Less masculine men who are uncomfortable with their absence of manly qualities are on average more likely to commit physical assault, inflict injuries on others, and drink driving (I was wondering what some radfems think of this).

lefterfield · 2021-09-16T12:10:26+00:00

Well, I've been reading a lot of dog training videos lately. Aggressive dogs tend to be those who lack confidence - they feel they have to attack first to defend themselves. We as humans recognize the threat as nonexistent, and the solution is to give the dog more confidence, or to engage the thinking part of their brain when the "threat" appears. I don't believe male aggression and dog aggression are that different.

soundsituation · 2021-09-16T08:58:42+00:00

This might get more traction/generate good responses on s/gendercriticalguys.

What stood out to me was the second part of the title: "More likely to commit violent assaults with weapons and to cause injury if they feel others see them in this light too". Inability to regulate one's own self-esteem makes a person totally vulnerable to the evaluations of others. Oftentimes it makes them obsessed with markers of status (such as masculinity for a man) because high status = positive evaluation (from external sources) = safe self-image. This sounds like Narcissistic Personality Disorder, more specifically narcissistic rage.

We should get rid of gendered expectations, but narcissistic violence will always find a scapegoat. I'm not interpreting this from a radfem lens but from from a psychological one.

FlippyKing · 2021-09-16T18:12:08+00:00

I must have missed the drunk driving part of the article.

I'm a guy and I've seen this play out my entire life. It is no surprise. Besides the obvious and I think dominant reason, that the psychological effect of a feeling of inadequacy is ever present and gnaws away at the person, it's analogous to Short Man Syndrome. Besides those obvious factors, the idea that a "man" has to be in control of his surroundings and avoid being vulnerable means the inadequate one will act preemptively. Call it "offense is the best defense", or just hoping one quick sucker-punch can level the odds or better, or see it as that voice of inadequacy egging him on to do what he thinks everyone thinks he dare not because he things they perceive his masculine inadequacies the same way he does. The weapons thing I think is a clear indication of inadequacy. He's always got that voice alternating between saying "you have to prove you're just as good as them" and "see you're not as good as them". Other factors are, and a reason things like martial arts training is thought to reduce this kind of thing (well, good martial arts training anyway), the ability to not be phased when things seem to go badly and the ability know a real threat and the ways to avoid it vs the fear of it getting beyond one's ability to remain safe.

The idea that masculine men are also prone to violence, well who are they, either manly men or not so manly men, going to be fighting? There's always some imbalance in perceived masculinity. In fact I think guys who really perceive themselves as equals will not fight often, not feel forced to out of any real danger and not feel it is wise to do either.

The age group they cite is worth noting, 18-44. I remember in an anthropology class hearing the idea that society wants to fear their young men. At best or worst they can upturn the social order, at worst or best they are used to go fight wars, and they are always put into the most dangerous jobs. On the latter, if you are strong and athletic and all that, those are slightly less dangerous, so just in general the same behavior will result in more injury and more "you're gonna have a bad time" in the less classically masculine than in the real-man-among-men types. https://youtu.be/XAuUPmRUxZg?t=19

But maybe most importantly it was a US population studied. I would love to see a comparison across cultures, and across a range of industrialized/globally integrated cultures to see how they compare. I think if all the times I've read where Native American men, when dealing with first or early contacts with Europeans and often missionaries, had to explain how they don't hit their children or hit women or control them they way the Europeans expected them too. There's an account from Canada about this cultural conflict between I think Hurons and French Jesuits that went over time. When a Native American finally hits a woman the way the Europeans expected him to is really heart breaking.

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