Is it just me, or does that statement just not hold up to scrutiny? Are 14 year old boys supposed to just be complete pariahs from society? At what age does it start being unacceptable to address them, and at what age if any does it become okay to speak to males again? What do you expect a teenage boy's life to be like?

I'm increasingly convinced that being anti-man is a defining trait of being on The Left in America. The Left has no monopoly on progressive social issues. If you poll Americans on issues alone, they'll overwhelmingly come down in favor of progressive issues, things like higher minimum wages, medicare for all etc. The Left exists to play identity politics, largely against each other. Seeing men as the source of all their problems is the only uniting factor they share.

Depending on exactly who on The Left you ask, it is either a waste of time or outright immoral to talk to men and boys in good faith. The people posting about "Instead of gender reveal parties, you should have anti-heteronormativity lectures with rainbow cake" cannot stand the thought of saying to an adolescent boy "Here's how our social policies will benefit you." Because they cannot stand the thought of males benefiting from anything. That sentence sticks in their throat.

Most of my life I've heard "Girls need positive female role models in media." Is this somehow not true for boys as well? "Even if it is, it's not what we do here, and we'd rather it wasn't done anywhere else either."

Well it is being done somewhere else. There's a whole media empire out there who are perfectly happy to fill that niche. Nobody on The Left will even try to compete in that market because the culture war is too important to them.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Im not saying boys shouldnt be addressed and they shouldnt have role models. Im saying that people shouldnt target them specofically because they are young insecure men. Why cant people just consume media that fits them individually indenpendent of their age and gender? Why do we feel the need to shape people into roles they arent meant for just because of their gender? This is a leading cause of depression in young adults and it sgetting worse

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Im saying that people shouldnt target them specofically because they are young insecure men

This is precisely why they SHOULD be targeted, why there should be programming and messaging specifically for them. They need mentoring and guidance through a strange, transitional period in their lives as they become the adults they will be for the rest of their lives. It's why sitcoms with a "family" or young adult audience often had those "very special" episodes in the 80's.

Why cant people just consume media that fits them individually indenpendent of their age and gender?

Yeah, why can't 5 year old girls just be happy watching Game of Thrones? Why should there be an entire industry devoted to making children's media when they could just watch what everyone else does?

Beyond that, this topic goes beyond entertainment. People turn to social media for everything from shortbread recipes to news to tax advice. And get this, this is probably going to be a new concept to a leftist: your demographics do indeed inform what you are interested in. There are topics, themes and messages that are relevant to 40 year old women that aren't relevant to 14 year old boys and vice versa. It's why we developed more than three TV channels.

Why do we feel the need to shape people into roles they arent meant for just because of their gender?

That's an extremely good question. Why should we treat every boy in the nation as if he was queer? That's what we're dancing around here, isn't it? "Heteronormativity" is a dirty word on the Left, after all, the idea of a "normal male" upbringing is seen as distasteful if not offensive. The idea of helping adolescent boys grow up to be straight men is a non-starter on the Left. So there are only right-wing voices speaking on that subject.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Thanks for your comment. I admit age-dependent media needs to exist to account for cognitive differences, of course a 5yo cant watch complicated content. I was being hasty with my comment.

For the rest of your comment, you are strawmanning so hard I cant even answer to that. I never said anything about sexual orientation and I dont know why you suddenly brought that up, we were talking about gender. Should I start talking about why you like Hitler? Just because someone has a left-leaning opinion on one topic doesnt mean they support whatever right-wing media are claiming leftism to be about. Noone wants to raise all kids as if they were queer, that is pure propaganda.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Okay look, the word "gender" has been so overused and misused at this point, it's like the words "patriarchy" and "woke" at this point. It means whatever you need it to mean right now to make the other person wrong. I'm pretty sure this notion of gender being anything other than another word for sex was invented on Tumblr some time in the last 8 years or so, it apparently doesn't refer to which kind of crotch you have or what you prefer to do with said crotch so...it refers to something that can't be measured or experienced about a person so it's a useless concept.

These people are no longer worth talking to or about. I leave them to their fate.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I dont know what youre on about. You are trying to make it sound like I am pushing some kind of gender agenda. We werent even talking about non-binary genders and I never brought that into the discussion, it was mainly about the male one.