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I unfortunately could not get zoom screen recording to work to save my life, I had tried for hours and it was causing my computer to go into over drive (the white noise in the background of the video) I use screencastify as it's the platform I am most comfortable sharing. :/

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This study examines how heavy social media use influences gender perceptions and contributes to mental health challenges, particularly among young people. The research highlights how social media platforms often reinforce unrealistic beauty standards, gender stereotypes, and expectations that can negatively impact self-esteem.

Santoniccolo, F., Trombetta, T., Paradiso, M. N., & Rollè, L. (2023, May 9). Gender and media representations: A review of the literature on gender stereotypes, objectification and sexualization. International journal of environmental research and public health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10218532/#:~:text=Heavy%20media%20use%20may%20further,number%20of%20detrimental%20health%20effects.

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Gender and Media Representations: A Review of the Literature on Gender Stereotypes, Objectification and Sexualization

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Media representations play an important role in producing sociocultural pressures. Despite social and legal progress in civil rights, restrictive gender-based representations appear to be still very pervasive in some contexts. The article explores…

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This article from the Hollywood Reporter discusses how the progress of gender and racial diversity among film directors has stalled, despite previous advancements. Women and people of color continue to face barriers in Hollywood, with white male directors still dominating major film productions. The stagnation in representation highlights how power structures in media continue to marginalize certain voices, reinforcing traditional norma rather than challenging them.

Thomas, C. (2025b, January 2). Films directed by women and people of color plateaued in 2024, study finds. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/films-directed-women-people-of-color-plateaued-2024-study-1236097388/

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Films Directed by Women and People of Color Plateaued in 2024, Study Finds

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The report from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative looked at the number of women and people of color directing last year’s top-grossing movies.

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Films Directed by Women and People of Color Plateaued in 2024, Study Finds

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Pew Research Center's study on the role of social media in shaping gender norms emphasizes how platforms like Instagram and TikTok often reinforce unrealistic beauty standards and traditional gender roles. This affects self-esteem, particularly among young women who feel pressured to conform to media-driven ideals of feminity.

Gottfried, J. (2024a, January 31). Americans’ social media use. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/

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Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech

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YouTube and Facebook are by far the most used online platforms among U.S. adults. But TikTok's user base has grown significantly in recent years: 33% of U.S. adults now say they use it, up from 21% in 2021.

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This survey reveals that video games continue to present gender inequality in their character designs and narratives. Male characters dominate game protagonists, while female characters are often portrayed as sidekicks or secondary characters. The lack of strong, multifaceted female protagonists contributes to limiting perceptions of women's capabilities in both the digital and real worlds.

International Game Developers Association. IGDA. (n.d.). https://www.igda.org/

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The Geena Davis Institute's report on gender representation in film highlights the persistent underrepresentation of women in lead roles across Hollywood movies. Despite efforts for gender parity, women remain underrepresented in films, particularly women of color.

Research archive. Geena Davis Institute. (1970, January 1). https://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/

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The Institute has amassed the largest body of research on gender prevalence in family entertainment, spanning more than 28 years. Our research findings are in high demand by companies and organizations interested in the empowerment of women and girls.

The Institute's research serves as the basis for education and outreach programs that help families, studios, educators and content creators become critical consumers and producers.

In a survey following the 2019 Symposium on Gender in Media, more than 90% of attendees stated that the information they learned would influence how they perceive gender balance and stereotypes in their work, and 98% would share and utilize our research findings with their peers and in their companies.

Key Findings / Executive Summaries

Full Research Reports

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The Institute has amassed the largest body of research on gender prevalence in family entertainment, spanning more than 28 years. Our research findings are in high demand by companies and organizations interested in the empowerment of women and girls. The Institute's research serves as the basis for education and outreach programs that help families, studios, [...]

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Public Opinion on Same Sex Marriage Legalization

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Public Opinion on Same Sex Marriage Legalization

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Gallup's June 2024 poll indicates that 69% of Americans support the legal recognition of same sex marriage, matching the record high reached in 2021. This trend reflects the evolving nature of public opinion on marriage equality in the U.S., highlighting both progress and ongoing debates surrounding LGBTQ+ rights.

