This is not a joke or anything; it’s a real study done by academics affiliated with New York University. They think President Trump uses “masculine” language that he disproportionately attracts the support of men who are very insecure in their masculinity.
The researchers selected a series of search topics that may be especially common among men concerned about living up to the ideals of manhood. The topics included “erectile dysfunction,” “hair loss,” “how to get girls,” “penis enlargement,” “penis size,” “steroids,” “testosterone” and “Viagra.”
Through a survey to a sample of 300 men on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, the researchers found that men who had high “masculine gender-role discrepancy stress” (which meant they were not as manly as their male friends) were significantly more interested in these topics.
Moreover, they also found that support for Trump in the 2016 election was higher in areas that had more searches for topics like “erectile dysfunction.” The researchers pointed out that the relationship persisted after accounting for demographic attributes in media markets.
“In contrast, fragile masculinity was not associated with support for Mitt Romney in 2012 or support for John McCain in 2008 – suggesting that the correlation of fragile masculinity and voting in presidential elections was distinctively stronger in 2016.” Quoted from the article.
Okay, now, I don’t want to discuss whether this is a “meaningful” study, or how Trump uses “masculine” language; the meaning of this study to me is that it reminds me of how many men out there are feeling insecure of masculinity.
Masculinity refers to qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men. To put it in another way, being masculine means being manly.
Men who feel insecure in their masculinity struggle in their work and family relationships. They are more emotionally reactive, so people don’t trust them to be stable. Wife of an insecure man may be resentful of her weak husband and may want to end the relationship.
Insecure men tend to be violent due to the lack of self-confidence. They may consistently think of what is “manly” and what is not in their daily lives.
However, their worries are unnecessary. Just think in this way: there’s no definition of “traditional man” or “manly,” so there is no need to even think of them.
If you feel insecure in your masculinity, first ask yourself about whether there is a universally admitted definition of masculinity. No? That means everyone is free to live their own lives in their own ways.
If this cannot convince you, try to exercise more and make yourself bigger and stronger. Tell yourself you will be more attractive in that way, and you can feel better.
Let me just say something at last. I'm not sure why these academics carry out such a survey just to prove the connection between President Trump and the features of certain people. Maybe they are just boring. Or maybe the study contains some meanings that I can't understand. Anyway, what I want to talk about is just over coming the insecurity of masculinity. Psychology is what concerns me.
