Authored By: Eve Richardson
Royal Holloway University of London
Abstract:
This project examines how the cultural trivialisation of female interests form part of a broader and escalating epidemic of Violence Against Women and Girls in the UK. Dismissive attitudes toward female safe spaces, such as concerts, inherently normalises misogyny and facilitates the rise of what is best understood as ‘incel related extremism’. Drawing on recent events, such as the Southport attacks that took place in July 2024, the article situates these incidents within a wider pattern of radicalisation, online hostility, and gender-based violence. It maintains that the UK’s currently legal framework is fragmented and reactive at best, failing to address, let alone prevent, misogynistic ideologies.
Introduction:
The trivialisation of women’s interests in contemporary UK culture may seem inoffensive, yet it operates as a continuum of a more profound hostility towards women and girls. Most recently, this was magnified by the heinous Southport attacks where three young girls Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, were among the eleven attacked last year and subsequently lost their lives at a Taylor Swift themed dance class on the 29th July 2024. While commentators were quick to note that this event was no coincidence and that it was because the class was full of young girls the attacker targeted this event1, the idea that a growth of radicalisation of young men encouraging violent misogyny could be called terrorism was shut down immediately by the government. Furthermore, research shows that online abuse toward feminist women is routine, actually being described as “a course of behaviour”2revealing that the internet has simply become “an extension of offline gendered realities, where violence and abuse is the ‘wallpaper’ of everyday life”3. Such trivialisation stands in stark contrast with male-dominated spaces like football, which are socially validated and rarely subject to the ridicule a women’s interest in, say, Taylor Swift would be. This article argues that not only are these patterns harmful, they are increasingly driven by online misogynistic subcultures while the current UK legal framework sits back and remains structurally inadequate and ultimately disinterested in identifying, preventing and responding to such behaviours.
It is imperative to outline any conceptual or legal terrain relevant to the conversation of VAWG. Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is understood as any “unacceptable and deeply distressing crimes, including rape and other sexual offences, stalking, domestic abuse, ‘honour’-based abuse (including female genital mutilation, forced marriage and ‘honour’ killings), ‘revenge porn’ and ‘upskirting’, as well as many
others”4. What sits alongside this is the emerging characteristics of those involved in men’s rights movements which can often play into ideologies that “objectify, disparage, and dehumanise women”5it is also noted to inhabit those who “identify as involuntary celibate (incel[s])”6. The framework preventing VAWG is spread across a patchwork of criminal, civil and regulatory mechanisms. This includes the Protection from Harassment Act 19977and the Stalking Protection Act 20198, with the Serious Crime Act 20159introducing coercive and controlling behaviour as a criminal offence. The relatively new Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 202310 further extends such criminal liability into public spaces, acting as an emerging recognition of street harassment being categorised as gendered harm. Additionally, the Online Safety Act 202311 obliges online platforms to identify and limit forms of VAWG including image based abuse with the End Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy12 setting out a commitment to such prevention. These patchwork mechanisms however, remain ill-equipped to address the actual continuum of misogynistic harm, particularly in an age where cultural trivialisation, online radicalisation and emerging extremist ideologies converge.
