About the Boys

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Boys

Factual: Life Stories

Exploring the challenges facing boys and young men in Britain today.

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Boys: About the Boys: 4. Sex and Consent

4. Sex and Consent

BBC Radio 4 - Boys, About the Boys, 4. Sex and Consent

Boys all over the UK talk to Catherine Carr about sex, consent and relationships.

Teenage boys from all over the UK talk to Catherine Carr about sex and relationships in a post #MeToo environment.

In this episode, boys from all over the UK talk to Catherine Carr about sex, relationships and consent. In a post #MeToo and #Everyone’sInvited world, the boys talk very openly about their fears and anxieties around sex - especially to do with false allegations of assault. They also describe the pressures and the confusion they feel when trying to form physical and romantic relationships. Boys talk about the roles they feel they have to play and the difficulties in being both tough and emotionally open. Catherine also hears some of the work being done in schools and colleges designed to help boys and girls to communicate more openly and talks to a lawyer who works defending boys accused of sexual crime. 

Thanks to 

Haberdashers’ Boys School
Ben Dunks - author of ‘Intimacy: A Guide for Young Men About Sex.’ 
South Dartmoor Community College 
Brook Advisory
Sandra Paul, Kingsley Napley
Beyond Equality

Producer: Catherine Carr
Researcher: Jill Achineku
Executive Producer: Marie Helly

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Boys: About the Boys

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

From porn to friendship, boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr.

Boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr about sex, consent, life online, fun and friendship. They discuss porn, their struggles at school and becoming men.

Catherine Carr has been talking to teenage boys across the UK about their fears, worries and ambitions - a unique generation shaped by Covid lock-downs, #MeToo and a cost-of-living crisis.

They speak with striking candour about everything: their worries about the hierarchy in friendship groups; being tall, being rich, being poor, being accused of sexual assault. They're vulnerable about their feelings and what it means to hear 'all men must die' bandied around at school when you're just 12 years old.

They feel pressure from online influencers to be strong men, but they're also very aware of the complicated issues around sex and consent. They see girls doing better at school - and they are struggling to work out what their role in the adult world will be.

Throughout the series, you'll hear boys revealing some shocking experiences, like watching porn aged eight, or the attractions of joining a gang.

They also share their successes - older ones setting up businesses, while younger ones glory in being able to do 20 press-ups without stopping.

There are also nuggets of wisdom from the adults who spend their lives working with boys and fighting their corner. Teachers, coaches and youth workers talk about how they see boys navigating their way in the world, and experts provide insight and data from research done into boys' changing lives over the last 50 years.

But the mainstage in About the Boys is given to the boys themselves. This is a chance for them to explain what life in 2024 looks like for teens trying to find healthy and happy ways to grow into men.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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