Gender Threat: American Masculinity in the Face of Change

by Yasemin Cassino, Dan Cassino

Against all evidence to the contrary, American men have come to believe that the world is tilted – economically, socially, politically – against them. A majority of men across the political spectrum feel that they face some amount of discrimination because of their sex. The authors of Gender Threat look at what reasoning lies behind their belief and how they respond to it. Many feel that there is a limited set of socially accepted ways for men to express their gender identity, and when circumstances make it difficult or impossible for them to do so, they search for another outlet to compensate. Sometimes these behaviors are socially positive, such as placing a greater emphasis on fatherhood, but other times they can be maladaptive, as in the case of increased sexual harassment at work. These trends have emerged, notably, since the Great Recession of 2008-09. Drawing on multiple data sources, the authors find that the specter of threats to their gender identity has important implications for men's behavior. Importantly, younger men are more likely to turn to nontraditional compensatory behaviors, such as increased involvement in cooking, parenting, and community leadership, suggesting that the conception of masculinity is likely to change in the decades to come.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction

200 pages, Hardcover

Published November 30, 2021

Reviews

[Quin Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting empirical/quantitative study of men’s fragile masculinity and their attempts to shore up their gender identities when threatened. It confirms a lot of what feminists have said about masculinity/cis men for decades. I think the authors are far too optimistic in their interpretations of some of the results. Patriarchy isn’t going to collapse just because some men have decided they can do childcare without being “emasculated,” especially if they come to view this as an appropriately masculine domain in which they should be given deference (which is a common response to gender threat: adapt the specific activities that reinforce masculinity but don’t give up on masculinity as a core identity).