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Telegraph
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why obsessing over ‘identity' is a stupid idea
Earlier this year, delivering the annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Gareth Southgate argued that in Britain today, too many boys and young men are suffering an identity crisis. They need better role models: only through emulating such figures can they reverse their own slump into academic underachievement, Andrew Tate-fuelled misogyny and feelings of worthlessness. The speech was widely praised. It seemed, if you'll forgive the pun, that the former England manager was shooting at an open goal. Few disputed that the fundamental problem was our boys' sense of identity, or that this sense needed to be made stronger and more resilient. Or maybe not. In this incendiary and timely broadside, Australian philosopher Alexander Douglas argues that the entire concept of 'identity', as we find it in contemporary discourse, is wrong. There's something undeniably odd about looking to others to find one's true self. Personal authenticity surely can't be a matter of imitation – and yet, for good or ill, we do it all the time. As children, we play at being superheroes, monsters, parents, criminals, police: we try to find out who we are by playing at being what we are not. As adults, Alexander suggests, we continue this role-play, but with a twist: we're motivated by fear to hunker down in silos of identity definition. Hence, perhaps, the rise of identity politics, as manifested on all sides: Black Lives Matter, the English Defence League, #MeToo, Proud Boys, self-regarding wellness crypto-fascists, the LGBTQ+ community. It seems unlikely that Nicola Sturgeon, Nigel Farage or Donald Trump would have been elected were it not for the respectively Scottish, English and American national identities to which their supporters cleave. Identity politics has for some time been excoriated by conservatives, but increasingly it is attacked by the Left too. Ash Sarkar, a regular panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze, who has described herself as 'literally a communist', proposed in her recent book Minority Rule that the Left's cause is being thwarted because the oppressed they hope to defend are being splintered into different interest groups riven by identity politics. If only black people, queer people, trans people and the white working-classes could see past their identitarian distinctions, and think along class lines, the revolution might have some actual prospects. It's easy to understand, Douglas writes, why we shore up our identities like latter-day Canutes. 'Drowning in a world where nothing is certain, where half of what we know is probably mistaken and the other half will soon be out of date, fear drives us to cling to the driftwood of various definitions.' Tech companies monetise exactly this insecurity and desire for stability. We're encouraged to present our 'authentic selves' online, the better for Meta and other firms to exploit our private data for profit – though the more heavily redacted, cunningly filtered and therefore inauthentic, the more engagement-worthy those selves will be. The central point of Against Identity is that these identities are not just generated by fear and algorithms but are fundamentally mendacious. As the late Christian philosopher René Girard put it: 'Individualism is a formidable lie.' That's a discombobulating axiom for the 21st century, in which individualism has become a religion for a society that's lost faith in God. Girard grew up in post-war France, when existentialism was becoming an exportable commodity, like fine wines or Brigitte Bardot, spreading its influence from Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafés to the world. The leader of the turtlenecks, Jean-Paul Sartre, argued that we have the God-like power to become our true selves ex nihilo – a tremendously hopefully message for those of us who are struggling to escape the inherited curses of family, class, sex, or (in my case) a Black Country accent. Soon, ironically enough, everybody sought to become an individual. Girard denounced the hipster narcissists whose way of becoming themselves was, ironically, to look like what he called 'a vast herd of sheep-like individualists'. Girard called this desire to establish one's authentic identity a 'romantic lie', and it's a lie that persists today, not least in Silicon Valley. Douglas points, for