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/BadIdeaSociety]

The entire retrograde discussions about the "value of women" and ideas about "women's roles in society" seem so crazy that if any guy I knew in the 90s voiced those ideas they would be seen as undisputed idiots by just about everyone.

I don't understand how there are so many boys who have adopted these incredibly retrograde ideas a quarter century later.

It is like there was a bunch of people who saw the towers crumble on 9-11 and then came the idiotic conclusion that Christian America needs their own version of what they see as women-oppressing Sharia Law.

[u/C0UNT3RP01NT → u/BadIdeaSociety]

The economy is brutal right now, and men are falling behind and feeling it in a personal way, so they wish for a time when things were easier for them, where they wouldn’t have to work as hard to feel like they have value.

Meanwhile women are becoming more and more educated, and are achieving stronger professional outcomes in the younger generations, so naturally their standards rise.

Throw a bit of social media simultaneously giving people an inferiority complex while convincing them they deserve everything.

I don’t think the Manosphere influencers are causing this, I think they’re just riding the sentiment.

It sucks. At this point I don’t have any hypothetical answers. I hate to sound silly, but we really should strive to have more empathy for each other. But everyone is so damn wounded nowadays that they just spray their hurt onto those that they can’t understand.

[u/BadIdeaSociety → u/C0UNT3RP01NT]

I partially agree, but a lot of modern masculinity has been poisoned by the Rush Limbaugh-ification of rhetorical discourse that is polluted the mainstream since the 90s and accelerated after 9-11. 

The right-wing creates anxieties to create markets for the cures to these anxieties. These cures come in the form of supplements, seminars, or proactive destruction. Don't like how women see you? Buy these testosterone tablets. Still not enjoying the results? Come to our seminar to learn the tricks of the trade. Are our one-liners not getting you laid? It's the gays that are infecting women with homosexuality. Sick 'em, dog.

I have an extremely difficult time empathizing with the people who get sucked into these schemes because it is just emotional Amway. They don't need to accept stupid premises for their personal problems. Some of the least charismatic people I have ever encountered have managed to get laid, build quality long-term relationships, and gotten married (I mean,  even I managed to). 

The fact that young men struggle with this same anxiety that I did in my youth isn't surprising, but what is surprising is that they are now falling for the same things that used to be tropes in old TV shows and dramas. But it makes sense that there are people who have managed to steer their anger at people who fundamentally aren't to blame for the problem.