Wikipedia

Masculine fragility

Masculine fragility is the anxiety among males who feel they do not meet cultural standards of masculinity. Evidence suggests that this concept is necessary to understand their attitudes and behaviors.[1] Male fragility has been characterized as the Me Too counterpart to white fragility.[2]

Workplace edit

When men feel their masculinity has been threatened, they often attempt to regain their sense of authority. The threats may include having a female supervisor or being given a job traditionally viewed as feminine. They may react by engaging in harmful behavior, such as undermining and mistreating colleagues, lying for personal gain, withholding help and stealing company property.[3][4]

Popular culture edit

  • Cuban author Zoé Valdés uses male fragility as a recurrent theme.[5]
  • Moonlight has been called a "masterclass in masculine fragility." Chiron, according to writer Eli Badillo, embraced his fragility as a path to self-discovery.[6]

Relationships with women edit

  • Women who believed their partner had masculine fragility were more likely to fake orgasms and were less likely to provide honest sexual communication.[7]
  • Fragile men "feel more uncomfortable around women."[8]
  • Online harassment is a common response from fragile men,[9] "who in response to displays of female strength, reveal themselves to be as fragile as eggshells."[10]

Impact on health and behavior edit

Men with fragile masculinities are more likely to exhibit behaviors such as aggression (when externally challenged), and shame, and self-harm under stress (when internally challenged).[11] There is a consistent association of precarious manhood beliefs and risky healthcare behavior and outcomes. Men with strongly held masculine beliefs are half as likely to seek preventative healthcare; they are more likely to smoke, drink heavily and avoid vegetables; men are less likely to seek psychological help.[12] "Where manhood is fragile, men die young."[13] Three-quarters of suicide deaths are men.[14]

Age, fragility and aggressiveness edit

As young men try to find their place in society,[15] age becomes an important variable in understanding male fragility. Men 18–25 respond more aggressively, with risky moves or aggressive posturing,[2] for example, to threat to their manhood, and aggressiveness decreases with age. In some places, younger men have constant threats to their manhood and have to prove their manhood daily. The more the manhood was threatened, the more the aggressiveness.[16]

Educational levels edit

Millions of men are falling behind women academically;[17] for every 100 bachelorette degrees for women, there are 74 for men.[14] Lower educational levels are associated with masculine fragility.[8]

Political and global warming implications edit

A link has been shown between male fragility and aggressive political stances, as well as for Republicans who support such stances and are more skeptical of climate change. This suggests that "fragile masculinity is crucial to fully understanding men's political attitudes and behaviors."[1] Much of Donald Trump's support comes from regions where men are most fragile and more susceptible to early death.[18] In the U.K. evidence of this near-worldwide association between gender and left/right allegiance is seen, with men consistently voting Tory, and women voting Labour. Similar left/right findings are noted in Hungary, Poland and Estonia.[19] The term industrial masculinity has been used to describe men who are opposed to the concept of global warming, and have a "strong foothold on the world." In their view, the "world is there for humans to conquer and extract resources," and react with denial or strong skepticism of climate change. A U.S. Gallup poll showed a correlation of climate denial and conservative white men. In Sweden denialism is most articulated by a small group of, almost exclusively, men and conservative think tanks. The nature-destructive industrial masculiniy is now understood as doing bad, and it is important to understand the psychological barriers that underline masculine practices in shaping the environment.[20]

Biological and evolutionary considerations for masculine vulnerability edit

 
Blue and gold set, Kaiser Maximilian II. 1557

Although the disadvantages of the male are usually described as socially mediated, males from conception are more vulnerable, with an excess of developmental and behavioral disorders. Social attitudes have been felt to compound these biological deficits. Evolutionary traits necessary for early hominid males, such as physical strength and spacial skills, are not as important in the modern world, but we have most of the same genes.[21]

