Utopia or Dystopia?
When you imagine the future, what do you see when you think of masculinity? Does it look similar to today or different? Do you feel happy with what you see or saddened? Following are three predictions regarding masculinity, extrapolated from what is happening right now. These predictions do not represent three possible futures, rather three focal points that exist concurrently in a single near future.
Masculinity and Populism
Politics abounds with false binaries. Historically, the primary false binary has been left vs right. During the past 20 years this binary has been eroded due to the decline of progressive values in major politics parties, so whether you’re in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia or France, the large left-wing parties have become more centrist.
This has been recently replaced by a new false binary: populist vs elitist. The common perception is that populism is the new “right” and elitism is the new “left.” Implicit in this is yet another false binary: globalist vs nationalist. However, while the populist-nationalists may appear right-wing, they have some policies that are traditionally left-wing, such as a concern for “working” people and a suspicion of transnational business. So we need to be careful about getting stuck in these false political binaries, in much the same way as getting stuck in false gender binaries.
One alliance that emerged clearly in the 2016 presidential campaign is that between populism and traditional masculinity. Trump repeatedly relied on simplistic appeals to masculinity, and these were lapped up by many members of the manosphere such as the writers and readers at Return of Kings.
In the future, this connection between masculinity and populism will become further consolidated. Of course, because binaries require two poles, we will also see an increased perception that elitism is bound with femininity. This functions as a natural end to a certain conspiratorial masculinist logic that has always claimed that feminism has been about women taking control rather than seeking equality. What is particularly clever about this ideological maneuver is that it aligns traditional masculinity with the 99%, thus establishing some underdog and even democratic morality that has previously been hard to justify. Because both traditional masculinity and populism rely on caricatures of both themselves and others, any attempt to add subtly and nuance to the debate will be seen as elitist, making this future pattern very hard to break.
MGTOW and Sex Technologies
The conversation about masculinity and false political binaries is echoed by the aims and objectives of Men Going their Own Way (MGTOW), who seek lives without women. A good deal of MGTOW ideology sounds right-wing or populist in tone, given it is largely anti-feminist. However, there is a left-wing (or even anarchist) vibe to some MGTOW goals, such as economic and societal disengagement from a system that seeks to dominate men in order to further its own oppressive agenda.
But the real future trend for masculinity that will be driven by MGTOW is the impact of new sex technologies. Whether it be virtual reality porn or sexbots, we are probably not that far off being able to achieve good-enough replications of sex for many men to disengage from meaningful relationships with “actual” women. If we perceive there to be an emotional disconnect between men and women today, one can only assume this will increase by an order of magnitude once men start to shun biological relationships. Expect women’s inevitable claims of men’s lack of emotional depth to be framed as yet another elitist attack on men.
Queer Proliferation
While the above two focal points are regressive in nature, a third is progressive: the proliferation of queerness. A recent report from JWT Intelligence shows that young people belonging to Gen Z (aged 13-20) are rejecting traditional understandings of gender in significant numbers. This is the kind of evidence that supports the recent call for a queer liberation for straight men.
Those promoting radical new ideas about gender will likely be small in number relative to those in the populist communities who will largely appeal to historical and “common sense” models of masculinity. However, expect these radical new ideas to have a disproportionately large voice due to being championed by celebrities and content producers in the mainstream media. Of course, the inevitable downside of this is that these radical new ideas will be labelled by the populists as elitist, thus paradoxically helping to consolidate the false populist vs elitist binary.
A Future of Extremes
What all three of these focal points have in common is the forcing of masculinity to extremes. Populism pushes masculinity to the regressive extreme because it demands an historical caricature of gender. Sex technologies push masculinity to the regressive extreme because they suggest a vaguely autistic vision of masculinity that either cannot or will not engage with real relationships. Queer proliferation pushes masculinity to the progressive extreme, potentially out-pacing the speed of most regular peoples’ evolving understanding of gender. The question then remains, what happens to all the people whose opinions are not fully represented by those extremes?
Left unchecked, these extreme future scenarios for masculinity lead to an ever-more fractured society with people further retreating into “us” and “them.” If you are one of the people in the middle you will probably be forced to choose a side, as to have no side leads to isolation, and most people will probably make peace with an extreme that are not fully comfortable with rather than go into self-imposed exile.
However, the alternative is to resist these various false binaries over the coming five-to-ten years. The populist vs elitist binary must be the first to go. Progressives, in particular, must acknowledge how they are complicit in a variety of oppressive actions in society, and do a much better job of understanding the very real concerns of those currently finding a home in populist movements. This, in turn, will loosen the binds between populism and masculinity and elitism and femininity. MGTOW critics must do a better job of understanding why so many men might be turned off by real-life relationships, and of course MGTOW members need to think deeply about what underpins their motivations. Queer evangelists need to understand that some people are just fine with their plain old vanilla tastes. In short, if we want a positive future for masculinity that is not bound by false binaries—both old and new—we have to start listening to those we perceive as opponents, and to work much harder at recognizing the things we get wrong.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
“In the future, this connection between masculinity and populism will become further consolidated. Of course, because binaries require two poles, we will also see an increased perception that elitism is bound with femininity.” Apart from all the women who voted for Trump, Le Pen, Brexit, etc. And all the damselling of “protecting our women” that female voters for the above were happy to take advantage of. Men and women are to blame for populism, and you won’t fix matters by only blaming the men. “Expect women’s inevitable claims of men’s lack of emotional depth to be framed as yet another… Read more »
I’d ask you to define masculinity, if you can, without it degenerating into a diatribe about toxic masculinity. Bet you can’t. It always goes there.