The trivialisation of female interests as a gateway to misogynistic harm:
The idea of women’s cultural and social interests operating as a mechanism for policing femininity is a persistent one which aims to limit a woman’s participation in public life by treating their passions as unserious or trivial. It’s rooted in being told as a child that you must stick to your “appropriate interests”13 and that the only plausible explanation for branching out of these interests, such as watching football, must be because you find your favourite player ‘attractive’14. This subliminal messaging grows and grows until one day “although [you] loved the colour pink, you would never choose that hue when asked about your favourite colour”15, because repeated exposure to gendered norms conditions individuals to internalise what is deemed by society as acceptable rather than aligning self-expression with authentic desires. This internalised shame around so-called ‘feminine’ interests mark the beginning of the cultural pattern where women’s safe spaces produce a gateway to misogyny, reinforcing what is termed a “feminist killjoy”16, the woman who is mocked systematically because “when you expose a problem you pose a problem”17 and once you do pose that problem, you will be unilaterally be liked or tolerated less. Yet, if you do remain within the
bounds of what is socially acceptable, you will inevitably attract hostility once such interest gains sufficient popularity. Because the idea that something or someone could evoke the same passion for girls that a game of football does for boys simply must come from “simpletons, [who are] lacking depth, hysterical and deranged”18. These gendered narratives are then introduced to online subcultures who then rationalise harassment by framing these interests as naïve or undeserving. We see this in the responses catalogued from the past two years, when a woman’s interest in Taylor Swift met a male dominated sport at a crossroad and were not simply met with expressions of irritation, but rather a modern day example of a wider cultural logic that treats a woman’s enthusiasm as intrusive or threatening. This is how what may appear to be minor cultural disdain can act as a legitimate precursor to gendered violence.
Additionally, this gateway to misogynistic harm is not sporadic but rather pervasive, with most women experiencing multiple types of abuse and most experiencing it “as a routine part of their online lives. This abuse being a reality for most girls, intending to “demean or exclude”19 them, elevates the abusers ideologies and reinforces that women’s voices, interests and communities are, in the eyes of the wider public, illegitimate. Understanding this trivialisation as an early stage in the wider subject of violence against women and girls, reveals that cultural misogyny and extremist misogyny can rarely be understood exclusively, and that the legal frameworks in the UK needs to recognise this. Ultimately, to belittle a woman’s interest as a child, is to prepare them for deeper, inevitable forms of exclusion, hostility and eventually, violence.
The Wider VAWG Epidemic: Cultural Contempt: Incel Extremism and Violence:
The UK is facing what is now declared a “national emergency”20 in VAWG with recent Home Office and ONS data showing that between 2013 and 2023, police-recorded sexual offences rose from around 34,000 to 103,000 with rape reports also tripling within the same timeframe21. Of those recorded offences, 97% of suspects were male and 86% of victims were female22. Incel ideology functions as an accelerating force within this wider landscape with 81% of users’ post histories containing at least one misogynistic term23. The spill over into real-world harm is only growing faster with motivated attacks and targeted harassment, such as the events of July 2024, serving as direct evidence of something that begins as ideological contempt, physically migrating from the digital sphere into material violence. It is these societal norms that is eroding general empathy, essential for women’s safety, while acting as a gateway into extremist misogyny. The aftermath of the Southport killings, resulted in far-right groups deliberately instrumentalising a tragedy to
bounds of what is socially acceptable, you will inevitably attract hostility once such interest gains sufficient popularity. Because the idea that something or someone could evoke the same passion for girls that a game of football does for boys simply must come from “simpletons, [who are] lacking depth, hysterical and deranged”18. These gendered narratives are then introduced to online subcultures who then rationalise harassment by framing these interests as naïve or undeserving. We see this in the responses catalogued from the past two years, when a woman’s interest in Taylor Swift met a male dominated sport at a crossroad and were not simply met with expressions of irritation, but rather a modern day example of a wider cultural logic that treats a woman’s enthusiasm as intrusive or threatening. This is how what may appear to be minor cultural disdain can act as a legitimate precursor to gendered violence.
Additionally, this gateway to misogynistic harm is not sporadic but rather pervasive, with most women experiencing multiple types of abuse and most experiencing it “as a routine part of their online lives. This abuse being a reality for most girls, intending to “demean or exclude”19 them, elevates the abusers ideologies and reinforces that women’s voices, interests and communities are, in the eyes of the wider public, illegitimate. Understanding this trivialisation as an early stage in the wider subject of violence against women and girls, reveals that cultural misogyny and extremist misogyny can rarely be understood exclusively, and that the legal frameworks in the UK needs to recognise this. Ultimately, to belittle a woman’s interest as a child, is to prepare them for deeper, inevitable forms of exclusion, hostility and eventually, violence.
