Debate: Good girls and bad boys

“Boys are not defective girls,” author Birger Emanuelsen wrote in an essay this summer. Boys are different from girls, but they should not be condemned to silence for being just that.

Emanuelsen joins author and doctor Ellen Støkken Dahl, clinical psychologist Henning Mohaupt, and Kapittel festival director Ida Pallin Bostadløkken for a debate. They will discuss why more and more boys are being drawn to dark corners of the internet filled with hatred toward women and others. They will also consider whether boys today face stricter expectations of social conformity than they did ten, twenty, or a hundred years ago—and, if so, why. Is today’s ideal child simply a girl?

The discussion will be moderated by Eirik Bø, artistic director of the Stavanger House of Literature.

Birger Emanuelsen has written novels, nonfiction, and essays.

Ellen Støkken Dahl is an author and doctor whose books include The Girls’ Book and The Boys’ Book.

Ida Pallin Bostadløkken is the director of this year’s Kapittel festival.

Henning Mohaupt is a qualified clinical psychologist and works at Alternative to Violence in Stavanger.