Challenges to masculinity = increased hostility?

I found this one amusing (as will a number of people here):

Masculinity Challenged, Men Prefer War and SUVs
By LiveScience Staff
posted: 02 August 2005

Men whose masculinity is challenged become more inclined to support war or buy an SUV, a new study finds.

Their attitudes against gays change, too.
www.livescience.com...

It's been popular to slander men who have to have the latest noisy huge vehicle or who like to wave their gun collections around by making rude comments about their masculinity. The study (I haven't found the original study; just this report) seems to suggest that there's a lot of truth in that rude jest.

(let's leave the political comments out of this one -- although I know each and every one of us have thought of them...)

I wonder if all this has to do with the way our society relate to the males of the species.

They are the ones that Society has given the tittle of "Male domination" and perhaps the tittle may work well with men that their testosterones levels are higher enough.

But how about with the rest of the male population that are more mellow.

It most be hard for males to feel that they will be better in roles more given in our society to the female.

Sometimes I wonder if our society role of the male has done more damage than good.

Oh yes we are just all big insecure babies who have to massage our wounded pride with big trucks and loud guns....
While to a certain extent it may be true, it's about as helpful as saying if you see a sad woman buy her a carton of haagen daaz rent her a sad movie and then turn her loose in the mall with your credit card and she'll be fine the next morning.

Hardly ground breaking research here, western consumer culture meets human quirks...

Sometimes I wonder if our society role of the male has done more damage than good.

trust me, it may seem that way, but it isn't

.
I think women know this instinctively.

This is only news to [some] males.

You want to pull a guys chain?
Call him a fag, queer or effeminate.

Do it enough times and maybe he and his buds will march into their highschool with shotguns & assault rifles and start blowing people away.
.

Well, it's a reaction, I think, although like you Byrd, I'd like to see the original study. If I feel I'm being challenged, the seemingly logical thing is to show how untrue it is. I'd be curious to see how IQ factored in here i.e. whether those of higher or lower IQ tended to exhibit this behavior more often.

Rare is the man who becomes both the ladies' man and the man's man.

And supporting illegal war for profit is morally bankrupt and totally stupid, whether you want to be masculine or feminine about it.



[edit on 8-8-2005 by MaskedAvatar]

Originally posted by Byrd
(let's leave the political comments out of this one -- although I know each and every one of us have thought of them...)

I realize you're not looking for sniping, but the academic analyses on this very subject as a politcal ploy are so frequent, numerous and spot on it begs the question.

What marketers once did to sell vodka, they now do to sell politicians.

It's in the Frank Luntz playbook. It's Limbaughology 101.

"Your penis is under attack! Real men vote for cowboys!"

That's the platform in a nutshell. The lowest common denominator is indeed in your pants.

Its only men with small penises that are aggressive and need to support their manliness with exotic cars and power. Me I'm well hung so i don't bother.

Originally posted by Sugarlump
Oh yes we are just all big insecure babies who have to massage our wounded pride with big trucks and loud guns....
While to a certain extent it may be true, it's about as helpful as saying if you see a sad woman buy her a carton of haagen daaz rent her a sad movie and then turn her loose in the mall with your credit card and she'll be fine the next morning.

Hardly ground breaking research here, western consumer culture meets human quirks...

Well, it would appear some men do need their egos inflated on a regular basis. On the other hand, I am all for the haagendaaz, movie and shopping spree. Can I give you and address to send your credit card to????

whats interesting to me is it was feedback on answers that were randomly colored as masculine or feminine that qualified for a challenge. They didn't stand up and challenge them to a fight, they basically said your ideas, your mind is feminine. hmm

It would seem its just more important for men to know that other people perceive them as masculine than it is for women to know that other people perceive them as feminine. The male fragile ego is even more fragile than I thought.

Its also sad that our culture has sent the message the powerful expensive cars, wars and sex make you a masculine.

I'd be interested to see if there was an adrenaline reaction, if the primitive brut inside us all was getting ready for a fight or flight response to this challenge.

Conversely: Challenges to femininity = increased stupidity?

Its all about the persuit of Alpha Male dominance. Infact, if you ever watch two alpha male humans fight, they do the same thing as gorrilas do. They pumped out theyre chest, raise theyre heads in the air, stretch theyre arms out as far as they can, and stand on theyre twos to make them look taller, with the occasional pummeling on theyre own chest.
"You wanna fight, huh!? Huh!? come on, lets bring it! huh!? come on! Fight me wimp, fight me!"

The whole SUV thing is the same thing, the pursuit of an alpha male dominance.

FWIW,

Gorillas don't have an alpha male/beta male/omega structure like wolves.

www.geocities.com...

the demonstations are for males outside the group, and rarely involve actual fighting. Unfortunately for humans, the demonstrations aren't learned well enough, and don't serve the purpose, and fights usually happen anyway.


I know its knit-picking, but a true alpha-male dominance behaviour is for members of the same pack or group.

``

? would the results have been different at a different University?

implied is that the study used undergraduates at Cornell....
a supposed cross-section of society...huh?

let them do a research study, at lets say Ringling (Performing Arts)
or any number of other colleges / university which has a whole bunch of
Right Brain students.... attracted to that learning place because
it was not geared toward the pragmatic and Left Brain dominated
careers & life pursuits which one finds in abundance at 'Cornell U.'

imo, its a left-brain vs right-brain thing, ones' IQ would be a distant 3rd or even 4th on the list....the Alpha Male thing could be 2nd place...