Boys are in trouble – or so we are often told. Boy Trouble asks challenging questions about the lives of contemporary boys, and about the popular truisms that frame these lives: Boys are in crisis! Boys will be boys! Certainly some boys might be in trouble, but it's not all the same kind of trouble, and the differences between boys are more interesting than the things they share in common. Linking media analysis to social and educational research, the series explores topics such as online misogyny, men’s rights activisms, the experiences of mixed-race boys and boys of colour, boys’ relationship to sex and consent education, and class and identity in elite boys schools, among others. Along the way, the podcast explores ways to tell better stories about boys, and to find new ways of working through the trouble.
In this episode we talk to Dr Timothy Kazuo Steains about different experiences of growing up as a mixed race Asian boy. Tim takes us through how mixedrace people live with interraciality through a triangle of identity, family, and desire.
8/8/23 • 19:08
A man spreads his legs, a woman writes a post, a boy responds. This week Dr Jessica Kean joins us for a discussion of what can go wrong when feminists tell stories about masculinity, and how we can fix it
5/22/23 • 15:46
This first episode looks at the phenomenon of the manosphere, a broad label for the online networks that connect pickup artists, men going their own way, involuntary celibates, and men's rights activist, among others. Despite important differences between them, each group promotes the idea that it is men – and not women – who are the real victims of gender discrimination and sexism. This episode features as a guest Finola Laughren, a PhD candidate examining different feminist responses to the manosphere.Cover art from Unsplash.
5/2/23 • 16:19