instance, to Steve Jobs's much-mythologised 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, where the Apple founder hymned 'your own inner voice, heart and intuition', which 'will somehow know already what you want to truly become.' How did we get this way? One account of human evolution, as related by Douglas, goes like this. For much of human history, there was no organised legal force to restrain the lawless thugs who sought to harm others. Coalitions of the willing thus formed to eliminate them and safeguard society. This is what the primatologist Richard Wangham calls the 'execution hypothesis': to put it roughly, the more aggressive members of society were bumped off or, presumably through some form of community-wide castration, prevented from reproducing. Douglas contends that this domesticated human society, which has continued to the present day, produced a civilisation that wasn't violent in a reactive way, as with the elimination of those thugs, but a proactive one: it enforces conformity to norms. Humans became selected, in the evolutionary sense, for their extreme vigilance in conforming to social norms, whether out of fear of punishment or, worse, being made to look ridiculous. 'People fear breaking the social contract,' Douglas writes, 'for the same reason they fear turning up to a gala event in unfashionable shoes finding themselves in a conversation where everybody but them seems to have mastered the appropriate slang or academic jargon.' (He is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of St Andrews: one wonders if he's speaking from experience.) One's identity, that is to say, is constrained and defined by the norms of our society. We are not meaningfully free to choose who we are. Douglas goes on: 'Many of our communities, whatever the stated purpose might be, are really identity regimes driven by egotism – patrolled and sustained by individuals determined to preserve a certain idea of themselves: a fragile idea that cannot bear much novelty.' This rings true to me. But the alternative Douglas proposes is, to put it mildly, bracing. He counsels something called 'identitylessness', which – following the philosophies of Girard, Spinoza and the ancient Chinese sage Zhuangzhi – involves breaking out of the prison of individual identity and realising that we're all, in a profound sense, connected to everything. 'We are the others and the others are us,' he writes at his most rhapsodic, 'not because we share an identity, but because we are alike in identitylessness… I believe we have barely begun to live in the world together. Our drive for identity is always getting in the way.' Alexander is alert to the complaint that this anti-identity vision might be deranging, that 'a world without identity is terrifying'. Not just terrifying, I would argue, but scarcely comprehensible. Yet he believes in it. At one point, he movingly recounts how he struggled to deal with his father's Alzheimer's disease. His dad's identity was being brutally stripped to nothing. A friend advised that Douglas should stop yearning for his dad to become his old self: give up the hope of trying to bring the father back to this world, and instead enter his. 'That turned out to be the secret,' he writes. 'My father was not vanishing but changing.' Douglas set about 'letting go of the things I was exhausting myself trying to hold on to, the things by which I had defined both him and myself, and learning to find joy in what was there'. The experience allowed him to fully understand the anti-identity philosophers he celebrates here. 'Nothing can remain the same. Trying to hold on to the way things are is a losing game. But love remains, because love can flow along with the way things change… Love is as supple as the world, and the world's transformations cannot erase it. Love is the opposite of identity and the secret to adaptation.' Ultimately, I'm not sure Douglas is right about love. Can we really love what has no personality or identity? Nor, closing Against Identity, was I convinced that we could really live identityless in a mystical communion with the rest of the universe. But the challenge he makes along the way to what many of us have become – narcissists onanistically buffing our fatuous identities, both online and in real life – seems to me more valuable and important than most contemporary philosophy.
Irish Examiner
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
The 'Lost Boys' debate: Are positive male role models the answer?
