{"id":189418,"date":"2024-10-17T09:55:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T13:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=189418"},"modified":"2025-11-11T16:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:32:45","slug":"public-views-on-men-and-masculinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2024\/10\/17\/public-views-on-men-and-masculinity\/","title":{"rendered":"1. Public views on men and masculinity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our survey asked a few questions to understand how Americans think society views men who are \u201cmanly or masculine.\u201d We also asked people whether they think certain traits are valued in men too much or too little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perceptions of how manly or masculine men are viewed in the U.S.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More Americans say people in the U.S. have mostly positive <\/em>views of men who are manly or masculine (43%) than say people have mostly negative <\/em>views (25%). About three-in-ten (31%) say most people have neither positive nor negative views of these men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of those who say people in the U.S. have mostly positive<\/em> views of masculine men, more see this as a good thing<\/em> (47%) than a bad thing (7%). Some 46% say it\u2019s neither good nor bad that people have mostly positive views of masculine men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those who say people in the country have mostly negative <\/em>views of masculine men, about three-quarters (73%) say this is a bad thing<\/em>. Just 9% say it\u2019s good that people in the U.S. have mostly negative views of this type of man, while 18% say this is neither good nor bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences by gender<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Women are more likely than men to say people in the U.S. have mostly positive views of masculine men (49% vs. 36%). In turn, 33% of men say people have mostlynegative views, compared with 18% of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men who say people have mostly positive<\/em> views of masculine men are somewhat more likely than women who say the same to see this as a good thing<\/em> (51% vs. 45%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while majorities of men and women who say people have mostly negative<\/em> views of masculine men see this as a bad thing<\/em>, a larger share of men (77%) than women (66%) holding this view say this is the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences by party<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (49%) say views of masculine men are mostly positive<\/em>; 37% of Republicans and Republican leaners say the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to say people in the U.S. have mostly negative<\/em> views of masculine men (35% vs. 17%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those who think Americans have mostly positive<\/em> views of masculine men, 67% of Republicans say this is a good thing<\/em>, compared with 33% of Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, 86% of Republicans who say people in the U.S. have mostly negative<\/em> views of masculine men see this is a bad thing<\/em>, much larger than the share of their Democratic counterparts who say the same (45%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, Republican men are more likely than Republican women and both Democratic men and women to say people in the U.S. have negative views of men who are manly or masculine. In fact, Republican men are the only group in which more say views are negative<\/em> than positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n