I genuinely question if this is some sort of trend and not just how it has always been.

Cuz 40% of teenage boys being idiots seems kind of timeless.

Right from the start I will state I know the plural of anecdote isn’t evidence. But I have a friend who has given up teaching year 11/12 athletic development and now teaches grade 7 pe. Primary reason is the mysoginistic shit she had to put up with from the boys who felt their gender made them better at anything sports related than her. She would compete in triathlon in her spare time with all the training & commitment that entails, and yet the podgy, vaping 18yo man children would tell jokes with each other about how she should go back to the kitchen “where she belongs”.

When we were discussing this amongst a group that included 3 other female teachers every one of them agreed they are seeing more of that sort of crap every year. My guess would be all the Manosphere brainrot is having an affect. Couple that with kids around that age feeling the urge to be as edgy as possible…

I have noticed once or twice that my sons have started talking that way due to a combination of online and peer influence and I have stepped in to disabuse them of the notion that their chromosomes make them special or superior. But it’s the world they live in and I pity the kids without a parent who is keeping any eye on them.

Thank you for being the kind of parent the world should have more of. Kids are dumb but curious by nature, and need a guiding hand to direct them away from misinformation, propaganda, and other toxic things they have no way to discern from truth before they have the experience to tell them apart.