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Fragile masculinity

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Fragile masculinity 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. Research has shown that this anxiety can manifest in various ways, including aggressive behavior, resistance to changing gender norms, and difficulty in expressing vulnerability.[1]

Concept

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Manhood is thought to be a precarious social status.[2] 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".[3] As a result, men who have their masculinity challenged may respond in ways that are unpleasant, or even harmful.[4]

Factors

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Race and ethnicity

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Race is a factor in American standards of masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is denied to men of color, as well as working class white men.[5] This has profound implications for the life trajectories and attitudes of African-American men.[5]

Asian American men are frequently unable to be perceived as masculine in American society, and there is growing anger from young Asian-American men that they cannot be made to fit the standard of American masculinity.[6] It is a common complaint among young Asian-American men that they struggle to compete with White American men for Asian women.[7] This anger has led to the formation of online communities for Asian men who are concerned about their reputation,[6] and two such communities on Reddit have been implicated in the online harassment of Asian women who are in interracial relationships with White American men.[8][9] On the other hand, some Asian-American men have rejected the hegemonic notion of masculinity and embraced their own alternative form of masculinity, which values education and law-abidingness over American notions of masculinity.[7]

Age

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As young men try to find their place in society,[10] age becomes an important variable in understanding male fragility. Men in the 18–25 age range display riskier and more aggressive behavior.[11] 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.[12]

Parenthood

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Research has found that fathers are less likely to view masculinity as fragile compared to non-fathers. This suggests that the experience of being a father might reinforce a man's masculine identity. However, low self-perceived masculinity after parenthood was a predictor of sexual depression among fathers.[13]

Behavior

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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.[4][14]

Online harassment is a common response from men who are intimidated by displays of strength by women.[15][16]

A 2012 study, using a racially diverse sample of jail inmates, found that those who scored high on measurements of "fragile masculinity" tended to feel uncomfortable around women.[17]

Health

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A 2014 study found that men who endorsed traditional values of masculinity had worse health outcomes.[18] Men with traditionally masculine beliefs are more likely to exhibit behaviors such as aggression (when externally challenged) and self-harm under stress (when internally challenged).[19]

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.[20] A review of recent research found a link between the endorsement of precarious masculinity and poorer health outcomes in men. Although the link was "modest" it nevertheless accounted for some of men's poorer health outcomes, relative to women.[21]

Sexual relationships

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Women who believed their partner had fragile masculinity (such as in relationships where women earn two times as much money as their partners) were more likely to fake orgasms and were less likely to provide honest sexual communication.[22] However these authors cautioned against the assumption that either partner is to blame in such cases, pointing out that American standards of masculinity are nearly impossible to meet.[22]

Political beliefs

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A link has been shown between male fragility and aggressive political stances, such as climate change denial. This suggests that "fragile masculinity is crucial to fully understanding men's political attitudes and behaviors."[1] The 2024 Trump campaign emphasized restoration of the traditional male role, likely motivating a rightward shift in young men.[23]

Proposed solutions

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Based on their research, Maryam Kouchaki and colleagues have suggested that acknowledgement of fragile masculinity is a crucial first step toward improvement.[4] They point out that many men are not even aware that they feel threatened, and that they are not even aware of toxic behaviors that may result from a threat.[4] Increased self-awareness may allow men to break this pattern.[4] Embracing healthy forms of masculinity was also suggested.[4] Finally, these authors suggested that dismantling toxic workplace structures which encourage harmful masculine attitudes is a vital step in reducing fragile masculinity.[4] According to Stanaland and colleagues, less rigid expectations of what masculinity should be could allow for a more resilient form of masculinity.[24]

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The 2016 film Moonlight has been called a "masterclass in masculine fragility." Chiron, according to writer Eli Badillo, embraced his fragility as a path to self-discovery.[25]

See also

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References

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  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. ^ 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. PMID 36597588.
  3. ^ "Precarious Manhood and Its Links to Action and Aggression" (PDF).
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Kouchaki, Maryam; Leavitt, Keith; Zhu, Luke; Klotz, Anthony C. (2023-01-26). "Research: What Fragile Masculinity Looks Like at Work". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  5. ^ a b Wesley, Lauren (2015). "The Intersection of Race and Gender: Teaching Reformed Gender Ideologies to Black Males in the Context of Hegemonic Masculinity". Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships. 1 (4): 63–84. doi:10.1353/bsr.2015.0010. ISSN 2376-7510.
  6. ^ a b Louie, Kam; University, Hong Kong (2017-09-30). "Asian Masculinity Studies in the West: From Minority Status to Soft Power". University of San Francisco. Retrieved 2024-05-24. Such studies indicate that along with the growing interest in being an Asian man in a Western country, many Asian men have become increasingly unhappy with their minority status. This discontent is not purely academic, and it is even more pronounced in the popular realm. Blogs such as the Reddit forum r/AsianMasculinity5 or "Angry Asian Man,"6 and YouTube videos such as those by Wang Fu Productions show the frustrations and irritation often felt by Asian men living in America. Most are produced by younger men, so themes such as dating, sex and cultural adjustments feature predominantly.
  7. ^ a b Tsuda, Takeyuki (Gaku) (2022-09-03). "What makes hegemonic masculinity so hegemonic? Japanese American men and masculine aspirations". Identities. 29 (5): 671–690. doi:10.1080/1070289X.2020.1851005. ISSN 1070-289X.
  8. ^ Sirikul, Laura (2022-01-28). "Why the Men's Rights Asians subculture is so toxic — and dangerous". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  9. ^ Srinivasan, A. (2021). The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-374-72103-9. The subreddit r/AZNidentity -- a Pan Asian community ... "against all forms of anti-Asianism" with tens of thousands of members—is the source of much of this anti-WMAF cyber-bullying
  10. ^ Jones, Alison (2021-01-29). "Why younger men's masculinity may be more fragile". Futurity. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  11. ^ "Fair Play Blames "Male Fragility" for High Finance's Evils". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  12. ^ "'Be a Man': Why Some Men Respond Aggressively to Threats to Manhood". Duke Today. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  13. ^ Dolan, Eric W. (2024-08-04). "Fathers less likely to see masculinity as fragile, research shows". PsyPost - Psychology News. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  14. ^ "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.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ "The Decade of Enduring Male Fragility". Harper's BAZAAR. 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Fleming, Paul J.; Lee, Joseph G. L.; Dworkin, Shari L. (2014). ""Real Men Don't": Constructions of Masculinity and Inadvertent Harm in Public Health Interventions". American Journal of Public Health. 104 (6). American Public Health Association: 1029–1035. doi:10.2105/ajph.2013.301820. ISSN 0090-0036. PMC 4062033. PMID 24825202.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ "APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys". Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  21. ^ "When manhood is fragile, men die young". American Psychological Association Journal. May 20, 2023.
  22. ^ a b "Perceived Fragile Masculinity Stifles Sexual Satisfaction and Honest Communication, Study Finds | SPSP". spsp.org. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  23. ^ "The Role of Male Fragility in Trump's Political Campaign". Xavier Newswire (Press release). 2024-10-30. Retrieved 2024-11-08.
  24. ^ Stanaland, Adam; Gaither, Sarah; Gassman-Pines, Anna (2023). "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. PMID 36597588.
  25. ^ Badillo, Eli. "The Oscar-winning film 'Moonlight': A masterclass in masculine fragility". Mountaineer. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
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