The Masculinity Paradox

[Cherish Asleson]

Chestertonconvinced me long ago that at the center of all great things is a paradox, because at the center of all great things is the cross. And at the center of the cross is a paradox. Christianity is riddled with paradoxes, as is Scripture, and so we should not avoid looking closer at the paradoxes involved in the teaching and manifestation of biblical masculinity. And for this brief exercise, what better book to consider than the book of Proverbs?

The Book of Proverbs is one of the most masculine-defining books in Scripture. It is wisdom from a father to a son on how to be a man, a man who redeems the likeness of Yahweh in himself, his people, and all he handles. It is the wisdom of God for the realm of man, that wisdom finally being fully present in the God-man, Jesus Christ. And it is in Proverbs we find most squarely communicated to us that to be a man means to live in blessed paradox. To be masculine is to be unexpected, strange, apparently absurd but altogether true. If we look only at the first chapter of Proverbs, the paradoxes concerning masculinity are startling yet invigorating.

There are thirty more chapters to Proverbs, all with rich paradoxes concerning masculinity, many of which reiterate the same principles found in chapter one. And so what is the chief paradox to be gleaned here concerning man? By what ultimate standard do we judge the advice given to men on masculinity, whether from the manosphere or elsewhere? What is that single maxim of the paradox of masculinity to which these all point? It is this: true masculinity is formed from a most un-manly place, God, eternally three in one, uncreated. If we want to be masculine, we must work diligently at being less like men and more like God. We may train a dog to stand on his hind legs and wear a frock coat to act more like a man, but we cannot train a man to get on all fours and wear a collar to act more like a dog, for the moment he bows, especially with a collar, he has become more of a man, we may even say more than a man, closer to the dirt, his origin and his end, closer to looking like a son of Adam, a priest in the order of Melchizedek, who ought to find prostration a necessary, and ironically comfortable, position. There is no place a man is more masculine than on his knees before God, for there is no place a man is less inclined to be a man than in the presence of God. It is there he loses all thought of being more of a man, for his desire is to be more like God. There was no place Christ was closer to man than at the cross, where he took the sins of the whole world upon his shoulders; and there was no place Christ was least like man than at the cross, where he was acting most like God. Therefore, it is with great joy we conclude that the pathway to masculinity leads not to man but to God. Masculinity then is as we should expect: a gift of God, given by grace, God giving more of himself to men, to make us less like men.

Brian Daigle is the author of numerous books on literature, education, culture, and healthcare. He is presently an executive with Artifex Healthcare and a doctoral candidate in Health Administration. Brian is director of St. Basil Publishing, and chief operating officer at The Society for Healthcare Culture and Values.

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According to the dual mating strategy model, in short-term mating contexts women should forego paternal investment qualities in favor of mates with well-developed secondary sexual characteristics and dominant behavioral displays. We tested whether this model explains variation in women's preferences for facial masculinity and beardedness in male faces. Computer-generated composites that had been morphed to appear 50% masculine were rated by 671 heterosexual women (M age = 31.72 years, SD = 6.43) for attractiveness when considering them as a short-term partner, long-term partner, a co-parent, or a friend. They then completed the Revised Sociosexual Inventory (SOI-R) to determine their sexual openness on dimensions of desire, behavior, and attitudes. Results showed that women's preferences were strongest for average facial masculinity, followed by masculinized faces, with feminized faces being least attractive. In contrast to past research, facial masculinity preferences were stronger when judging for co-parenting partners than for short-term mates. Facial masculinity preferences were also positively associated with behavioral SOI, negatively with desire, and were unrelated to global or attitudinal SOI. Women gave higher ratings for full beards than clean-shaven faces. Preferences for beards were higher for co-parenting and long-term relationships than short-term relationships, although these differences were not statistically significant. Preferences for facial hair were positively associated with global and attitudinal SOI, but were unrelated to behavioral SOI and desire. Although further replication is necessary, our findings indicate that sexual openness is associated with women's preferences for men's facial hair and suggest variation in the association between sociosexuality and women's facial masculinity preferences.

In many species, male secondary sexual traits have evolved via female choice as they confer indirect (i.e. genetic) benefits or direct benefits such as enhanced fertility or survival. In humans, the role of men's characteristically masculine androgen-dependent facial traits in determining men's attractiveness has presented an enduring paradox in studies of human mate preferences. Male-typical facial features such as a pronounced brow ridge and a more robust jawline may signal underlying health, whereas beards may signal men's age and masculine social dominance. However, masculine faces are judged as more attractive for short-term relationships over less masculine faces, whereas beards are judged as more attractive than clean-shaven faces for long-term relationships. Why such divergent effects occur between preferences for two sexually dimorphic traits remains unresolved. In this study, we used computer graphic manipulation to morph male faces varying in facial hair from clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble and full beards to appear more (+25% and +50%) or less (-25% and -50%) masculine. Women (N = 8520) were assigned to treatments wherein they rated these stimuli for physical attractiveness in general, for a short-term liaison or a long-term relationship. Results showed a significant interaction between beardedness and masculinity on attractiveness ratings. Masculinized and, to an even greater extent, feminized faces were less attractive than unmanipulated faces when all were clean-shaven, and stubble and beards dampened the polarizing effects of extreme masculinity and femininity. Relationship context also had effects on ratings, with facial hair enhancing long-term, and not short-term, attractiveness. Effects of facial masculinization appear to have been due to small differences in the relative attractiveness of each masculinity level under the three treatment conditions and not to any change in the order of their attractiveness. Our findings suggest that beardedness may be attractive when judging long-term relationships as a signal of intrasexual formidability and the potential to provide direct benefits to females. More generally, our results hint at a divergence of signalling function, which may result in a subtle trade-off in women's preferences, for two highly sexually dimorphic androgen-dependent facial traits.

Classifying Sports Through Gender

Stereotypical gender roles created a boundary that delineated which sports were socially acceptable for male and female participation according to perceived degrees of masculinity, femininity, or gender-neutrality i.e., androgyny (Koivula, 1995, 2001). Participation in sports traditionally regarded as masculine, including boxing (Halbert, 1997), ice hockey (Krane, 2001), weight lifting, and motor sports (Koivula, 2001), are deemed inappropriate for women. Instead, females are often encouraged to engage in activities such as figure skating, gymnastics, and tennis (Ross & Shinew, 2008) since these are considered more feminine and are therefore met with less criticism and fewer encounters with negative consequences. When athletic women do not appear to be feminine enough or choose to engage in male-dominated sports, they are bound to face a variety of repercussions including: maltreatment from administrators and coaches, verbal harassment by fans, fewer endorsements, decreased media attention, and/or unfair decisions by judges or officials during competitions (Krane, 2001). These challenges clearly impact sport participation choices, often leading women to conform to the more feminine options (as cited by Wiley, Shaw, & Havitz, 2000).

Andrea Paloian is a senior in the Applied Psychology program. Her main research interests include gender studies and attachment theory. After graduating, she hopes to pursue a degree in clinical psychology.

In short, emphasizing meritocratic values at the organizational level had a counterintuitive effect, which strengthened biases in favor of men over equally performing women. This is the "paradox of meritocracy", a situation where people can show greater levels of gender bias when they are in a context that emphasizes meritocracy. Ironically, working in an environment that highlights meritocracy might make individuals believe that they are fair and objective, and as a result, make them more likely to display their biases. The authors suggest that promoting less managerial discretion, more accountability, and transparency in the workplace can mitigate these negative effects.

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