The recent rise of male supremacist influencers, coupled with the unprecedented success of the Netflix series Adolescence, has provoked a plethora of public debate about what boys need in order to resist the toxic impact of manosphere figures and groups online. Especially prevalent among the proposed solutions are calls for healthier or more positive male role models to fill a void that boys are allegedly experiencing. We have seen this, for example, in Gareth Southgate's Richard Dimbleby Lecture and in numerous opinion pieces including Finian Murphy's piece in the Irish Examiner recently. Interestingly, these calls come from both reactionary and progressive quarters, albeit in manifestly different guises. Conservative responses generally attribute the lure of manfluencers to a crisis of masculinity, grinding the age-old axe of the pre-internet men's rights movement, which blames all of boys' – and indeed society's – problems on a lack of strong role models due to fatherlessness and the 'feminisation' of education. You don't have to scratch too hard beneath their invocations of disciplinarian manhood to see how these ideas might be pushing back against lesbian parents and single mothers, or advocating for more authoritarian, 'unwoke' educational systems. In more liberal contexts, however, there is also a broad consensus that boys need positive male role models and that providing them with same-sex teachers or youth leaders will have a positive effect on their sense of identity, behaviour and educational attainment. Looking beyond the contexts of home and school, many have suggested that figures such as Blindboy, Emmet Kirwan or Hasan Piker provide important alternative perspectives on equality and social justice, a sentiment I would certainly echo. However, there is a fundamental flaw in the male role model paradigm, namely that there is no consensus on what constitutes positive masculinity. Parents and teachers in affluent schools may have very different concepts and requirements of a positive role model to those in disadvantaged schools and youth clubs. Does he have to be a leader, a hero or the best at something? Can he be gay or a trans man? Does he embody stoicism or softness? Even if there were agreement on this, how would such an exemplar of 'healthy masculinity' appeal to the diversity of boys in any classroom? The criteria are at best fuzzy, subjective and ideologically charged. Many have suggested that figures such as Blindboy, Emmet Kirwan (pictured) or Hasan Piker provide important alternative perspectives on equality and social justice. Picture: Ste Murray The bigger problem, however, is that the concept is fundamentally sexist because it's predicated on the assumption that boys can only be inspired by, and will only listen to, other boys or men. This same-sex modelling narrative is essentialist and one-dimensional, casting women and men as fixed, homogeneous categories. It also perpetuates the very problem we are trying to address, namely that many boys have been conditioned to undervalue the legitimacy and authority of women and girls. Importantly, the academic research shows a lack of empirical evidence for the effectiveness of male role modelling. In the UK, Sandy Ruxton and colleagues found no evidence that boys require male role models as opposed to mentors and guides of any gender who offer genuine empathy and sustained support. Martin Robb and colleagues also challenged the notion that gender must dictate mentorship in shaping positive behaviour, as their research showed that boys are equally receptive to learning and being influenced by female role models. A recent study in Australia by Pippa Mulley and Sarah Epstein found that boys' perceptions of gender were shaped by a blend of ideas, values, and familial practices, rather than merely mimicking the actions of men. In particular, feminist mothers played a key role in shaping their understandings of non-typical masculinity practices and embracing progressive values. There is a fundamental flaw in the male role model paradigm, namely that there is no consensus on what constitutes positive masculinity. File picture Similarly, there is no evidence that male teachers or fathers are an automatic antidote to the toxic ideas and behaviours being propagated online. The 2023 Internet Matters report in the UK found that over half of young dads (56%) up to the age of 35 had a favourable view of Andrew Tate. Like mothers and female teachers, fathers and male teachers have diverse identities, political views and approaches to teaching and parenting. If we are broadly agreed on equality and opposed to sexist discrimination in the workplace, what is it that male teachers can provide which female or non-binary teachers can't? One of the strengths of 'Adolescence' is that it resisted lazy, half-baked explanations: Jamie had both a father and male teachers but they failed to provide the mentorship he needed. Interestingly, we don't see the same panic around positive role models for girls. This is not because they don't need them – we all need mentors, supporters and cheerleaders in our lives, as well as cultural icons who inspire us. But girls, because are they not afraid to show one another care and love for fear of being labelled gay, tend to support each other more. As Niobe Way has long argued, boys are not suffering due to a crisis of masculinity but because of a crisis of connection. Role models or mentors are only one element of what boys need to navigate social change in a world that is hellbent on telling them they are on the losing end of progress. What's more, these figures do not need to be either male or heroic. On the contrary, it is only by nurturing boyhoods free from gender straightjacketing that we can promote emotional well-being and build resistance to problematic beliefs and behaviours. (Left to right) Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston and Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence. One of the strengths of Adolescence