Brenan, M. (2025, February 26). Same-sex relations, marriage still supported by most in U.S. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/646202/sex-relations-marriage-supported.aspx

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Republican backing for legalizing same-sex unions dips back below 50%

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than two in three Americans continue to believe that marriage between same-sex couples should be legal (69%), and nearly as many say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable (64%). Both readings have been consistently above the 50% mark since the early 2010s and above 60% since 2017.

The recent halt in the long-term upward trend in both indicators of public support for the LGBTQ+ community reflects Democrats' and independents' support leveling off, while Republicans' has dipped slightly.

Same-Sex Marriage Support Near Record High

The latest 69% of Americans who support legal same-sex marriage, from Gallup's May 1-23 Values and Beliefs poll, is statistically similar to the record high of 71% recorded in 2022 and 2023. When Gallup first polled about same-sex marriage in 1996, 27% of Americans thought such unions should be legal, and 68% said they should not.

By 2004, 42% were in favor, and in 2011, support crossed the majority level for the first time. After registering slightly lower in two subsequent measures, public support for legal recognition of same-sex unions has remained above 50% consistently since late 2012. About one year after the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalized same-sex marriage, public support increased to 61%, and it has remained above that level since.

Currently, 83% of Democrats, 74% of independents and 46% of Republicans favor legalized same-sex marriage.

Partisans have differed in their levels of support for legal same-sex marriage, with Democrats more supportive than Republicans and independents' views closer to Democrats'. Majorities of Democrats have supported legalizing same-sex unions since 2004, and a majority of independents have agreed since 2011. Over the past few decades, Republicans' backing for same-sex marriage has averaged about 30 percentage points lower than that of Democrats while also showing the same general pattern of increased support over time. Republican support has reached the majority level twice, with 55% readings in 2021 and 2022, but has fallen below 50% in the past two years.

Majority Continues to View Same-Sex Relations as Morally Acceptable

Gallup has gauged Americans' views of the moral acceptability of gay or lesbian relations annually since 2001 as part of a list of personal behaviors and societal practices. The 64% of U.S. adults who currently say same-sex relations are morally acceptable is unchanged from last year but significantly lower than the 71% record high in 2022. While majorities of Americans have considered same-sex relations to be moral since 2010, fewer, between 38% and 49%, said so prior to that.

As with support for same-sex marriage, Democrats (81%) -- and, to a lesser extent, independents (68%) -- are more likely than Republicans (40%) to say relations between gays or lesbians are morally acceptable. Whereas a majority of Democrats have thought same-sex relations are morally acceptable since 2006, no more than half of Republicans have said the same throughout Gallup's trend, except for three readings -- 51% in 2020 and 2021 and 56% in 2022. The current 41-point gap between Democrats and Republicans ties 2011 as the largest on record.

Bottom Line

As the percentage of Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or something other than heterosexual continues to rise in the U.S., public support for same-sex marriage and views of the morality of same-sex relations remain high, although not holding at the peak levels recorded two years ago. For over two decades, Republicans have lagged behind Democrats and independents in these beliefs. Although the longer-term trends have shown increased support among all three party groups, the past two years have seen a leveling off, if not a decline, in that support.

With younger Americans consistently more likely than older Americans to favor legal same-sex marriage and to view same-sex relations as morally acceptable, public support should resume its growth at some point in the coming decades, should younger adults and new generations entering adulthood maintain higher levels of support.

To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on X @Gallup.
Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

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Same-Sex Relations, Marriage Still Supported by Most in U.S.

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Americans remain largely supportive of the legalization of same-sex marriages, and a majority believe gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable.

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In this episode, the American Psychological Association explores the link between traditional masculinity and its detrimental effects on men's mental health. The discussion centers around the societal expectations placed on men to adhere to traits like emotional stoicism, dominance, and independence, which often lead to increased rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicide.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-a). American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/masculinity-mental-health

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Kim Mills: Stoic, tough, self-reliant, unemotional. Those are some of the watchwords of traditional masculinity. And for some men, they hold powerful sway. The idea that "real men" exhibit these characteristics is ingrained in our culture, even after decades of discussing evolving gender roles.