Men will be opting out in ever increasing numbers , that’s for sure , but in fairness women led the way with ” A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle ” , most women are quite happy ,if not happier without men ( they don’t really have ” sexual needs ” like men do ) women far prefer other women for company over men , most women look down on men , if anything.
True what about men see women are luck they can have kids if they couldnt they Wouldnt be understood also their lucky double standards are more understood for women this is why some guys dislike women. They very spoiled in this world
Yes. Now that the bicycle has realized it doesn’t need the fish all of a sudden its a problem and its all the bicycle’s fault somehow.
If the fish doesn’t need the bicycle and the bicycle finally woke up to that why can’t both go their own way and live happily ever after? why does the fish keep insisting that the bicycle stick around so that it can be used abused and blamed for everything including the fishes bad hair day?
Correct Sir , men are mere whipping boys for women. EVERYTHING is our fault , endured nearly 15 years of that crap when married , before dumping her !!
Because apparently only the fish is allowed to to be independent. If the bicycle wakes up and realizes it can be independent that apparently somehow in some way inherently hurts all the fish.
why does the fish keep insisting that the bicycle stick around so that it can be used abused and blamed for everything including the fishes bad hair day?
Like K E said above. Someone to blame everything on and to justify why the fish should be allowed to mistreat the bicycle despite supposedly not needing it.
Oh yes , I forgot !! how silly of me, they still need at least 1 man to bad mouth & blame everything on !!
I feel this hate fest for binary systems needs to stop. You used the word binary 6 times in your article. That’s twelve binaries!
You folks with the hammers need to stop believing everything is a nail.
You can already see what the future holds. Men are opting out. And why wouldn’t they? If you continue to oppress a class of people and then mock them for taking issue with it, those people are going to decide to simply walk away. If women want all the cookies, then give it a shot. Run the infrastructure, fight the wars, police our streets and pick up my trash. I won’t fight you over it.
“This functions as a natural end to a certain conspiratorial masculinist logic that has always claimed that feminism has been about women taking control rather than seeking equality. What is particularly clever about this ideological maneuver is that it aligns traditional masculinity with the 99%, thus establishing some underdog and even democratic morality that has previously been hard to justify. Because both traditional masculinity and populism rely on caricatures of both themselves and others, any attempt to add subtly and nuance to the debate will be seen as elitist, making this future pattern very hard to break.” argumentum ignoratio elenchi.… Read more »
If we perceive there to be an emotional disconnect between men and women today, one can only assume this will increase by an order of magnitude once men start to shun biological relationships. Expect women’s inevitable claims of men’s lac of emotional depth to be framed as yet another elitist attack on men. Sure you can expect it but would such a claim be wrong? Here’s what I’ve noticed about women when it comes to saying they want men to be emotionally deep. Many of them are often more interested in that depth for their own sake than for the… Read more »
Of course, but I think that it is more then just that, Dan, but yet another set of forces directed at men based on yet another set of ideals as to what men are and will be, not even those of women, but a progressive mindset that tends to believe that heterosexual men are themselves a falsehood, let alone authentic masculinity.
“This is the kind of evidence that supports the recent call for a queer liberation for straight men.”
I rested my case right there.
Traditional masculinity, men’s lib, feminism, progressivism, etc…. Time and time against those “new” ways of masculinity are getting built with the same ground work. A system of expectations that is dictated by a small subset of men yet all men are supposed to follow and are centered more around satisfying that small subset of men and women in general than all men. The only thing has that really changes over time is which small subset of men is calling the shots and what women what. The true liberation of men, one where men as a group are able to established… Read more »
ALL men are portrayed as sex crazed filth in Western ” society ” Even better would be an effective , but safe ,male sex drive killer , that does not kill the male drive to get things done , men would achieve even more. Most women would be happy too as they have little desire for sex & no more being bothered by ” perverted , rapey ” men.
The motivation of MGTOW is simple. Fear of violence by proxy when any woman, any where, at any time, for any whim can sic the power of the state upon a man. Read the case of Mark Pearson. He was prosecuted for rape simply for walking by a woman in Waterloo Station. The surveillance tape showed he didn’t even slow down when walking by her. They prosecuted him anyway based on nothing but a mentally ill woman’s word. This is an extreme example of just how toxic the social environment is for men. Only an idiot male interacts with women.… Read more »
THAT case even getting to Magistrates court , let alone Crown Court is shocking !! I would sue her for damages , as an accused man is always assumed to be guilty & this leaves a stigma.