24-04-2025
MPs call for urgent action over 'toxic' male influencers
ITV News' Political Correspondent Harry Horton speaks to Labour MPs about how to tackle the culture of toxic masculinity and give young men and boys more positive role models.
A new group of Labour MPs want to pressure the government into a radical rethink of how to steer young men and boys away from the culture of toxic masculinity.
Each of the eight MPs at the meeting picks out different challenges facing young men and boys.
'We have to get away from a political snobbery,' said Shaun Davies, who represents Telford in Shropshire.
'Which is to say that to talk about men's issues and boys issues is somehow anti-women or anti-girls. It absolutely is not.'
Jonathan Brash, a former teacher and now Hartlepool MP said: 'I've been looking at the exclusion rates in secondary school and they're going up and up and up.
'Why are young men no longer fitting into our education system and then what happens when they are pushed out of it?'
Rachel Tayler's North Warwickshire constituency is a former mining area.
She believes a shift in the type of physical work men often do has had an impact: 'Now they're working in massive logistics factories, all with earpods in or on forklift trucks or operating robots. And they don't see anybody or talk to anybody all day long.'
The conversations around masculinity have been sparked, in part, by the hit Netflix drama 'Adolescence', which tells the story of a 13-year-old boy accused of stabbing a female classmate.
Mr Davies said Labour MPs have been pushing for a cross-government approach on issues affecting men long before the TV drama, but admits politicians have to do more.
'There's absolutely a fundamental problem that there is a generation of young boys coming through where there is not an offer for them and they do not have a sense of belonging and that's a moral outrage that we need to address.'
In Bishop Auckland, the local MP Sam Rushworth wants to hear from pupils about the issues raised by Adolescence.
He's invited ITV News to a conversation he's hosting at the school, and there's one name that keeps bring brought up by the pupils: Andrew Tate.
'People take him seriously,' said one girl. 'He's got such an influence on people'.
One boy said Tate and other male influencers just 'popped up' on his social media feed.
'I thought this might help me learn how to make lots of money. But then when I found out what he did, I straight unfollowed him.'
Some of the boys admit talking about emotions is much more taboo than it is for girls.
'We have this idea that we can't open up as much,' said one year ten boy.
'You don't speak to anyone about them,' said another. 'There's no point. Because most of the time it's someone telling you just to man up.'
Away from politicians, one former teacher is trying to help navigate young men through their own adolescence.
Mike Nicholson set up Progressive Masculinity to hold workshops in schools to challenge some of society's expectations of what it means to be a man.
'I noticed while I was a teacher that boys and young men really don't have safe spaces to go and discuss what it can mean to be a man, to explore the potential of masculinity without fear of judgement, without fear of shame or being ridiculed,' he said.
Nicholson said the challenges facing men are not new, but believes the world is now ready to have what he calls 'difficult conversations'.
'I think social media maybe has intensified some of it, but I think these conversations are well overdue.'
So what can be done?
The Labour MPs we spoke to have called for a 'cultural shift' in the way the public and private sector approaches the issues faced by young men and boys.
Campaigners say there needs to be a 'dedicated strategy' across government.
But the challenges are broad, spanning areas such as health, education and the internet.
Even the prime minister, who has taken a keen interest in the challenges raised by Adolescence, admits there 'isn't an obvious policy response'.
And so the fear some gave is that despite the attention of MPs and the public, there is a risk that young men and boys could slip off the agenda.