is that it resisted lazy, half-baked explanations: Jamie had both a father and male teachers but they failed to provide the mentorship he needed. Picture: Ben Blackall/Netflix © 2024 Boys need supportive friendship networks which do not measure masculinity by sexual conquest, physical strength or wealth, and which do not stigmatise them for being different. They need critical digital literacy skills, and they need home and school contexts that nurture rather than suppress empathy. As Jessica Ringrose has argued, the boys-in-crisis discourse and its attendant panic about male role modelling is not only unhelpful for boys, but it also distracts from the needs of girls, non-binary youth and other non-dominant boys. Instead of using masculinity or femininity as a starting point, modelling for positive ways of being and doing should instead acknowledge and celebrate the rich diversity of the people who guide, support and inspire us all, irrespective of gender. Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities Read More Richard Hogan: We need to wake up to what is happening with our boys
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Call of Duty: Developer defends gaming's impact on young men
A developer behind titles in the Call of Duty (CoD) series has defended the effect of video games on young Actipis says makers like him are "not here to dictate anything other than an outlet for enjoyment and entertainment for a player".It follows criticism by former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate, who said he feared young men were "falling into unhealthy alternatives like gaming"."Every person can determine what's right for their situation, for their family," Pete tells BBC Newsbeat. "You can look at anything and say it's a problem," adds Pete, whose work as designer includes CoD titles such as last year's Black Ops 6."It's just really about how you use the medium." Sir Gareth referenced "gaming, gambling and pornography" when discussing young men in the UK during a speech at the BBC's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture in the subject has since been brought into even sharper focus by hit Netflix drama Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the series, which tells the story of a 13-year-old boy charged with a violent murder, as "really hard to watch".CoD designer Pete feels gaming isn't any more responsible for negatively influencing young players than any of their other interests."Gaming has its place with everything else," he says."It depends what you're looking for and how you handle the moderation of that, how you handle what it means to your life."It's kind of a personal journey from there."He also denied the CoD series has a responsibility to educate younger gamers about latest title was rated as suitable for players aged 18 and above by PEGI, which sets age recommendations for games in Europe. 'Double-edged sword' CoD player Rhys tells Newsbeat that while he accepts abusive behaviour can take place, he believes playing games doesn't necessarily have a negative influence on male players."People look at someone playing games for eight hours and think 'he's not really doing much'."But he might be preparing for a tournament."That could be worth a month's salary, sometimes a yearly salary for some people."It's a double-edged sword," he says. Gamer Abi, who plays and streams as AbiCoops, has mixed feelings about her gaming experiences."I had a stalker," she says."I'd block his account, he'd make new accounts and actually re-bought the game [CoD] to constantly try and find me in it." Abi adds she's had "derogatory things" said to her by other male players."About sexual assault, about rape, the stereotypical 'go back to the kitchen'."It really messes with your mental health."We'll be fat-shamed, bullied about our appearance, bullied about whether you're in a relationship."They will nit-pick everything about you just to get to you but women do it to women as well," she the abuse and harassment, Abi says she won't "back down to it" because of the positive impact gaming has had on her life."I met all of my friends online."I've made friendships, it's brought my family closer together, I met my partner through gaming." And CoD developer Pete Actipis claims its positive impact on players hit new heights during Covid lockdowns."People were stuck in their house," he says."[The game] was actually a very social experience. A lot of memories were formed, a lot of friendships were formed, online."That period in the series' history is virtually bringing players together again in update to Call of Duty: Warzone has revived a fan favourite - a map called Verdansk, based in Ukraine, where people around the world can play each other Rhys, it brings back memories of bonding with other players during the UK's tightest Covid restrictions."It gave [players] the opportunity to just get to know each other," Rhys says."I built bonds with people I now class as really good friends."It's a really bizarre and amazing experience." Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
Sky News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Sir Keir Starmer says minister for men 'not the answer' to 'problem with boys' raised in Netflix drama Adolescence
