FEATURE:
Generation Alpha
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Feminism’s Next Wave, A Need for Hope and a Positive Men’s Movement
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IF you…
IN THIS PHOTO: Caitlin Moran/PHOTO CREDIT: Jay Brooks/The Guardian
forward to the 1:56:35 section of the video embedded below, you will see The Trouble Club’s Ellie Newton talking with Caitlin Moran. You can see her preparing for the interview. That would have been quite intimidating. One of the biggest and best guests The Trouble Club has hosted, Moran was speaking from Manchester Central Exchange Auditorium on Saturday, 15th February. I was not able to get there myself, though I did watch it online. A lot struck me. I am going to include another interview with Caitlin Moran and also a bit about her most recent book, What About Men?, from 2023. It was subjected to some harsh reviews, but also some really nice ones. You can buy it here:
“3. It makes peace in the gender war
Moran’s honesty and humility offers us a model of how to transcend the culture wars without avoiding the difficult conversations. Her book suggests that men and women can bring the best out of each other by celebrating our differences. Moran shows us that we don’t live a zero-sum game: in order for women to win men don’t have to lose and vice-a-versa. She offers a vision of a different way for men and women to relate to each other. As a firm believer in the power, possibility and pursuit of peace whether in the Russia-Ukraine war or the politically-driven culture war or the subtleties of gender war, I sincerely appreciated her efforts.
4. It celebrates good masculinity
Moran believes our society will be happier and healthier if men and women find ways to celebrate and appreciate one another. It was this line in her book that struck me as a vital perspective:
“There should be no shame in being a man. Being made to feel shame for how you are born is something every other progressive movement is trying to remove and trying to impose it on the one group that didn't until recently feel shame; straight white men, benefits no one.”
5. It is hopeful
It’s been a long time since I have read something about gender which was as full of hope as this book is. Sadly, many books in this field are written in a bid to fight one’s corner, including those coming from the church. Moran’s posture offers us a much-needed challenge. If an outspoken feminist, who claims to have only stepped inside a church once in her life, (apparently for Rev Richard Coles’ last service in his parish) has no fear of showing support to men and their rights, or of promoting a Christian sexual ethic of commitment before sex, or of seeking to find a peaceful resolution to the gender wars, how much more should Christians be willing to do the same?
My one and only issue with the book was when it tended to lapse into stereotypes. Being the sort of man who doesn’t like to fix things (I wish I did and I could), and who doesn’t find it hard to express emotions (have I overshared already?) and who does care about my appearance (check out my latest charity shop find!) I sometimes felt a little misunderstood. Or even worse, unintentionally pigeonholed as not really being Caitlin’s idea of what a man is. This is one of the biggest challenges of anyone writing about gender, how to do so without either reinforcing stereotypes or ignoring genuine difference”.
Caitlin Moran is known best for writing about women and her perspectives. Celebrated books like 2011’s How to Be a Woman and 2020’s More Than a Woman. Cailtin Moran noted, when speaking for The Trouble Club, how there were no books out there about positive masculinity or one that tried to create this positive men’s movement. No men were writing about it so she thought that she could. However, from liberal and right-wing men alike, they attacked her because they felt like she was trying to tell them (men) they were not in touch with their emotions. Jokingly calling the book a waste of f*cking time, there was this frustration I felt. How a book with really good intentions that wanted to create conversations and changes, instead, led to criticism and abuse online. Moran said how she had to deactivate – or take herself off – Twitter/X for a month. She told Ellie Newton how there is a rise in extreme violence and abuse from men. How the majority of the prison population are men. The majority of the homeless population. How also the leading cause of death for men under fifty is suicide. There is a rise in right-wing attitudes, incels and men looking to vile and poisonous influencers like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson. With women becoming perhaps more liberal, Moran asked whether we will have marriages a decade from now if men and women are moving in different directions politically and ideologically. How there is not a positive men’s movement. One that addresses issues and worrying trends and discusses it. How there is this sense of progression and interactions that can help to tackle this rise in violence and abuse from men but also address the high suicide rates and what can be done. A lot of work to be done, it seems extraordinary that no positive men’s movement exists in 2025! No wonder Caitlin Moran felt she could and should write a book like What About Men? Too bad the people she was writing it for felt it was an excuse to vilify her!
