I don’t know if it’s just loud voices becoming louder on the internet, but the rise in right wing support is scaring me as a man. We all know that there are a lot of leftists who don’t care about men’s issues, but right wing ideals also oppress men. Unfortunately the growing popularity of conservatism both in governments across America and Europe, as well as the growing popularity of conservatism online, is not looking good. I like in the UK, so we don’t really have a culture war in places like the US, plus we did just vote out the conservatives, but the general trend of growing conservatism is a threat to men’s rights.

One big idea amongst conservatives is gender roles. The idea that men have to be protectors (willing to fight and die for others) and providers (in a financial sense and other ways) is a conservative view. The view that “real men” provide and protect has been getting a lot more traction recently. There’s a lot of criticism towards men who aren’t stereotypically masculine. If a man isn’t muscular, he’s “lazy”. If a man isn’t making six figures a month, he’s “broke”. If a man isn’t physically strong, he’s “not a real man”. We all know that many leftists don’t have a good attitude towards men, but conservatives won’t benefit men either, they’ll just benefit the “family unit”/“society” by pressuring men to be the sole financial providers who can’t show any emotions unless they’re “weak”.

All of the expectations placed upon men are what lead to problems like mental health issues and suicide. How is increasing the pressure on men going to help? People also forget how badly men used to have it in the last century. A lot of men were heavy drinkers, and a lot of men had issues like PTSD due to wars (a lot of countries had peacetime drafts after the Second World War, so the governments of the world kept traumatising men), yet everyone wants to pretend that life was “perfect” for men. I’m also disappointed in how the left ignores men’s issues and constantly the left constantly blame men for everything, but I don’t want the conservative ideas about masculinity to become more prevalent in society. I’m not the most “masculine” guy, and my biggest bullies have all been extremely conservative people who use every opportunity to threaten me and even occasionally try to beat me up.

Another problem I’m noticing when it comes to conservatism is that some conservatives are reversing everything men fought for. For example, many conservatives dismiss men’s mental health, going as far as to claim that being rich and having care will solve our issues (obviously that’s a small minority of people, but the fact that such a belief even exists in the first place is concerning). This breaks two things men have worked hard to achieve:

1 -It breaks the opportunity for men to open up about their mental health. We’ve spent decades trying to open up about our mental health. Men have always been expected to be stoic and to have everything under control, but the constant downplaying of our mental health will just make things worse.

2 - It also contributes to the financial burden placed on men. Ask any group of men, there’s a high chance at least one of those men will feel stressed out by their financial situation. Poor men have worked hard for their rights, because historically poor people (including men) had very rights. Creating a bigger class divide will just further help men. I won’t go too far into economics since this isn’t an economics sub, but right wing social beliefs are affected by right wing economic beliefs.

To summarise because I’m awful at writing coherently, I’m scared of the growing popularity of right wing ideology politically and socially, because it will lead to more people trying to push their version of masculinity on others. The conservative definition of masculinity is all about being a provider and protector, someone who isn’t “weak”. While a lot of right wingers don’t care about what individuals do, a lot of right wingers are constantly pushing men to be “real men”, and they make fun of men who are “feminine”, be it personality, style or mentality.