“We are dealing with young people more and more masculinists”

Journalist at Blast and author of Be young and shut up And Resist (Payot, 2023, 2024), Salomé Sacé participates on Sunday, March 23 in one of the “big assemblies” of the World At the our Futures festival, around the theme “How to educate our parents?” », With the psychiatrist Jean-Victor Blanc, the sociologist Camille Maslet and the Doctor of Language Sciences at Sorbonne University Rémi Soulé.

How would children be supposed to educate their parents?

I don’t like to oppose generations. The oldest have a lot to teach young people and it is essential that this transmission takes place. But young people also have things to bring to their elders. Expertise, ideas … Taking into account their vision is essential. However, even today, they are faced with an ambient discourse which refers them to their supposed unculture, with their alleged hypersensitivity and, too often, in public space, we disqualify their speech.

The generation of your parents experienced a feminist wave, mobilized against racism … What does it not understand today?

No one denies the major societal advances that older generations have allowed. Simply, we are still far from an egalitarian society, these movements evolve, and among the young people who are mobilizing on these subjects today, many offer new approaches, try to make connections between the struggles, and above all put the finger on often obscured aspects. Sometimes this creates misunderstandings, as on sexist and sexual violence, part of our elders seems to minimize its scope, where a good part of the new generations is much more intolerant.

There is also a lot to do to go to an education that reproduces gender stereotypes less – ideally even, which no longer reproduces them! But you have to be careful not to put all young people in the same basket. I am particularly worried about the number of studies that highlight an increase in gender cleavage on questions, precisely, of gender and feminism. We are dealing with more and more sexist and increasingly feminist young men.

This is verified on many subjects. According to the High Council for Equality, more than one in five men aged 25 to 34 considers normal to have a higher salary in his colleague in equal position. Three quarters of young women feel the weight of stereotypical education, against half of young men. Half of women are favorable to inclusive writing, compared to 17 % of men. It is even more dramatic concerning sexual and sexist violence: 36 % of men think that a woman can take pleasure in being humiliated and 23 % of being forced.

This masculinist pressure is particularly expressed on social networks, with a more powerful and more frequent harassment around the theme: “Women have taken too much power, they must be resumed”. Parents must become aware of this powerful movement and remain in touch with their children on these subjects. This requires more listening, but more interest in what is happening online. Things will not get better. With the deregulation of social networks by the Trump administration, hateful content will be increasingly authorized. Mark Zuckerberg has acted this change on Facebook and Instagram, and X [propriété d’Elon Musk] has already become a concentrate of online hatred.

This trend does not describe all youth …

Absolutely. Youth is plural, and it is very important to emphasize this. Part of it seems to radicalize, while another evolves towards ever more tolerance on subjects such as racism or gender, as shown for example the work of sociologist Vincent Tiberj.

In “Be young and shut up”,, You regret that intergenerational solidarity is practiced especially within families …

What I especially regret is the lack of collective solidarity. May parents who can help their children financially, I don’t blame them! But what happens when you don’t get along with your parents, or when they can’t afford to help? Between 18 and 25 years old, they are entirely dependent. Some social benefits are calculated according to parents’ income, and young people are not yet entitled to RSA …