An Important Sex Difference: Consensus
Ancient Intelligence Weekly: 5/28
I’ve been getting great feedback on this week’s episode, lots of great discourse. I got the same question from three different people so I want to address it, because I think it points us to an interesting sex difference.
In the episode I mention that one of my biggest concerns is the rise in the percentage of young men having a negative view of women as they get younger (from 4% - 25-30 year olds to 15% - under 25 year olds). The question raised is why aren’t I more concerned about the fact that the majority of young women already have a negative view of men (66.6%)?
Note: these statistics reflect university educated men and women in the United Kingdom
My answer to this is the tendency women, especially young women, have towards groupthink and consensus. The truth is that women change their minds all the time based on the latest ‘thing.’ In studying men and women, something I’ve learned is that men can be more thoughtful and rigorous about forming an opinion. Men typically stand behind their opinions because they have been carefully formed over an extended amount of time, research, and experience. Men identify with their specific opinions, whereas women identify with the approval they get from their opinions.
If men don’t have enough information or experience to form an opinion, they will typically pass on answering the question. Female friendships don’t typically survive too many differences in values and beliefs, whereas male friendships can go the distance. This is because women’s safety with other women is found through consensus.
When you ask a woman her opinion, she will instantaneously try to share something (even if cobbled together with little rigor). This is because the purpose for female communication is much more related to connection, whereas for men it’s about relaying information. Connection often times for women is found through consensus and agreement (which in a small tribal or familial setting is totally fine, it’s when it goes global and then becomes a driver for changing laws and policies that it becomes problematic).
So what’s happening is these young women are finding some sort of connection buying into bad ideas about men, dating, and life’s purpose. But if for some reason tomorrow all the influencers they follow and media they subscribe to disappeared and all that was left was Evie magazine for example (the femininity focused, man-appreciating equivalent of what Cosmopolitan was in the early 00’s), then that 66.6% number would start to go down really quickly.
Though most young men are still not buying into the ridiculousness of having a disdain for an entire sex, the statistic at hand about young men tells me they have had enough personal experiences to justify forming a negative opinion of young women. It means the online craziness has made it’s way offline into their lives, and quite honestly, there’s much less coming back from that.
On the Pod This Week: A solo episode three big problems I see happening with young women today. Enjoy (Spotify). Watch the episode on YouTube here.
Links and Updates:
Beyond Polarity: Women, Men, and… - by Duey Freeman (an important reminder from my mentor)
The Male Gaze - by Working Man Substack (this was just so good)
True North is back: my 3 month mastermind dedicated to helping men awaken their power and crush their goals. Next cohort begins in July. There’s truly nothing like being in a supportive group with like-minded people and accountability. The quantum leaps are pretty epic. Get on the waitlist here (first access, discounts, and the best bonuses)
Have a great rest of your week,
-Anya
I was on a hike once with a group of friends in their early 20s, and brought a block of chocolate as a snack to share. At some point I offered it round.
Most of the boys took a some; a couple did not. All the girls refused a piece until one of them said “yes”. At that point, the half dozen other girls all responded “actually I will have some”.
I observed something about female psychology that day. Not sure whether I learned anything at the time.
As a former professional actor, I can tell you this: I saw it develop right in front of my eyes.
I was there when Ivy league began to overtly condemn White males in the early 2000s. I attended Occupy Wall Street and saw first hand how activism posed a threat to Corporate America. The film industry caved around us, the new generation, and eventually the need for P.R. overtook the need for profit. Hollywood could ill afford to look prejudiced, racist or sexist.
This is why literally all of film and television serve as Feminist, Woke loudspeakers: Epstein & Weinstein created such a backlash, it became more than a fad...
Social engineering and virtue signaling are aspects of the Woke Era, we've had a good decade of it now, and there's no end in sight.