{"id":787,"date":"2025-10-03T11:17:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/?p=787"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:17:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:17:57","slug":"the-americans-who-see-toxic-masculinity-as-a-problem-and-those-who-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/the-americans-who-see-toxic-masculinity-as-a-problem-and-those-who-dont\/","title":{"rendered":"The Americans who see &#8216;toxic masculinity&#8217; as a problem \u2014\u00a0and those who don&#8217;t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full wp-duotone-grayscale\"><a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.archives.gov\/id\/231740610\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"738\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Twitter_Christy-Goldfuss_2016-04-12_02_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Twitter_Christy-Goldfuss_2016-04-12_02_01.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Twitter_Christy-Goldfuss_2016-04-12_02_01-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Twitter_Christy-Goldfuss_2016-04-12_02_01-768x554.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Every year, the site 19th News conducts a national poll with SurveyMonkey that focuses heavily on issues of gender in American politics and society. This may not sound interesting, much less remarkable, but it is. Polling isn&#8217;t cheap, meaning that media outlets tend to focus on issues in the news and electoral questions. Detailed analyses of more fundamental aspects of the U.S. is invaluable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m going to focus on a set of questions evaluating how Americans view gender roles, as the headline promises, but I do want to share one striking finding: Most Americans know someone who is non-binary. That includes half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents! (Those independents are what the &#8220;+lean&#8221; parenthetical below means.) Black Americans are the racial group least likely to know someone who identifies that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:485px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-sonGb\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/sonGb\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-sonGb\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/sonGb\/full.png\" alt=\"Know someone who is non-binary (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As you might expect, given <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/656708\/lgbtq-identification-rises.aspx\">broader trends in LGBTQ identity<\/a>, younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to know someone non-binary. But even 4 in 10 Americans aged 80 and over say they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:485px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-y80sM\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/y80sM\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-y80sM\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/y80sM\/full.png\" alt=\"Know someone who is non-binary: Age (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>So when Donald Trump was running all those ads in 2024 attacking Kamala Harris as being for &#8220;they\/them,&#8221; half of his voters could visualize someone they knew who he was talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I mentioned, the poll also presented respondents with a series of statements, asking whether they agreed or disagreed with the sentiment. On net \u2014\u00a0that is, subtracting those who disagreed from those who agreed \u2014\u00a0Americans didn&#8217;t agree with the idea that society would benefit from young people having families before pursuing career accomplishments or other goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they did agree on net that families are better off when a parent stays home with kids and (to a much narrower degree) that there would be a benefit to returning to traditional gender roles. That&#8217;s because men were 23 points more likely to agree than to disagree, while women were 17 points more likely to disagree than to agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:341px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-9RYsP\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/9RYsP\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-9RYsP\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/9RYsP\/full.png\" alt=\"How Americans view gender in society (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I want to drill down on the idea that toxic masculinity is a problem for society, something that was viewed with net agreement to the same extent that having a parent stay home was. (By the way, most of those who said one parent should stay home said it should be whichever parent wants to stay home.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here, again, there was a wide gender gap, with women being far more likely to agree it&#8217;s a problem than were men. There was also a partisan gap: Democrats and independents overwhelmingly see toxic masculinity as a problem while Republicans are more likely to disagree than agree that it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:589px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-N0z8x\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/N0z8x\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-N0z8x\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/N0z8x\/full.png\" alt=\"Toxic masculinity is a problem in the U.S. (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Generationally, it&#8217;s the youngest and oldest Americans who agree on net that toxic masculinity as a problem. More on that in a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Broken out by race and gender, White men are the least likely to agree on net that toxic masculinity is a problem, save for men from other racial groups than those identified by the pollsters. In each racial group, women were more likely to agree on net than were the men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:478px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-xVdcy\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/xVdcy\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-xVdcy\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/xVdcy\/full.png\" alt=\"Toxic masculinity is a problem in the U.S.: Race (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The same holds by party. Notice, though, that Republican women are more likely to agree that toxic masculinity is a problem than to disagree with that idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:354px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-joGnB\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/joGnB\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-joGnB\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/joGnB\/full.png\" alt=\"Toxic masculinity is a problem in the U.S.: Party (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Overlapping these responses, <strong>White, married evangelical men are among those most likely to say that they disagree that toxic masculinity is a problem<\/strong>. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we look at the results by generation, we see a decline in agreement among millennial and Gen X respondents among both men and women, though women remain much more likely to agree with the idea than men regardless of age group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:478px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-rg6Ii\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/rg6Ii\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-rg6Ii\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/rg6Ii\/full.png\" alt=\"Toxic masculinity is a problem in the U.S.: Generation (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Diving even deeper into the crosstabs \u2014\u00a0meaning, I must note, that we&#8217;re increasing margins of error \u2014 we see some interesting splits by age and race. Black men, for example, are generally likely to agree that toxic masculinity is a problem at consistent levels. White and Hispanic men, though, are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"min-height:1160px\" id=\"datawrapper-vis-BgE6y\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/BgE6y\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-BgE6y\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/BgE6y\/full.png\" alt=\"Toxic masculinity is a problem in the U.S.: Generation and race (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This chart also supports the &#8220;Gen X is the most reactionary generation&#8221; narrative \u2014\u00a0particularly among White men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will notice that I have not spent time here actually adjudicating claims about toxic masculinity or even its definition. Neither did the poll. For the most part, it&#8217;s beside the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will note, though, that the group most likely to say they disagreed somewhat or strongly with the assertion that toxic masculinity is a problem in the U.S. was Republican men. The group second most likely to say so? 2024 Trump voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo: Artifacts from the Women&#8217;s Equality National Monument. (National Archives)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, the site 19th News conducts a national poll with SurveyMonkey that focuses heavily on issues of gender in American politics and society. This may not sound interesting, much less remarkable, but it is. Polling isn&#8217;t cheap, meaning that media outlets tend to focus on issues in the news&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}