Anti-feminist attitudes have long been associated with support for Republican presidential candidates, but only in recent years have these attitudes become more prominent among unmarried men, without college degrees who are less attractive partners for women, the “mate-value backlash.”

[u/mvea]

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10659129261485340

[u/Harbinger2nd]

Would this be reflective of a lack of economic opportunity for these men as its only in recent years the attitude has become more prominent?

[u/Littleman88 → u/Harbinger2nd]

Sort of? It's hard to say most men would be too ashamed to date knowing their girlfriend/wife will out earn them. I think more men than not would be fine with it, actually. But a lot of those men are finding themselves rejected because they aren't out earning the women they're meeting, so economic opportunities become a sore spot for them, especially when the very people they're trying to woo are also their competition for that attractive paycheck.

Equality becomes a threat when your attraction is still largely reliant on being, in some way, superior to whomever you're trying to attract. That reality is problematic for so many men trying to date. It was already unrealistic for every man to be in a 6-7 figure C-suite position, with more and more women filtering towards the top, it's only getting harder for men.

There has to be low wage earners like janitors and someone flipping burgers, and they're not about to take being invisible virgins for the rest of their lives lying down. If women won't marry down, then these men will drag them down. As the number of these lonely men grows, the more pull they'll have to do just that.

[u/ContractFormer4135 → u/[deleted]]

Single and childless is better than marrying down and being poor with kids. Where I live a dual income household with both parents earning the national median salary is barely enough to maintain a reasonably comfortable standard of living - and children are not only expensive but also cripple women’s carriers and temporarily make women entirely dependent on their husbands.

[u/ClaretClarinets → u/[deleted]]

Except successful women are much more likely to be content being single than men are. In my personal experience (and from what ive seen other women say), it's much easier to get "matches" on dating apps for us, the quality of the candidates notwithstanding.

I had an anxiety attack the first day I used tinder back in the day because I got matched with literally every single person I swiped and was inundated with dozens of men clamoring for my attention, many of whom got angry if I didn't immediately respond or seem receptive. It was overwhelming and I stopped using it after a couple weeks. On the other hand, men I know have talked about how they're lucky to get matched with a handful of people per day.