Okay. Some straight talk – would you be okay with your wife earning more than you? I asked this question on social media recently and was received with highly positive messages about how men would be completely fine with it.
Almost every response was positive.
Some even said that it was their reality
Some suggested that women wouldn’t be okay with dating men who earn lesser than them
And then there were then there were the cynics 
But one particular comment caught my attention
This man’s colleague’s thought it was such a shame to be earning lesser than his wife. And he is not the only one. If one thing is for certain, it is that masculinity is extremely fragile. Take a look at these industrial brands which openly pander to masculinity to make more men buy their products –
In food –
WHY DO U NEED TO GENDER BREAKFAST THO @McDonalds SMH MASCULINITY IS SO FRAGILE pic.twitter.com/tF7M55s24N
— not terrible?? (@empratts) May 10, 2015
Masculinity ? is ? so ? fragile ? pic.twitter.com/pmDBlfiVNS
— Apollo (@thisisapollo) October 10, 2014
Apparently, masculinity is a fragile, dainty and delicate flower which must be coddled at all costs. pic.twitter.com/b6qQc9zKJV
— Skyen (@TBSkyen) November 11, 2014
The Fragile Masculinity Guide to Throwing a Dinner Party pic.twitter.com/MSpxaGoka3
— Sydney Hartle (@Sydney_Hartle) May 12, 2015
In cosmetics –
Traditional masculinity seems… fragile pic.twitter.com/yGmwdWmkw7
— Belle Jar (@BelleJarTeam) May 1, 2015
just in case your masculinity is so fragile that you have to smell like REALLY RIPPED ABS pic.twitter.com/Eai9gHoZ2N
— kale ? (@osnapitzkaley) May 12, 2015
In alcohol –
You guys, this is a thing that exists: pic.twitter.com/FzEv2mJNCS
— e. (@EisforEricka) July 7, 2014
In toilet paper?!!
In tins?!?!?!
Today in Masculinity Is So Fragile pic.twitter.com/KGY7iGoo1S
— Apollo (@thisisapollo) October 25, 2014
You get the point, right? Marketers exploit a man’s need for being masculine and there’s research backed evidence to prove that this need is real. A study from the Fairleigh Dickinson University showed how gender related questions threatening masculinity, showed that men were less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton, and more likely to vote for Donald Trump. Here’s an excerpt from the report –
“Merely asking the question about spousal income led to enormous shifts in men’s preferences in the upcoming presidential election. Men who weren’t asked about spousal income until late in the survey preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in a hypothetical general election matchup by a 16-point margin; men who were asked about spousal income only a few questions before being asked about the Clinton-Trump matchup preferred Trump by an eight-point margin — a 24-point shift in preferences. The conclusion that this is about gender is reinforced by the fact that the spousal income question had no effect at all on a matchup between Trump and Bernie Sanders. Men who had been primed to think about a threat to their masculinity preferred Sanders by four points; unprimed men, by three.”
Of course, going by the responses that I got on my status, I’m guessing quite a few people are okay with their wives earning more than them. Maybe the definition of masculinity will change over time. Today, being a feminist, being accepting of the LGBT community and standing for equal rights might be considered more manly than being “masculine” in the conventional sense. But it will be a long time, before this becomes the norm.
The flipside to masculinity is that there’s undue expectation on men. And it’s okay to feel like that. Remember, you’ll always have someone to talk to at YourDost.com.
