Science has now provided a preliminary answer to the most pressing question of our time, at least for men: “Does this reusable shopping bag cause you to question my sexuality?”
The answer,at least in a rough statistical sense, is yes — at least according to a new study by researchers at Penn State.
As a press release announcing the study explains:
In a series of studies, the researchers evaluated specific pro-environmental behaviors that previous research suggested were seen as either “feminine” or “masculine” and examined whether they affected how people were perceived.
They found that men and women were more likely to question a man’s sexual orientation if he engaged in “feminine” pro-environmental behaviors, such as using reusable shopping bags.
It works the other way, too:
They were also more likely to question a woman’s sexual orientation if she engaged in “masculine” pro-environmental behaviors, such as caulking windows.
Now, I’m no scientist, but if a woman likes caulk, wouldn’t that make her seem more straight? Evidently not to the men taking part in the survey, who were more likely to avoid women they saw engaging in more “manly” environmentalist activities.
Now, the study wasn’t able to determine whether or not men or women refrained from engaging in certain environmentalist behaviors because they thought it might make them look gay.
But we live in a world in which some guys refuse to wash or wipe their own asses because they think that it might make them gay, so I’m going to take a wild guess and say that, yes, there are more than a few dudes out there who refuse to use reusable shopping bags because they think it makes them look like a sissy.
–DF
H/T — Pacific Standard
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Narrative.. not maritime. Spellcheck. Sorry.
That heterosexual-men-hating press. And it’s not just the maritime heterosexual men they despise — they’re vicious to the land-based heterosexual men too.
Oh. I liked your maritime argument better.
But yeah, trolls exist.
Richard,
Do you have an argument about methodology, do you have opposing evidence, or does the study just sound offensive to you? Because it seems like the later.
Granted, one unreplicated study does not really say all that much, but given the lengths I’ve seen straight guys go to to avoid being perceived as girly or as gay, it hardly seems like this study is implausible. There has been a ton of research on coded gender behavior in general too.
Got an argument besides the media hating straight men? Even though said media is run mostly by straight men so that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense?
(Richard is just here to stir up shit, see his comment on the headaches post.)
Not to say people shouldn’t engage with him, just wanted to point it out in case people had missed it.
Basically,
Weirwoodtreehugger,
I have two objections. Firstly I am suspicious when an academic study gives a result that perfectly fits with the funders prejudices. I have never heard a man say ‘does this bag make me look gay’ and I use a cotton bag myself despite being straight. There were even rainbow plastic bags for gay people during pride. I saw a man carrying one. Are we to believe he was ‘fake gay’ because plastic bags are a heterosexual thing to do?
The other factor is that the actual research (if any) is never referenced. It sounds as if it were all done in the Students Union bar.
I suspect it is simply another nasty little dig at men in general. It has no useful product even if it were true.
@Richard
What are the funders’ prejudices?
Your anecdotes weigh far less than the studies.
It does. To overcome a problem, you must first acknowledge its existance.
EDIT: The edit option is back!
@Richard
How do you know the prejudices of the founders of the study?
Nobody said that straight people can’t use cotton bags or that gay people can’t use plastic bags. The study was about popular perceptions and behaviors. The reason the research isn’t shown by the link is because that is a press release, not the actual study. The actual study can be found here.
Who is making all these ‘nasty little digs’ at men in the first place? I have yet to see any. Of course, your response to this study about sexuality perceptions seems to validate the idea that men will go to great lengths to prove heterosexuality.
Richard,
I conceded that the study would need to be replicated many times to be taken as fact.
That doesn’t mean that the researchers were wrong or had an anti-male bias though.
You still seem to be rejecting this study based on your feelings though.
Weirwoodtreehugger,
The ‘researchers’ would not think themselves anti male- just opposed to ‘toxic masculinity’. They think they are doing men a favour by liberating us from our evil plastic bag using ways!
What was the sample size? We’re the questions loaded? We have no idea, and since the results are so insane and contrary to everyday life I cannot give it any credence.
You are right in one thing. I am sick of being told I am a plastic bag loving ape man. This does not mean I am wrong about the ‘research’ though!
Naglafa
You would do well to avoid snide comments. I think you have a brain and can do better.
@Weirwoodtreehugger
How exactly did you come to that conclusion?
I have rarely ever seen anyone make as many baseless assumptions about the assumptions of others as you have in your comments.
Oops, that was directed to Richard. Sorry.
@Richard
I have not read the study and cannot answer your questions. If someone can find it online in free form, I may take a look and report back. I’m not sure how the results are insane or contradictory to daily life. None of the researchers said anything about liberating anyone from anything, and nobody called you a ‘plastic bag loving ape man’. I am not sure why this study is so offensive to you. The goal of the researchers seems to have been to understand people’s implicit judgements on a variety of ideas, not any sort of attack on men.
@Richard – wtf
So are you declaring that ‘toxic masculinity’ is the definition of ‘male’?
????????
Do you know how adjectives work?
toxic masculinity =/= masculinity. It means something that has been twisted to being toxic.
The idea that a) your sexuality makes you less of a man: toxic. b) that if you care about the environment, you look gay, and that makes you less of a man: toxic.
Your sexuality and caring about the environment don’t emasculate anyone. To think that they do is (you guessed it) toxic.
Come on, dude. Rolling coal is entirely done by dudes who are both insecure enough in their sexuality to put truck nuts and boobie silhouettes on their rigs and insecure enough to feel the need to dominate public space with their anti-environmental displays. Of course there’s some amount of overlap between anti-environmentalists and homophobes. No one said all straight dudes are anti-environmental, but there are absolutely subcultures where caring about anything will get you called gay, sissy, pussy, f*g, etc.
It is time to be honest on this issue.
Has anyone met a man who was too scared to leave the house without a plastic bag because ‘masculinitysofragile’.
Did anyone even know that supermarket bags were macho before this ‘research’.
It appears the writers (if they exist) have never actually met a man. Alternatively, it could all be a media stunt to get web traffic.
Nowhere has anything said that.
Have I met dudes who think using a reusable shopping bag instead of taking the store-supplied shopping bags makes people sensitive snowflake pussies, and wouldn’t be caught dead using one himself? Absolutely 100%.
My goodness. Richard is quite emotional.
Ah, here he is.
…unfortunately, he’s pretty boring, too.
Well, there was that guy who didn’t use the toilet seat when he took a dump because he thought it was a “woman thing,” so…yeah, the plastic bag thing really isn’t much of a stretch. Also, there’s the well-documented cases of men refusing to buy tampons for some reason.
I wonder what that reason might be?
…you know, for someone who hasn’t actually read the study in question, you sure seem pretty familiar with the specifics of its claims. Men “too scared to leave the house without a plastic bag because ‘masculinitysofradgile'” certainly is a fascinating finding….
I reuse the plastic bags because I’m just so manly like that. Also, they scrunch up small enough to fit in my jeans pocket.