Esa's Notebook

 In early 2024, the Financial Times published a study on the values of young people in different countries. According to the report, the values of men and women are increasingly divergent. In Western countries, especially since the 2010s, the difference in values has become large. E.g. In the US, Britain and Germany, young men increasingly prefer conservative values, while women have become more liberal. Women support values that emphasize gender equality, diversity and women’s rights. Young women are more liberal than men on issues such as immigration and racial justice. In many countries, women have shifted to left-wing values and men either remain politically stationary or move to the right.

The media bombardment of recent years on issues related to the status of women such as #MeToo, radical feminism and talk of mansplaining and toxic masculinity, have led men to feel threatened by their male identity and sexuality. For many men who respect traditional values, the emphasis on gender diversity and woke ideology has been too much. It has also been contributed by the fact that feminist research has emphasized that girls’ problems are social equality problems, but at the same time, “boys’ problems are their own, and that they themselves should be responsible for them as members of a privileged patriarchy.”

As Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish) wrote, masculinity is talked about a lot through men’s problems. “For some men, talking about mansplaining or setämies phenomenon (In Finland, a mocking and contemptuous term used by feminists for middle-aged men who are perceived to approach young women in a chauvinistic or sexist manner) can leave men feeling that a lot of their own masculinity is wrong.”

Even men’s gaming culture is accused of waging a culture war against feminism and leftism, as shown in a study by the Department of Gender Studies at the University of Tampere, Finland, entitled Discriminated Soy Boys and Ruined Gaming: Masculinity and Antifeminism in Ylilauta’s Game Culture Discussions.

Men value traditional values more and alienate e.g. trans movements based on gender ideology and extreme feminism. The transgender movement is largely women-induced. Men have not found their home in left-wing and ideologically atheistic movements, those that criticize and mock Christianity. It has come to an end for them.

The change in men’s values is reactive to the liberalization of public debate and social institutions such as universities, the church, and the media, as well as to political green-leftism. These, in turn, have been driven especially by young women. The change in men’s values is reflected in men’s political choice, which is increasingly conservative and emphasizes traditional social and religious values. In Finland, this change has been striking in recent elections. (Cover picture Pixabay)