Navigating contradictory feeling rules: young men’s feelings towards violence against women prevention messages in Scotland

This article examines how young men feel about violence against women prevention (VAWP) messages and being young men, utilising a novel approach focusing primarily on emotion and how this is shaped by wider cultural discourses. Through analysing the accounts of 20 self-identifying young men (aged 18 to 25 years) living in Scotland, this article examines how they feel within the polarised terrain of gender politics. This article makes an original contribution by showing that emotional reflexivity acts as a compass for young men trying to be ‘good guys’ when navigating conflicting feeling rules of being either caring or uncaring towards women and their rights. This research establishes the importance of taking young men’s emotional reflexivity into account when designing VAWP messages aimed at (young) men in order to avoid alienating men who have positive attitudes and to maximise engagement in this work.