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Why does the male gender role have generally less flexibility? Feminine men seem more mocked than masculine women, you can name a baby girl 'Max' but it's weird for a baby boy to be "Sarah", women being bi is basically a fun norm while 'bi guys' are stereotyped as gay. Why?

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

This is a thing where I feel like there's got to be a great evolutionary theory for this but I don't know what it is. Is it male value is more centered around strength behaviors, while women value is more centered around reproduction (which is much more stable)?

6:32 PM · Oct 30, 2019

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Tailcalled (tailcalled@schelling.pt)

@tailcalled

Oct 30, 2019

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@Aella_Girl

I don't think it has less flexibility along all dimensions. It's pretty acceptable for men to be compassionate, and at least in my surveys, masculine interests in women correlate more with gender role dissatisfaction than feminine interests in men do.

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What do you mean correlate more with gender role dissatisfaction?

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Misha Gurevich, Photographer, VC, Wives 0/1

@drethelin

Oct 30, 2019

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@Aella_Girl

Any such theory is gonna have to account for hugely variable male expectations in various cultures

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yeah i wonder if this is just a modern thing, like pre-feminism a masculine women is really gross, and maybe it is, but I think my model is that male flexibility is still comparatively less than female flexibility across cultures today.

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John Turley-Ewart, PhD, MBA (Hons.)

@JohnTurleyEwart

Oct 30, 2019

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@Aella_Girl

"A Boy Named Sue," Johnny Cash. Give it a listen

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Maybe males that didn't fulfill their role as expected were more dangerous for the group? I'm mainly thinking fighting contexts.

James is in the year 2030, it's nice

@JimmyRis

Oct 30, 2019

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@Aella_Girl

Maybe something in there. Masculinity doesn’t impact a woman’s ability to make a baby, femininity has higher impact on a man’s ability to fight a lion

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It probably just boils down to survival, for a society to thrive it needs feminine women and masculine men.

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Women of reproductive age represent a smaller proportion of the population than fertile men. They are therefore in higher demand. Men have a stronger incentive to appeal to women’s desires than vice versa.

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2/ A man conversely is less interested in a less than ideal mate since he doesn't need to stay around to raise the child. I guess this informs the flexibility, that it's more critical for a man to have manly qualities (if he wants to have sex) than for a woman to be womanly.