JonathanJun 24, 2025

I can't get over this sentence no matter how often I read it.

"Women showed no effects when told they were masculine; however, men given feedback suggesting they were feminine expressed more support for war, homophobic attitudes, and interest in purchasing an SUV."

Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025
Overdoing Gender: A Test of the Masculine Overcompensation Thesis
Author(s): Robb Willer, Christabel L. Rogalin, Bridget Conlon, and Michael T. Wojnowicz Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 118, No. 4 (January 2013), pp. 980-1022
Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025
Men are just not good leaders because they're too emotional and WHAT I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I HAVE FOUR SUVs SIR FOUR OF THEM
Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025
"In this way, men may inadvertently reveal feelings of threat by behaving in a more extremely masculine way than they otherwise would. If true, the thesis implies that extreme, caricatured demonstrations of masculinity among men may in fact serve as tell-tale signs of underlying insecurity, not self-assured confidence. Those men who exhibit the most masculine traits may actually be seeking cover for lurking insecurities, their outsized masculine displays in fact strategic claims at ...
Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025
masculine status, efforts to pass as something they fear they are not."
Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025

Applied practically in everyday life:

Car salesman:
Can I interest you in this much more expensive SUV?

Man:
Nah, I'm okay with this hatchback.

Car salesman:
Does perhaps your wife make the purchasing decisions in the family and I should be talking with her?

Man:
I'll take 7.

Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025
See also Trump
Show threadJonathanJun 24, 2025

Well that first post took off, which I'd love to say had anything at all to do with me (😄} but is actually just really telling about the state of things. (😢).

Be kind to each other. (No, Joe Rogan bro, that doesn't make you less of a "man".)

nissetingsvallJul 16, 2025
Show threadJonathan

They faked test results for half the men/women that indicated they were just inside the "average range of traits of [the other sex]".

The challenged men said they liked war more, disliked homosexuality more, wanted an SUV, and would pay $8k more for one.

The challenged women were ... unfazed.

But, women can't lead because they are emotional, right?
- an emotional man unable to control his shaking rage (guilt?), probably

Jun 24, 2025 at 11:14pmWeb
Show threadSchattenente  Jun 25, 2025
@jmcrookston
So the women whose identity had been threatened also showed slightly higher results in the masculine positions (except the SUV pay)? Any explanation for that?
Show threadJonathanJun 28, 2025
@Schattenente no point focusing on those differences because they were not statistically significant (see the t test results on the right). Therefore we can't conclude they were more than might show from random sampling.
Show thread3Jane Tessier AshpoolAug 25, 2025
@jmcrookston @Schattenente well I wish I’d noted that sooner LOL. I was taking all of this without a grain of salt…
Show threadDagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥Jun 27, 2025

@jmcrookston

This is all striking in a different way too. If the women are 'unfazed' this would imply that for both men and women, to be 'more masculine' (however masculine is defined and/or perceived) is something to strive for?

Show threadMC FolschetteDec 14
@jmcrookston It's not just that, but also gender (as a domination framework). Very briefly: masculinity is the dominating gender, and thus the norm. Women tending towards the norm is seen as strange but empowering. Men tending towards the "weak sex" is seen as utterly degrading. Thus the very asymmetrical reactions. (And I'm not saying this is good or "obvious" as things should be, I'm just saying that this is what sociologists observe in many many of our daily behaviors.)
Show threadMC FolschetteDec 14
@jmcrookston (And I'm not saying fragile masculinity isn't a thing either.) (And sorry if this was obvious to you, not trying to mansplain, but this dimension seems important to understand these results.)