Online influencers such as Andrew Tate are fuelling an increase in sexism in the classroom, says a new survey from education union the NASUWT. It comes after the Netflix series Adolescence thrust concerns around incel culture into the spotlight.

Summary

Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.

More than 5,800 teachers were polled… and nearly three in five (59%) said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.

One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”. Another said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine’”.

“There is an urgent need for concerted action… to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists.”

  • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    There was always a large number of stupid kids who were jerks in school, but it was always hidden behind a mentality of stern rebukes of fights and an occasional suspension. Now, all of those same types of moronic assholes have a digital distillated stream of garbage that fits with their natural tendancies, putting these idiots into hyperdrive.

    Honestly, it’s probably better that the problem gets worse so that it unmasks the high amount of bullying and abuse that’s normally accepted in schools.

    Worst of all, when bullies harass and attack and beat people over and over in school, on the rare occasion when a student defends themself, the defender often ends up charged because “cool” bullies get a free pass unless bones are broken or the victim dies, while uncool victims are castigated by schools for defending themselves. The unfortunate recent charging of the innocent Karmelo Anthony with murder for refusing to be bullied by some asshole jock is an excellent example of this.

    Andrew Tate is not the problem, this problem has existed for a long time with school just letting it fester. Tate at least finally makes the problem noticeable. The problem has always been school administrators who allow this sort of stuff to happen.

      • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Yep, I believe you.

        A lot of times people who teach in schools were not the popular kids, but they were not unpopular either. (Because no one unpopular would want to be in a school given how unpopular kids are treated.) And it’s almost like these teachers and admins want to relive their glory days, but this time they are cool, and they do this by actually trying to be liked by the popular kids, lying to themselves and thinking if things had been slightly different they would have been really popular instead of just mildly liked or that somehow they’ve become cooler. And popular kids certainly innately see this and milk it, exploiting it for all its worth. It’s disgusting and pathetic and enables all sorts of bullshit. The popular kids give the teaxhers admins the occasional joke and smile, making them the cool teacher or admin, cementing the cycle of favoratism. It’s actually worse than just lookism, there’s this weird psychological interplay between people just on the outskirts believing they could have been in the inner circle and people highly socially intuitive exploiting that, plus neither verbalizing the phenomenon. Ocassionally administrators are teachers were really popular in high school, making it even worse, but mostly it’s the “almost popular” kids who wind up back in school and allow a corrupt unsafe bullying environment to evolve/devolve.

        • pablodaniel@lemmings.worldEnglish
          22·
          3 days ago

          This comment shouldn’t have been removed:

          “Based on my life experience, I don’t think you are as innocent as you try to make yourself seem.”