The Radicalization of Young Women
It's not just young men we need to worry about
Quillette founder Claire Lehmann has a thought-provoking piece in The Dispatch about a subject that rarely gets much attention: the radicalization of young women by extreme ideologies.
As Lehmann points out, there’s widespread concern about the radicalization of young men, but far less about the parallel phenomenon in women. In some cases, in fact, women’s radicalization is explicitly encouraged by mainstream institutions.
Below are some excerpts from Lehmann’s piece, but the whole thing is well worth your time.
Whether the cause is Gaza, climate change, Black Lives Matter, or feminism, overrepresentation of young women has become the norm in progressive activism. And this shift signals a susceptibility to ideological extremism…
Women moving to the left is a global phenomenon… In South Korea, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Gen Z women have shifted toward “hyper-progressive” political positions, while men in the same age cohort have held steady or moved to the right…
There is growing awareness of how young men can be drawn into far-right extremism or misogynistic subcultures, but we in the media—and society more broadly—pay less attention to how young women become drawn into political subcultures… This oversight has consequences, because radicalization—defined as rigid commitment to an ideological cause to the point where it distorts one’s worldview, harms mental health, undermines relationships, or disrupts functioning—is not a male-only phenomenon…
The escalating tactics of climate activism illustrate the pattern. Last year, three female members of the British climate action group Just Stop Oil, alongside two male members, were sentenced to prison for climbing onto overhead signs of a major motorway, forcing police to shut down traffic... Two trucks collided and one police officer was injured amid the chaos. The stunt created major gridlock that led to people missing medical appointments, exams, and flights.
Another tactic popular with climate protesters is the defacing or attempted vandalism of artwork…
[W]e find it easy to recognize radicalization when it happens in young men, while romanticizing or ignoring the same phenomenon in women…
Sometimes, mainstream institutions don’t just overlook female extremism—they actively encourage it… through awards, platforms, and institutional support…
[T]his phenomenon remains largely unstudied. A growing number of academics are researching how and why young men become radicalized, but they generally exhibit little interest in addressing similar processes in women…
Recognizing this pattern is the first step toward protecting young women from the misguided narratives that exploit their moral sensitivity. But to change it, we must first name it.
You can read the full article here.
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Coming Soon to The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter…
Does Intelligence Protect Against Mental Illness?
Is Romantic Love a Western Invention?
Sexual Assault as a Crime Against the Young
Top 10 Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes
Cognitive Chicanery: Four Ways We Dodge Facts That Offend Us
Some big news about my next book…
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Where Did Wokeness Come From?
The entrepreneur and essayist Paul Graham has a fantastic new essay on the origins and evolution of wokeness. Below is my summary of the key points, along with a selection of excerpts. It’s only the bird’s-eye view, though, so I’d strongly encourage you to read the essay in full - almost every sentence is informative and…
Thank you Steve. I look forward to reading this. Agree with what I've read above totally. I definitely swallowed the feminism bait hook, line and sinker and only now in mid-life am waking up. I am very disturbed by it all, not least at how easily I allowed myself to be manipulated. My life would look very different had I had more backbone when I was younger.
Is this another instance of the gender equality paradox? While the speed of the shift may differ between the sexes, men have been moving to the right and women have been moving to the left. I do find it quite interesting that the embrace of extreme ideologies that identify with the dispossessed seem to be an expression of the leveling instinct women have: equality, or the illusion of it, must be maintained (see Warriors and Worriers): if you are struggling, you must be helped, and if you are above others, you must be brought down. If you look at the extreme ideologies that men embrace, they seem to involve the establishing of hierarchies.