The Wider VAWG Epidemic: Cultural Contempt: Incel Extremism and Violence:
The UK is facing what is now declared a “national emergency”20 in VAWG with recent Home Office and ONS data showing that between 2013 and 2023, police-recorded sexual offences rose from around 34,000 to 103,000 with rape reports also tripling within the same timeframe21. Of those recorded offences, 97% of suspects were male and 86% of victims were female22. Incel ideology functions as an accelerating force within this wider landscape with 81% of users’ post histories containing at least one misogynistic term23. The spill over into real-world harm is only growing faster with motivated attacks and targeted harassment, such as the events of July 2024, serving as direct evidence of something that begins as ideological contempt, physically migrating from the digital sphere into material violence. It is these societal norms that is eroding general empathy, essential for women’s safety, while acting as a gateway into extremist misogyny. The aftermath of the Southport killings, resulted in far-right groups deliberately instrumentalising a tragedy to
misogynistic extremism as peripheral, leaving profound gaps in prevention and accountability. The comparison of Canada’s integration of gender-based violence in their counter-extremism policies show that this recognition is both possible and necessary. At it’s heart, this article argues that VAWG cannot be meaningfully addressed without confronting the cultural realities that render women’s interests trivial and their interpersonal spaces, unsafe. When a girl’s enthusiasm for a female musician becomes a source of public ridicule, that ridicule becomes a pipeline into resentment-based radicalisation that blurs the boundary between harmless mockery and violent misogyny more than society is willing to admit. As one considers the future of policy reform in this area, the question is not whether these behavioural patterns are connected but rather, whether the government will act before more irrevocable harm is done.
Bibliography:
Books:
Sugiura L, The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women (Emerald Publishing 2021)
Journal Articles:
Anderson AA, Yeo SK, Brossard D and Scheufele DA, ‘Toxic Talk: How Online Incivility Can Undermine Perceptions of Media’ (2018) 30 International Journal of Public Opinion Research 1, doi:10.1093/ijpor/edw022
Halpin M, Richard N, Preston K, Gosse M and Maguire F, ‘Men who hate women: The misogyny of involuntarily celibate men’ (2023) 27 New Media & Society 424–442
Purdy N, ‘Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls in the UK: Unsatisfactory Progress’ (2025) 43 Pastoral Care in Education 1–4
Legislation:
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
Stalking Protection Act 2019
Serious Crime Act 2015
Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023
Online Safety Act 2023
Terrorism Act 2000 s 1
Government Guidance/Strategy:
Home Office, Violence against women and girls: National Statement of Expectations (guidance, 27 July 2022) Home Office, End Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (government strategy, 2021)
Web Sources:
Slate Staff, ‘The Slate Speaks: Toxicity Toward Men and Women’s Hobbies’ (The Slate, 28 February 2024) <https://www.theslateonline.com/article/2024/02/the-slate-speaks-toxicity-toward-men-and-womens-hobbies> accessed 26 November 2025
Thanvi I, ‘“Mocking Swifties Or Female Fandoms Doesn’t Make You Look Cool”’ (She the People, 6 November 2023) <https://www.shethepeople.tv/film-theatre/taylor-swift-swifties-female-fandoms-mocking-girls-choices 1687088> accessed 26 November 2025
NPCC, DCC Maggie Blyth, ‘Violence Against Women and Girls: Call to Action as VAWG Epidemic Deepens’ (NPCC, 23 July 2024) <https://www.npcc.police.uk/news/2024/July/VAWG-call-to-action> accessed 26 November 2025
Theses:
Maly E, ‘“As the Crowd Was Chanting, ‘More!’: Taylor Swift, Gen Z Feminists, and Equipment for Living”’ (MA thesis, University of North Texas, December 2024)