PHOTO CREDIT: Anh Nguyen/Pexels
I look around society now and observe when moving through London how much low-level aggression and toxicity there is from men. Always a sense of danger and violence. How insanely scary it must be for women. Margaret Atwood’s quote of “Men are afraid women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will kill them” still sounds so relevant today. With this move to the right and young men especially being mobilised by incels and misogynists, there is a definite desire for collective action. Men talking to other men about changes and addressing something hugely troubling. What resonates with me too was what Caitlin Moran was saying about women. How she learned – when discussing her daughter’s eating disorder and severe mental health issues – to listen and not constantly try to fix things. How women come to men with a problem or crisis and men try to ‘fix’ it, rather than listen. I think that discipline that many women naturally possess is a reason why perhaps men are far less receptive of a positive men’s movement or engaging in feminism in a productive and useful way. That may seem all-encompassing but Moran left the audience with something wonderful. She has shelved (for now) a planned book and instead wanted to get out a series of love letters in book form. At such a dark and violent time, there is a need for serotonin and hope. She quoted Nick Cave who said, “hope is optimism with a broken heart”. At a time when it is hard to be optimistic, can we offer each other hope? I think the book is going to be How to Be Hopeful, though it might just have been her thinking of a placeholder. I will end with the main reason for this feature. The reason Moran wrote What About Men? is, as she explores in this feature (with regards to male problems and issues), “no sense of these all being folded in together, under the subject “How things needs to change for boys, and men” in the way they have in feminism”.
In 2020, when revisiting How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran noted how she looks back at the book and realises some of the things that she got wrong. Some women in the audience up in Manchester on 15th February thanked Moran for that book and what it meant to them. However, in her thirties when it was written, Moran is just shy of being fifty now. She sees it with different eyes. She did in 2020:
“In the decade since writing that book, the world has come to look very different. Now, happily, feminism makes constant, worldwide news. Beyoncé makes albums that feature Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explaining what a feminist is. Dior does shows with the word “FEMINIST” emblazoned over the catwalk. Topshop sells “This is what a feminist looks like” T-shirts. #timesup, #MeToo, the Bechdel test, emotional labour, slut-shaming, free-bleeding, the pay gap, gaslighting, intersectionality, trans rights – it’s a fertile age for feminist consciousness-raising and lexical expansion. Whatever aspect of feminism you are most interested in, you can go online and find thousands, if not millions, of others who feel just like you.
Social media has reminded us of the most intriguing yet exhilarating fact about feminism: there is no feminist bible. Feminism isn’t a science. It’s just an idea; a completely freelance, voluntary, crowd-sourced and brilliant idea, in which women and, yes, sometimes men, go about identifying, then trying to solve the problems of girls and women. And, one of the things I feel we sometimes forget , celebrating their brilliance. Although it might occasionally feel like it, being a woman isn’t just a set of difficult questions. The female population of the Earth is also a set of answers. It’s a billion seeds of potential. It is a field of blossom, just waiting.
Once every few years, as an act of self-lacerating nostalgia for my younger self, I reread How To Be A Woman and marvel not over what I got right, but what I got wrong. I was in my early 30s, had two small kids, and was convinced that, in a small way, I knew everything. I figured that the most difficult part of parenting was over; after all, I’d had two human beings bobsled out of my vagina. It couldn’t get worse, right? Hahaha – oh, how I underestimated the teenage years. Potty training is a mere bagatelle compared to negotiating a 15-year-old accusing you of “slut-shaming” her when you suggest a backless dress might not work for school and that she should, perhaps, consider a cardie, instead. And if your family has to help a child with a serious illness – in our case, a four-year eating disorder – it is something that will, over and over, have you absolutely on your knees, believing this might not be something you can deal with, after all. That, despite all your feminism, you are useless to your daughters”.
