
