Precariousness edit

Manhood is thought to be a precarious social status.[22] Unlike womanhood, it is thought to be "elusive and tenuous," needing to be proven repeatedly. It is neither inevitable nor permanent; it must be earned "against powerful odds".[23]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b DiMuccio, Sarah H; Knowles, Eric D (2020-08-01). "The political significance of fragile masculinity". Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. Political Ideologies. 34: 25–28. doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.11.010. ISSN 2352-1546. S2CID 208989866.
  2. ^ a b "Fair Play Blames "Male Fragility" for High Finance's Evils". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  3. ^ Kouchaki, Maryam; Leavitt, Keith; Zhu, Luke; Klotz, Anthony C. (2023-01-26). "Research: What Fragile Masculinity Looks Like at Work". Harvard Business Review. ISSN 0017-8012. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  4. ^ "4 experts break down why men may 'lie, cheat and steal' if they feel their masculinity is threatened at work and how to fix it". Fortune. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  5. ^ Golmar, Rafael López i Rueda y Antonio (2008-09-21). "Zoé Valdés: "En lo relacionado con Cuba, los cuatro primeros años de Zapatero fueron vergonzosos"". La Ilustración Liberal (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  6. ^ Badillo, Eli. "The Oscar-winning film 'Moonlight': A masterclass in masculine fragility". Mountaineer. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  7. ^ "Perceived Fragile Masculinity Stifles Sexual Satisfaction and Honest Communication, Study Finds | SPSP". spsp.org. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  8. ^ a b Joseph, Lauren J.; Black, Pamela (2012). "Who's the Man? Fragile Masculinities, Consumer Masculinities, and the Profiles of Sex Work Clients". Men and Masculinities. 15 (5): 486–506. doi:10.1177/1097184X12458591. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  9. ^ Rubin, Jennifer D.; Blackwell, Lindsay; Conley, Terri D. (2020-04-23). "Fragile Masculinity: Men, Gender, and Online Harassment". Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI '20. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 1–14. doi:10.1145/3313831.3376645. ISBN 978-1-4503-6708-0.
  10. ^ "The Decade of Enduring Male Fragility". Harper's BAZAAR. 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  11. ^ Stanaland, Adam; Gaither, Sarah; Gassman-Pines, Anna (November 2023). "When is masculinity "fragile"?". Sage. 27 (4): 359–377. doi:10.1177/10888683221141176. PMID 36597588. S2CID 255475628.
  12. ^ "APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys". Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  13. ^ "When manhood is fragile, men die young". American Psychological Association Journal. May 20, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Illing, Sean (2023-08-07). "The new crisis of masculinity". Vox. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  15. ^ Jones, Alison (2021-01-29). "Why younger men's masculinity may be more fragile". Futurity. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  16. ^ "'Be a Man': Why Some Men Respond Aggressively to Threats to Manhood". Duke Today. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  17. ^ French, David (2024-04-14). "Opinion | The Atmosphere of the 'Manosphere' Is Toxic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  18. ^ "From type to stereotype | Issue 488". From type to stereotype | Issue 488. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  19. ^ Milbank, Sebastian (2023-09-04). "The manosphere is poisoning conservatism". New Statesman. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  20. ^ Cohen, Marjorie Griffin (2017-06-26). Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries: Work, Public Policy and Action. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-315-40789-0. Chapter 2
  21. ^ Kraemer, S. (2000). "The fragile male". BMJ. 321 (7276): 1609–1612. doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7276.1609. PMC 1119278. PMID 11124200.
  22. ^ Stanaland, Adam; Gaither, Sarah; Gassman-Pines, Anna (2011-11-01). "When Is Masculinity "Fragile"? An Expectancy-Discrepancy-Threat Model of Masculine Identity". Personality and Social Psychology Review. 27 (4): 359–377. doi:10.1177/10888683221141176. ISSN 1088-8683.
  23. ^ "Precarious Manhood and Its Links to Action and Aggression" (PDF).
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