Research has long shown that men are less likely than women to seek help or receive treatment for mental health issues. They are less likely than women to say that they even have close friendships. In the United States, men die, on average, five years earlier than women, and they die by suicide 3.6 times more often. Men commit 90% of all homicides in the U.S., and they make up 77% of homicide victims.

What role does traditional masculine ideology play in these disparities, and what can be done to change them? How does traditional masculinity affect men's mental health and physical health? How does it affect women? Have our ideas of masculinity changed over time-are younger men less tied to traditional masculine ideas than their fathers? And what have psychologists learned about the most effective ways to reach out to men?

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills.

Our guest today is Dr. Ronald Levant, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ohio in Akron. Over his decades-long career, Dr. Levant helped establish the psychology of men and masculinities as a field of study, conducting research on how traditional masculinity ideology shapes men's lives and affects both men and women. He has authored, edited, or coauthored more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books, including his most recent book, The Tough Standard: The Hard Truths about Masculinity and Violence, published in 2020. He is a fellow of APA and was the 2005 president of the association.

Thank you for joining us, Dr. Levant.

Ronald F. Levant, PhD: Thank you, Kim. It's a pleasure to be with you today.

Mills: Let's start by defining what you mean when you talk about masculinity. In the introduction, I used the term "traditional masculinity ideology," which is a term that you coined. What is traditional masculinity ideology?

Levant: Well, let me back up for a second and just say a few words about how masculinity is understood in our society. In general, among the public, masculinity is thought to be synonymous with being male, and it's-in fact, if you look it up on various online dictionaries, it's the qualities of being male, a boy, or a man. But psychologists view it in a much more fine-grained way, and we think of masculinity as we do of femininity as, essentially, gender roles, roles that are defined by social norms. We're all familiar with social norms. We have norms in different countries for how close you can stand to a person, about holding a door for somebody coming behind you, and we also have norms for gender roles. And these norms for boys are expectations for how boys and men should think, feel, and behave. So when we think of masculinity, we think of it as something that is, rather than inherent in the biology of being male, but rather, it's something that is in culture, that's socially constructed, and that consists of a series of social norms.

And when we measure traditional masculinity ideology, we measure a set of norms that are for boys and men's behavior. There are several scales for measuring traditional masculinity ideology, which I use the abbreviation TMI. The one that I've developed and revised over several decades is called the Male Role Norms Inventory, and it identifies seven norms. Avoiding all things feminine, that's really the predominant norm because masculinity has to be defined as against something, so it's masculinity against femininity. The next norm is restricting the expression of emotions, particularly vulnerable emotions and caring emotions. Next is self-reliance through mechanical skills, toughness, dominance, placing a great importance on physical sex, and having disdain for sexual minority men, gay and bisexual men. So those are the norms of masculinity. We have been, as I said, developing scales to measure TMI, as well as other aspects of masculinity such as a man's personal conformity to masculine norms, as well as the conflict and stress that a man would experience if he violates those norms, and this has been going on for over four decades.

Mills: So your most recent book is about the intersection between masculinity and violence, and you argue that most violence such as gun violence and sexual assault is committed by men even though most men are not violent. What role does traditional masculinity ideology play in violent behavior?

Levant: Well, thank you for that question. And it's really the crux of the matter. I think the paradox that males are responsible for the vast majority of violence, yet the vast majority of males aren't violent, points us to like, "Okay, can we identify who, among the male population, is likely to be violent?" And you may be aware that some, I think, eight or 10 years ago, APA published a report on gun violence. And basically, it wound up concluding-I'm going to summarize a very long report briefly, but it said that there are many, many factors that go into it, and there's no one way to really identify it, but the best predictor of future violence is past violence.

Mills: Exactly.

