We must listen to angry young men

Published by The i paper (20th January, 2025)

It might seem strange that Village People are set to perform at inauguration events for Donald Trump’s restoration to the White House. The group was created by a producer who advertised in clubs for “macho types” with moustaches, then dressed six muscular men in leather and uniforms. Their most famous song “YMCA”, which appeared on the album Cruisinalongside tracks such as “Hot Cop”, was perceived to be a gay anthem in praise of picking up partners in hostels and gyms. And two years ago lead singer Victor Willis told the president-elect to stop using their songs at rallies following complaints from fans. 

But everything goes weird in Trumpland. Today Willis denies there was innuendo in lyrics such as “You can do whatever you feel”, he says his lawyer wife will sue media implying there is anything gay about YMCA – and the band is raking in millions from adoption by the Maga crowd. So this week they will be hanging out with all the Republican boys and tech bros at parties across Washington while the next United States president shimmies along to a camp disco classic.

Yet how symbolic that songs telling young men there’s no need to feel down and claiming every man wants to be macho will ring out at events heralding the triumph of hard-right populism. Note how toadying tech boss Mark Zuckerberg – after discussions at Facebook on how best to cuddle up to Trump led to ditching of fact-checking controls – suddenly claims we need to embrace “masculine energy” while calling for more aggressive corporate culture in an “emasculated” society. And how the president-elect mocked his female rival in the campaign – saying she lacked brains or stamina to run a country, as well as whipping up crowds to chant “bitch” at one rally – while his number two sneered at “childless cat ladies”.

Behind this lies one of the most intriguing – and alarming – shifts taking place in politics as disenchanted young men turn sharply right and another fissure opens up in democracies. This defies the widely held idea that younger generations are always more liberal, leading inevitably to more tolerant societies. Instead we see declining faith in democracy, especially among younger voters. And a substantial number of alienated young men shifting to the populist or fascistic extreme right, exposing the emergence of a stark and insidious gender divide.

Young American men moved 15 points right in the presidential election, overturning the tradition that most young people leaned left. Trump won support from 56 per cent of men under 30 – but only 40 per cent of women the same age.

Now look at the latest polling for Reform UK, a party owned by Trump’s adoring fanboy Nigel Farage offering nothing except fury over immigration. YouGov finds it in first place among men with 30 per cent support – but backed by just 19 per cent of women, placed behind both Labour and Tories. As British politics fragments, both Reform and the Greens are backed by roughly one-fifth of 18 to 24 year olds – but twice as many young women voted Green than young men in the election six months ago.

Such toxic political polarisation between genders is seen across the democratic world. Many young men feel frustrated by their opportunities and place in society, with bubbling resentments inflamed by social media and fuelled by influencers leading a misogynist backlash against the #MeToo movement. 

They are turning to the populist right in far greater numbers than young women in European nations as diverse as Belgium, Germany, Finland, Poland and Portugal. In South Korea, there is similar divergence in voting patterns. This lurch right is reflected by an increasing difference of opinion between men and women on issues such as diversity, equality, feminism, gender roles and global warming. 

Trump – a man found liable for sexual assault – likes tough guys, from domestic wrestling stars to despotic foreign strongmen. He exploited this gender divide and generational shift with skill in his campaign, whether deploying Hulk Hogan’s shirt-ripping antics at rallies or spending so much time in the “manosphere” with online gamers, pranksters and podcasters.

One recent study found four in ten US voters under 30 regularly get news from such content creators, although often cesspits of conspiracy, misinformation and misogyny. No wonder Trump has a sudden “warm spot” for TikTok despite antipathy to China and previous backing for a ban – and Farage puts huge effort into building his audience on the site. 

This changing nature of news with the collapse of traditional media underlines the global significance of all those tech titans falling into line behind Trump’s populist revolt, abandoning even their veneer of liberalism. Europe should be fearless, responding with rigid online regulation. And we cannot ignore that we live in a world that remains heavily weighted against women, from continuing male dominance of the workplace through to all the scandals involving female healthcare and shocking failures to tackle domestic abuse and rape.

But at the same time, there are serious concerns for younger generations over issues such as childcare, housing and jobs that are failing to be solved by mainstream politicians, leaving many men confused and vulnerable to seduction by extremists and populists – especially those with less skills, living at a time when masculinity has been framed in a largely negative style. 

We should learn from Norway, a nation judged to have among strongest gender equality in the world, from pay through to politics. It recognised the need for a recent government inquiry into men’s issues to ensure full equity, seeing that many men feel lost or excluded and how some societal challenges impact hardest on them.  These are complex issues – but dangerous if ignored, leading insecure young men into the arms of misogynist extremists and populists who only make life worse for women. Remember this when you see Trump grooving to the Village People as they urge young men to pick themselves up off the ground.

Categorised in: home feature, Politics, United States, World