Masculine fragility

Masculine fragility is the anxiety among males who feel they do not meet cultural standards of masculinity. Evidence suggests that this concept is necessary to understand their attitudes and behaviors. Manhood is thought to be a precarious social status, "elusive and tenuous," needing to be proven repeatedly. It is neither inevitable nor permanent; "it is hard to earn and easy to lose." Male fragility has been characterized as the Me Too counterpart to white fragility.

Workplace

When men feel their masculinity has been threatened, they often attempt to regain their sense of authority. The threats may include having a female supervisor or being given a job traditionally viewed as feminine. They may react by engaging in harmful behavior, such as undermining and mistreating colleagues, lying for personal gain, withholding help and stealing company property.

Popular culture

• The film Barbie is about male fragility. When Ken discovered patriarchy and returned to Barbieland he found "the usual script was flipped". It was he who needed to reassess his needs outside of the need to control and depend on women. Male fragility is at the core of the film.
• In Chloe Domont's film Fair Play the danger of male fragility was highlighted. Dumont sets out to make an "exploration of that most exquisitely fragile of constructs—the male ego."
• Cuban author Zoé Valdés uses male fragility as a recurrent theme.
• Oscar winning Moonlight has been called a "masterclass in masculine fragility." Chiron embraced his fragility as a path to self-discovery.
• In the 2006 film Half Nelson, Ryan Gosling plays a teacher who is "a complicated and fragile masculine;" his triumph comes from succumbing to total vulnerability.
• Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing has been viewed as a "cautionary tale of insecure masculinity," where an unfaithful wife can lead to a husband's humiliation and the threatening of his masculinity.

Relationships with women

• Women with higher incomes than their partner are twice as likely to fake orgasms and have a lower rate of sexual satisfaction.
• Women who believed their partner had masculine fragility were more likely to fake orgasms and were less likely to provide honest sexual communication.
• Fragile men "feel more uncomfortable around women."
• Online harassment is a common response from spurned men, "who in response to displays of female strength, reveal themselves to be as fragile as eggshells."

Impact on health and behavior

Men with fragile masculinities are more likely to exhibit behaviors such as aggression (when externally challenged), and shame, and self-harm under stress (when internally challenged). There is a consistent association of precarious manhood beliefs and risky healthcare behavior and outcomes. Men with strongly held masculine beliefs are half as likely to seek preventative healthcare; they are more likely to smoke, drink heavily and avoid vegetables; men are less likely to seek psychological help. "Where manhood is fragile, men die young." Three-quarters of suicide deaths are men.

Age, fragility and aggressiveness

As young men try to find their place in society, age becomes an important variable in understanding male fragility. Men 18–25 respond more aggressively, with risky moves or aggressive posturing, for example, to threat to their manhood, and aggressiveness decreases with age. In some places, younger men have constant threats to their manhood and have to prove their manhood daily. The more the manhood was threatened, the more the aggressiveness.

Educational levels

Millions of men are falling behind women academically; for every 100 bachelorette degrees for women, there are 74 for men. Lower educational levels are associated with masculine fragility.

Political and global warming implications

A link has been shown between male fragility and aggressive political stances, as well as for Republicans who support such stances and are more skeptical of climate change. This suggests that "fragile masculinity is crucial to fully understanding men's political attitudes and behaviors." Much of Donald Trump's support comes from regions where men are most fragile and more susceptible to early death. In the U.K. evidence of this near-worldwide association between gender and left/right allegiance is seen, with men consistently voting Tory, and women voting Labour. Similar left/right findings are noted in Hungary, Poland and Estonia. The term industrial masculinity has been used to describe men who are opposed to the concept of global warming, and have a "strong foothold on the world." In their view, the "world is there for humans to conquer and extract resources," and react with denial or strong skepticism of climate change. A U.S. Gallup poll showed a correlation of climate denial and conservative white men. In Sweden denialism is most articulated by a small group of, almost exclusively, men and conservative think tanks. The nature-destructive industrial masculiniy is now understood as doing bad, and it is important to understand the psychological barriers that underline masculine practices in shaping the environment.

Biological and evolutionary considerations for masculine vulnerability

Blue and gold set, Kaiser Maximilian II. 1557

Although the disadvantages of the male are usually described as socially mediated, males from conception are more vulnerable, with an excess of developmental and behavioral disorders. Social attitudes have been felt to compound these biological deficits. Evolutionary traits necessary for early hominid males, such as physical strength and spacial skills, are not as important in the modern world, but we have most of the same genes. Chloe Domont opined that roles are changing faster than humans can realistically adapt.

Gurus of the manosphere

Men searching for their role in modern society are increasingly turning to internet influencers, such as Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson and Pearl Davis. The internet, filled with online advice, has become the "perfect breeding ground for conspiracies and ideologies that appeal to men who feel discarded by society" in a changing world. The term manosphere has been used to describe the collection of self-help gurus, websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism. Communities within the manosphere include men's rights activists, incels (involuntary celibates), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUA), and fathers' rights groups. While the specifics of each group's beliefs sometimes conflict, they are generally united in the belief that society is biased against men due to the influence of feminism, and that feminists promote misandry. The manosphere overlaps with the far-right and alt-right communities. (Copied content from Manosphere; see that page's history for attribution.)

Sebastian Milbank of The Critic described the manosphere as poisonous; David French called its atmosphere toxic.

Overcoming male fragility

To reduce toxic masculine fragility, psychotherapy or joining a fragile masculinity support group is recommended. Coping mechanisms for anxiety can be learned, new boundaries can be set and diverse masculinities can be explored.

As a society it is recommended that we shift the conversation from masculine toxicity to masculine fragility, as "that's at the heart of it." It is no longer enough "to be a man," as that has lost meaning. Society must deconstruct the definition of masculinity.

In the workplace it is recommended that the concept of male fragility be recognized; healthy masculinity should be embraced; and, toxic structures dismantled by rewarding collaborative effort and not creating environments where men will feel inadequate.

See also

• Toxic masculinity
• Hypermasculinity
• Mythopoetic men's movement
• Gender role
• Social role