Levant: Well, to me, that begs the question, and I think we should be able to do much better than that. And so as a result of the book that I cowrote with Shana Pryor, The Tough Standard, we've identified two groups of men who, we think, account for the linkages with violence. So let me just say at the beginning, in psychology, we cannot directly study violence. It would be unethical to create an experiment in which violence occurs, so we have to use indirect measures of violence. So we use self-reports of past violence, which aren't 100% reliable, but it's the best we can do. We use scales to measure aggression or hostility, and then we use proxy variables like inducing a man to punch a punching bag after an experiment. So that's as close as we can get, but based on 40 years of studies using those methods that I described-and also, there are other weaknesses with literature that are true of pretty much all fields of psychology, but based on that, there are really two groups of men that seem to cause the linkages with hostility, aggression, et cetera.

One is men who check all the boxes, who score very high on measures of masculinity, whether it's TMI or hypermasculinity or conformity to masculine norms, the men in the upper tail of the distribution. Because masculinity scores tend to be distributed in a rather skewed fashion, I should say that, that the scores are really pushed to the low end. And I'll come back to that point, but there is a thin upper tail of men who we would describe as hypermasculine, and we believe that those-we have not yet found an experiment. There's only one study that supports that, so that finding is a little weak, but we think that that accounts for linkage.

But then there's another group of men who feel ashamed of themselves for violating masculine norms. Now, I want to back up for a second and say that most men-I essentially did a paper, looking at three studies conducted over a 17-year period, looking at their scores on the Male Role Norms Inventory, my scale, and overall, I found that on average, most men do not endorse traditional masculine norms. But think about it, an adult man likely has a vocational identity, he likely has an intimate partnership. He may have children, may have a mortgage or car payments, he's got far too much on his mind to worry about whether he is masculine or not. And most men don't, but there's a minority of men who do, who feel ashamed of themselves for violating masculine norms.

I did some studies back in the '90s that showed this very clearly. I had a group of men, and I would pass out three-by-five index cards and pencils, and I asked them to write their top secret, the thing they've never told anybody and never would tell anybody, down on the paper. And then I collected the cards, and I made an elaborate display of shuffling them, and then I started to turn them over. And gasps would go up in the room, "He's going to read them." And what I found was so fascinating, that many of the secrets, the shameful secrets that men would never tell anybody were about violating masculine norms. I backed down from a fight in high school, I had a crush on another boy, I was too close to my mother. As a boy, I cried too often. It almost breaks your heart. These are 40- or 50-year-old men who feel ashamed of themselves for things that are just basically human.

So the second thing I learned from that is that it's enormously-it provides enormous relief for men to hear that they are not the only one who have shameful secrets. Because many men, because they never tell anybody, they never get corrective feedback to the effect that, "Oh yeah, I felt that way too," or, "Oh yeah, that's normal." And they come out of their inner caves where they think they're the only men in the world who's ever violated masculine norms and all those other guys are doing fine, so they've experienced enormous relief from that. But there is this small group of men, like some of the men in this group, who feel ashamed of themselves, and this is called, in our field, discrepancy strain. It's basically strain that results from a discrepancy between your ideal self-image and your real self-image, that is who you think you should be and who you feel you really are.

And this is very much akin to something well known in our field called cognitive dissonance, which is an unpleasant feeling that people get when they behave in contradiction to their beliefs, that drives them to act in a manner consistent with their beliefs. Well, discrepancy strain does the same thing that when you assess a man for discrepancy strain, you will find correlations with measures, indicators of violence. If you experimentally induce discrepancy strain, such has been done in the precarious manhood studies where you, essentially, randomly assign men into either an experimental or a control group and ask the experimental group to do a feminizing task like braiding the hair on a mannequin and putting pink ribbons in it, versus a masculine task like tying ropes into knots. And then give both groups of men the choice of sitting quietly in a room or punching a punching bag, who'd you guess chooses to punch the punching bag more often?

Mills: The guys with the pink ribbons.

Levant: Exactly, because once you threaten their masculinity, they have to demonstrate it. So this particular phenomenon, threatened masculinity, discrepancy strain, precarious manhood, it's called by various names. It's actually found in a wide range of social science literatures, not only in social psychology and counseling psychology but also in sociology, cultural anthropology, criminology, and social work. So when you find that kind of finding across a range of disciplines, you have to have a lot of confidence in it. And we do, but it even gets better than that.