Sir Keir Starmer has rejected the idea of creating a minister for men to combat some of the issues raised in the hit Netflix drama Adolescence. Sir Keir said he was "worried" about the "crisis in masculinity" raised in the programme, which centres on a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a young girl and the rise of incel culture. The themes touched upon in the show have led to suggestions that the government introduce a minister for men to mirror the women and equalities minister that currently exists in the cabinet. But speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the prime minister said he did not think appointing a new minister was "the answer" to the problems affecting young boys today, including negative and harmful social media content and a lack of visible role models. "I am worried about this; I've got a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl," he said. "There's a reason why the debate has suddenly sparked into life on this and that's because I think a lot of parents, a lot of people who work with young people at school or elsewhere, recognise that we may have a problem with boys and young men that we need to address." Sir Keir said he was more persuaded by arguments put forward by former England manger Gareth Southgate, who argued in a recent lecture that young men lacked positive role models, making them vulnerable to online influencers who promoted negative ideologies about the world and women. "I've been in touch with Gareth," the prime minister said. "I know Gareth. I thought his lecture, what he was saying, was really powerful, will have resonated with a lot of parents. "And I do think this is something that we have to take seriously, we have to address. We can't shrug our shoulders at it." Asked whether a minister for men would help, Sir Keir said: "No, I don't think that's the answer. "I think it is time for listening carefully to what Gareth Southgate was saying and responding to it. "I want to have that further discussion with him. We've already had a bit of a discussion about this, but I do think it's important we pick this challenge up and see it for what it is." 0:49 Delivering the BBC's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Mr Southgate revealed how his experience of missing a penalty at Euro 96 "still haunts me today". And he warned that "callous" influencers online were tricking young men into thinking women and the world were against them, causing them to "withdraw" into the online world and express their emotions there rather than in "real-world communities. He said a "void" in their search for direction is often now being filled by some influencers who "willingly trick young men into believing that success is measured by money or dominance". In his interview with the BBC, Sir Keir suggested footballers and athletes could be role models for boys and young men but said there was also a need for inspirational people in communities. Asked who the British male role models were, Sir Keir told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I always go to sport for this. Footballers, athletes, I think they are role models. "But I also think if you actually ask a young person, they're more likely to identify somebody who's in their school, a teacher, or somebody who maybe is a sports coach, something like that. "So we need to make sure that - this is something that dads do, dad would reach for a sort of sporting hero - I think children, young people, are more likely to reach someone closer to them, within their school, within their community. "And that's, I think, where we need to do some of the work." The UK has never had a minister for men but previous Conservative MPs, including former Doncaster MP Nick Fletcher, have called for one in the past to tackle high rates of suicide among men. The position of minister for women was created by former Labour prime minister Tony Blair as a means of prioritising women's issues across government.
BBC News
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Netflix drama Adolescence shines light on 'growing problem'
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has there was a need to tackle the "emerging and growing problem" raised by new TV drama four-part series co-written and starring actor Stephen Graham, from Kirkby, Merseyside, follows a family whose lives are blown apart when their teenage son is arrested for killing a female drama released last week shines a light on the corrosive impact of social media and misogynist influencers on some teenage boys. It was the most-watched show on Netflix around the world over the said he and his family had been watching the serial after Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley raised the issue at Prime Ministers Questions earlier. Sir Keir's comments came after writer of Adolescence, Jack Thorne, said he and co-writer Graham wanted the programme to be a piece of work that "causes discussion and makes change".Thorne said: "I want it to be shown in schools, I want it to be shown in Parliament. It's crucial because this is only going to get worse."It's something that people need to be talking about, hopefully that's what drama can do," he added. 'Toxic misogyny' Midgley told the Commons "everyone" was talking about the series, whose stars Graham and Christine Tremarco, were both born in her Labour MP said it "highlights online male radicalisation and violence against girls" and that "the creators of the show are calling for screenings in Parliament and in schools to spark change".She asked the Prime Minister to back the campaign "to counter toxic misogyny early" and "give young men the role models they deserve".Starmer responded his household had also been glued to the said: "At home we are watching Adolescence with our children. "I've got a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl and it's a really good drama to watch." He said the violence carried out by young men influenced by what they see online was "abhorrent" and "we have to tackle it." He added the government was taking steps such as putting in specialist rape and sexual offences teams in police forces across the country dealing with 999 he said the issues raised in Adolescence were "a matter of culture" which he said "it's important across the whole house that we tackle this emerging and growing problem".It comes as the former England manager Gareth Southgate spoke out about masculinity and the "manosphere".In a wide-ranging talk for the BBC's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Southgate said he feared young men were spending too much time gaming, gambling and watching pornography - and that they needed better role models beyond online influencers. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
