A London-based debate club aiming to raise the standards of public discourse led a discussion on whether society is facing a crisis in masculinity.
Mike Pautsch, aged 31 from south London, is the founder of Debate London – a social enterprise which aims to raise the standards of public debate through workshops with a team of 11 coaches.
The intention of this particular night in Victoria was to establish whether ‘men were failing men in society’, one of the many social issues the club is addressing over the course of their meetings.
Pautsch said: “I do think that gender roles are changing, they may need to adjust and they need to see more space, but what does that adjustment look like?
“If they do adjust, then are they going to get it right straight away? Or is it a case that a lot of men won’t be able to adjust in those ways?
“So they need to find other ways to contribute and we need to accept those ways to contribute.”
In light of November – or ‘Movember’ – being significant for men’s mental health, discussions were held on the changing social and political landscape of the issue of masculinity.
Movember aimed to celebrate diverse masculine ideals and shed light to experiences men may have that has been stigmatised such as reactions to testicular cancer, prostate cancer, suicide prevention and mental health concerns.
On the topic of masculinity, Debate London participant Mike said how the direction of the discussion went on to how the media mainly focus on the so-called manosphere’s leading figures such as Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate.
The manosphere is a digitally public space where males express their misogynistic agendas and opposition to the feminist movements through articles, podcasts and blogs.
Pautsch said: “Opposers of the motion highlighted just how many male leaders there are doing the reverse of Andrew Tate.
“Tom Holland was brought up in debate, who they were saying had suffered alcohol issues, and has been very open about his pathway to getting off alcohol, which isn’t picked up in the media, that there are these men doing these things.
“Instead, the media will bring on Andrew Tate, but won’t bring up male role models like Tom Holland.”
Pautsch pointed out the struggle to redefine masculinity and any new attempts to redefine it, they just face backlash despite giving men that new space to be themselves.
He said: “What we’re starting to do is show why it’s a societal thing and you would never blame any other groups so, the motion was fundamentally flawed, then the universal acceptance of there is something happening with men, the metrics are worse – they are struggling.
“I think what people struggle with is they don’t understand that there are innate things that a lot of men are uncomfortable with, they don’t know how to express and they don’t know where it comes from. And it would just go as male fragility and it’s like, it’s not male fragility.”
The room had 14 people in agreement with the motion, eight people who were opposed and 13 who were undecided at the beginning of the night
By the end, it had shifted to 23 people in favour of the motion, eight people still opposed it and eight undecided.
From January, Debate London is hosting free-to-attend events in Whitechapel. Visit the group’s website for more details.
Featured image: Debate London
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