It is difficult to say which wave of feminism has just passed. Maybe the fourth and fifth have happened. Caitlin Moran said that the fourth has passed. Some articles like this argue a fifth wave of feminism is loosely defined, confused or might not have happened. What are its objectives and what does it stand for? This article states how a fifth wave might be about embracing male tenderness and trying to reverse or at least counteract a lot of the toxicity that has been bubbling up. This article dates back to 2019 (others are a little newer) and writes how “The fifth wave looks more like the second wave, and so we recognize it as “feminism,” whereas the fourth wave—which avoided the vocabulary of “opposition” and “fighting” in favor of identificatory feelings and personal stories—didn’t feel like a noticeable shift, even though it radically transformed the way women articulated their experiences”. Maybe now we are looking to a sixth wave. A lot has happened in the past few years that authors and feminists like Caitlin Moran are talking about. She wants a new wave to be about positivity, serotonin and joy. Women feeling safer; not being so-self-critical. Changes that everyone can do. There is no one fit for a feminist. The lexicon needs to be as broad as possible. Maybe the COVID-19 pandemic (which started just over five years ago) accelerated a fifth wave. Maybe a sixth has (or should be) accelerated by the new rise in male violence, sexual abuse, incels and the unflinching darkness we are seeing in the world.
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The fact that now more than ever men and women are shifting in opposite directions and it might be impossible for there to be common ground and any sense of harmony makes the next wave of feminism urgent yet challenging. Whether someone specific would herald that in or whether it would naturally bloom. One of the most notable and worrying aspects of writing about feminism is the lack of men who celebrate it and want to be part of it. I have not actually seen anyone online write about a positive men’s movement but, even more blatantly, I am not sure whether there has ever been an article from a male writer about feminism and a new movement - or reacting to the previous one. How and why men should play more of a part; discussing their role. Considering tens of millions of men around the world have access to the Internet, can it be the case that literally none of them have ever published a feature, thought-piece or Substack about men’s need to be a part of their conversation?! Positivity about feminism and celebration of the incredible and inspiration women in the world? I have done a cursory Google, though the vast majority – bar possibly a single/double-digit tally – of the pieces are by women. Men do not need to be ‘qualified’ to be a feminist or write about it. There is no entry exam! When Caitlin Moran was talking about all the great things we can do and how things are so hard for women, I wondered why men have not reacted to this with proactivity and incentive. Determined to make things better, to be a big part of the next wave of feminism and also construct and build a positive men’s movement that can run in conjunction with a sixth/next feminist movement. As a journalist in his forties, maybe my perspective and words are not as relevant or affecting as younger and older women who are calling for change, action and the manifesto/mandate for the next feminist movement.
IN THIS PHOTO: Michaela Coel/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
When looking out to the music industry for example, there are incredible and empowering women who are creating this sense of strength and togetherness. In terms of the effort from men – who I am not bashing but saying need to do more -, very few are boosting women, talking about the rise in violence and sexual abuse or using their platform to spotlight women and their brilliance. Not that zero men in music do that but the numbers are very low. When it comes to anything akin to a new feminist movement, you do not hear them talk about it or include anything in their songs. Maybe a harder task than if you are a journalist, though they can and should do a lot more. For last year’s International Women’s Day – 8th March – Glamour recognised brilliant modern-day feminists; so too did ELLE (including Michaela Coel, Angelina Jolie and Tarana Burke). In almost no features or articles do we see men listed. It seems staggering that there are pretty much no/few men raising their voices and showing their support. It is not the case that you can only be a meaningful feminist if you are a woman and have shared experiences of discrimination and inequality. Maybe men feel that they are not qualified or genuine. Not to focus purely on Caitlin Moran but, quoting from The Guardian article she wrote in 2020: “I feel I should croakingly remind everyone, once more, about the most crucial, brilliant, sometimes frustrating thing about feminism: it’s really not a science. It has no rules. It’s still just an idea, created by millions, over centuries, and it can only survive if the next generation feels able to kick ideas around, ask questions, make mistakes and reinvent the concept over and over, so we can build the next wave of feminism. And the next. And the next”. Caitlin Moran, when speaking with Ellie Newton, saying the next wave of feminism needs to be about joy and serotonin and hope – because we need that right now! I was so compelled by her words. How there needs to be a positive men’s movement but also, related, there need to be more men actively joining a new feminist movement and showing their solidarity and time. Not to boast but to dispel and trying to counteract the fact there is not only no progressive centrist men’s movement, but also show their (minor and lacking) support of women. On Saturday, 8th March, it is International Women’s Day. I have been thinking about Caitlin Moran’s recent talk, her books, wider discussions around a progressive men’s movement and when a new wave of feminism will rise - and what form it will take. I have been so motivated to do something, learn more and to do better myself. I really do think change and progression can happen. That desire (with regards the next wave of feminism) for there to be joy, hope and optimism is a…
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WONDERFUL thing to hope for.