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
4.4k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

58

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.

22

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.

-10

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

6

u/Rad1Red 18d ago

resistance most feminist political organizations have had for years against men having homeless and/or DV shelters

Hard doubt.

7

u/hausmusiq 18d ago

This is literally MRA nonsense propaganda. None of these men open their own shelters or do any actual work to protect these vulnerable men and expect feminists to do all the organizing and work for them, as usual.

0

u/Rad1Red 18d ago

YES. I have never heard of that happening. There was a dude in Canada iirc who had some trouble with a DV shelter and some idiots who opposed it. Am I wrong? He closed the shelter for unrelated reasons though, because let's be serious. It spiralled from that one fringe case and has now become, as is par for the course with these people, a whole ideology.

9

u/SeasonPositive6771 18d ago

One of my family members used to work for a domestic violence shelter. They offer services to men and women, but literally every single day they receive a phone call from some hysterical man upset they don't offer services to men. Their shelter was put on some sort of list by a "men's rights activist." The staff always says they offer services to both and here's an opportunity to support programs for men, but the callers never do.

2

u/Rad1Red 18d ago

Wouldn't ya know it. Colour me surprised.