Several recent studies reveal that despite the feminist Left’s best efforts, women continue to prefer what feminists have dubbed “toxic masculinity.”
One such study, published in Feminist Media Studies, reveals that women continue to be attracted to muscular males that convey an image of financial security.
Researchers at the U.K.’s Coventry and Aberystwyth Universities found that women prefer males with perceived wealth and muscles. The study analyzed women’s responses to “guy candy” photos published on Tube Crush, a site featuring secretly snapped photos of men on the London Underground. The researchers found that the women seemed to focus on traits that conveyed wealth and manliness.
Women tended to comment on the men’s physically masculine traits like biceps and chest muscles, as well as perceived sexual ability. They also responded positively to displays of wealth such as suits, watches, and cell phones.
Adrienne Evans, lead author of the study, noted that the results reveal that women’s desires have not moved away from “masculinity in the form of money and muscle.”
“This celebration of masculine capital is achieved through humor and the knowing wink, but the outcome is a reaffirmation of men’s position in society,” said Evans.
Another study published in Evolutionary Behavior Science found that women whose husbands rated themselves as behaviorally masculine based on notions of dominance, power, and assertiveness were found to be more satisfied during the ovulation portion of their cycle. By contrast, women whose husbands reported less masculine behavior experienced no change in satisfaction during their more fertile phases of their cycles.
“The aim of the current study was to examine the interactive effects of women’s fertility and their partner’s masculinity (a trait that women prefer near ovulation in the short-term mating contexts) in the context of long-term relationships — specifically, marriage,” the study explained. “In this study, wives who were married to relatively more (versus less) masculine husbands reported higher marital satisfaction near ovulation compared to less fertile phases of their ovulatory cycle. We know that women’s mate preferences for short-term partners shift across their cycle, but this study demonstrates that women’s short-term mating strategies (e.g., preference for masculine men) impact even their most long-term relationships — their marriages.”
PsyPost notes that this is not particularly groundbreaking, as previous research has also shown that women tend to be more attracted to men with masculine physical traits, especially women at peak fertility.
Amanda Prestigiacomo of the Daily Wire notes that these studies underscore exactly why the Left will continue to fail at eradicating what it has dubbed the “toxic male”: “The Left longs for this dystopian future of sameness, a world purged of traditional masculinity, and will seemingly stop at nothing to indoctrinate their message. But these dystopian fantasies discount the reality of human nature, something innate and bred through evolution, where women will opt for the alpha male over the beta male feminist.”
But it does not seem likely that the Left will give up on the notion. Earlier this year, students at the University of Regina in Canada went so far as to set up mock confessional booths so that the males on campus could confess their sins of behaving like toxic men. It was part of the university’s week-long “Man Up Against Violence” program.
Unfairly, feminists are conflating aggressive acts against women with traditional masculinity. San Francisco State University linked masculinity to rape in a post on men’s health, in which it claimed, “Whether it’s being told to ‘man up’ or being told that men should be the ‘breadwinner,’ our society tells us men should exert power. While the vast majority of men will never commit sexual violence, studies show that those who do commit sexual violence strongly believe in these attitudes.”
The feminist Left’s solution to this is to aggressively force males to evolve away from what is innate to them and embrace qualities that are deemed to be feminine. The University of Minnesota’s Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education did just that when it once urged men to develop a “healthy masculinity” that “acknowledges the fluidity of gender beyond male and female.”
But according to Tube Crush and Evolutionary Behavior Science studies, if these men were to indeed embrace more gender-fluid behaviors, they would have a harder time attracting women. So today’s males have a decision to make: abandon their innate masculinity and be celebrated as an SJW hero, albeit a single one, or embrace their manliness, attract women, get married, and procreate. Dilemma? Not so much.
