POLLY VERNON
COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR
ACCORDING TO research by The Economist, there’s a growing, intractable political divide between young men and young women. The Economist found 18 to 29-year-old men are more likely to vote Conservative, 18 to 29-year-old women: Labour. Young women are more likely to describe themselves as ‘very liberal’; teenage boys, meanwhile (according to a King’s College London study) are more likely to believe feminism has ‘done more harm than good’ than male Baby Boomers, the 60 to 78-year-old demographic. Which is… alarming. Your average 70-year-old bloke more comfortable with feminism than your average 17-year-old boy? Bloody hell.
When I first read the headline on all this, I thought: same as it ever was, babes. When I was at uni, the place was rammed with Tory Boys & Lefty Girls. We had a fine time arguing the toss, high on cheap wine and the infinite, beautiful possibilities of youth. The difference between then and The Economist’s findings now? We considered it foreplay. I am most certainly not a member of the ‘I’ve never kissed a Tory’ brigade. I kissed many – kissed and (as they say) The Rest. I remain of the opinion that hot sex is a likely by-product of ideological differences. Transgressive, innit. I am also of the opinion it’s daft to limit your romantic options to those who share your political persuasions. Boring – but also: dangerous. An inroad to political entrenchment, to disappearing so far up the arse of all the things in which you think you believe, you can’t see when they’re going wrong.
So yeah, I thought The Economist was rehashing old ground… Until I read the teenage boy/feminist thing. How boys everywhere, raised in the aftermath of #MeToo, subsumed by accusations of ‘toxic masculinity’ and ‘privilege’ and the idiocy of the Kens in Barbie (ref Shakira), feel so bel
