Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, bullying, sexual violence and harassment, graphic violence, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

In Chapter 9, Bates describes her experiences visiting schools to talk about sexism since starting the Everyday Sexism Project. She reflects how, in the early days since starting the project, her school talks were met with some resistance from boys who were rowdy, disruptive, or dismissive. However, these boys eventually came around when they realized a conversation about sexism was not necessarily an attack on them.

However, Bates notes she has experienced a troubling shift. More recently, there are frequently a handful of boys who arrive at her school talks armed with false statistics and questions to challenge her claims about sexism and even her lived experience of sexual assault. They spout the manosphere talking points she has become familiar with during her research for this book. These boys all claim they heard these ideas online. When Bates interviewed parents and teenagers for this book, several young men confirmed that their peers are hearing negative messages about women and feminism from the internet and social media and that they feel threatened by the advances of feminism.