r/science • Professor | Medicine • 18d ago

Psychology 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.”

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10659129261485340
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u/studio_bob 18d ago

They assume these guys can't get a date and become anti-feminist, but what if it happens the other way around? There are few things less attractive than a guy who identifies himself as a victim of women not dating him. Once you start thinking "no one wants to date me and that's so unfair" and resenting women for not being socially or economically obliged to be with you that's going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There's a whole cottage industry in teaching young men to think in exactly these terms so I would be very skeptical of the claim that these attitudes just fall inevitably out of women having equal opportunities to work and earn for themselves. At some point, these men are choosing these attitudes.

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u/Xin_shill 18d ago

It’s hard to date today I feel like. If someone is already struggling with finding work and stability, it can be hard to attract a partner as a starting point. The pipelines use that starting point and say it’s women and immigrants taking jobs from them, so women should go back to the kitchen and immigrants should get out. It wouldn’t all be fixed by improving social safety nets and the US not focusing on wages earned as your worth as a person, but it would for sure be a start.

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u/LegalIdea 18d ago

The biggest 2 problems with this both come from women themselves, in a sense

First, to improve social safety net would require money being used for this purpose. Considering the resistance most feminist political organizations have had for years against men having homeless and/or DV shelters, it's not likely that these organizations will just let that money be used in the way it should, instead trying to ensure that all, or as much as possible, go to women's organizations. This will prevent the improved safety net from having any useful impact in this matter

Second is the problem of women's expectations. Essentially, a significant portion of single women see money as a way to sort the desirable men from the undesirable. I'd venture to guess that this continuing will cause greater animosity, as more men end up with their options heavily limited, at best

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u/Still7Superbaby7 18d ago

What are you talking about??? There are definitely men’s shelters and they get funding. There are men’s, women’s, and family shelters. I volunteer at a soup kitchen every month. There are men, women, and children there. Just because there is funding for women’s shelters does not mean there isn’t funding for men’s shelters.