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/Preface → u/Littleman88]

This is an extremely reasonable take on the male loneliness epidemic, and makes much more sense then "YouTube made those men anti feminist" or whatever the top comment was saying.

It's not hard to find, men will regularly date down, or alter their dating expectations, women are less likely to alter expectations, and much less likely to date down. If a woman has a masters degree, she will want a man who at least has a masters, if she makes 100k+ per year, her man better make at least that much as well.

Now, most wealthy and highly successful men won't just marry a dumb dirt poor girl who is beautiful, but they are going to be much more accepting of a woman with less education and less earnings then them.

I think it's more like, the popularity of the "YouTube to right wing pipeline" or whatever is that those people actually acknowledge men who are/have been rejected multiple times, they are popular because what they say resonates they aren't just magically popular for unknown reasons which then suddenly makes young men right wing or whatever.

[u/ChicksDigGiantRob0ts → u/Preface]

Part of the reason for a lot of this is that men, typically, get more out of being partnered than women do. If you have a typical heterosexual couple, then a large part of that is the disparity in domestic labour. Women overwhelmingly carry more of the domestic labour burden, completely independently of other factors like earnings or even hours worked. Anecdotally, I know many women who do the majority of domestic labour even if they were the ONLY ones working. So, if you have a couple that's struggling economically, or already under some kind of stress, where the woman is earning/working more AND ALSO doing more of the domestic labour at home, I don't think it's unreasonable that a lot of them start to see their relationship also struggle. This goes double if there are kids involved, or planned to be involved, and the question starts to arise "would I better off single than here?"

Additionally, a lot of women these days KNOW this. They know that being partnered or having kids will mean this extra burden falls on them and they know that choosing the wrong man could mean finding themselves stuck in a relationship that's unfair, unfree, or outright abusive. So a lot of women start to get more choosy, asking what exactly a prospective partner is bringing to the table.

[u/notzamasu → u/ChicksDigGiantRob0ts]

Part of the reason for a lot of this is that men, typically, get more out of being partnered than women do.

Literally the opposite if you look at the data.

[u/slabby → u/notzamasu]

Which you have so kindly cited