There's a database of school shooters maintained by a psychologist, Peter Langman, and if you go into the database and search for the term masculinity, 18 cases come up, 18 school shooters in the portfolio that is established for them, which includes diaries and medical records and school records and all kinds of information. Eighteen men have masculinity mentioned. And if you look at those 18 cases carefully, what you see in all 18 is threatened masculinity, boys who are bullied for not being sufficiently masculine, men who can't get a date with women, just men who, in various ways, feel that they do not measure up, suffer discrepancy strain, feel their masculinity threatened.

I thought-so this connects our experimental survey research to anecdotal evidence out in the real world concerning actual gun violence. It's also seen in another anecdotal set of data, which is homicide-suicides, that is a person who kills his family then kills himself, or shoots up his workplace and then shoots himself. And also some of the school shooters like Columbine were murder suicides. And a study of newspaper reports of murder suicides, and again, this is anecdotal, found that threatened masculinity played a role in all of the stories they looked at. So clearly, we're linking threatened masculinity, in the experimental and survey research, to real-world evidence, as well as finding it across a range of disciplines. So I really think threatened masculinity is what we have to look at if we are going to solve the horrendous gun violence problem in our country.

Mills: But how do you get to that before the shooting happens? What is the environment where you're able to test this, and then predict the person who is likely to go down that path?

Levant: Well, I'm an academic psychologist, not a legislator or public policy person, so I'm weak on the details of how you'd implement this. I mean, we do have scales that you could assess somebody for discrepancy strain. I don't know how you would actually use that information to prevent people from being violent.

Mills: Do we start testing in schools, maybe? I mean, can we identify people when they're young?

Levant: Well, I think it does go back to intervening when children are young. And what I think the answer is, is that we have to stop making little boys feel that masculinity is obligatory. That is one of the biggest problems with masculinity, is that boys are made to feel that masculinity is obligatory, that they have no choice but to be masculine. They get this primarily from their fathers and from their peers. Even recent research shows that fathers tend to believe that their job is to make men out of their sons. But the peers, as you well know, are vicious in policing masculinity. Elementary school boys use various epithets, sissy and worse, to refer to these boys, as well as beat them up. So boys are made to feel masculinity is obligatory.

Now, contrast that with a family that I saw when I was in practice who basically said, "We want to raise our son in a gender-neutral way. We'd like him to have full access to his emotions and not feel that he can cry and all this stuff, but we worry about how he's going to be treated out in the world." And I said, "You know, that's a very real concern. I think what you need to do is inoculate your son for that eventuality, you can have a conversation with him or several conversations with him along these lines. 'Johnny, in our house, we think it's okay for boys to cry. But not everybody agrees, and you have to know who you're with because sometimes, if you're with people who don't agree with you and you cry, they'll get mad at you,'" and so you have an age-appropriate conversation.

But help your son know that there's a time and place, you teach the child display rules. And this is a very valuable lesson, not only about gender but teaching a child to discriminate between different groups of people and how they're likely to respond to him. It's a very useful skill, so that's one way. But as to how we utilize the findings from psychological and social science research to immediately correct the problem, I think we'd have to have a panel with some policy experts and legislators to present this information and have them think about what kinds of social interventions could be done. That's really beyond my level of expertise.

Mills: Well, let me ask you then, following onto what you were just saying, has the public understanding of masculinity changed at all over the decades since you started doing this research? Do, for example, millennial men believe in these traditional masculine ideas to the same extent that their baby boomer fathers did?

Levant: No. As a matter of fact, I just published a study in the SAGE journal, Men and Masculinities, that actually showed that. What we did is we had a sample of men from young adults, 18 to 30, established adults, 30 to 44, middle-aged, 45 to 60, and 60-plus. And we first did a very sophisticated psychometric analysis called measurement invariance to ensure that each group understood the scales in the same way, and because-that's necessary because not every group will necessarily understand what the scale scores mean in the same way as the other group. So we first established that there was measurement invariance, and then we compared the mean scores on the measure of TMI, I think it was the Male Role Norms Inventory-Short Form and the Male Role Norms Inventory-Very Brief, and we found that the groups that scored the highest were the older groups.

So basically, I think what happens is that males wind up living with the masculinity ideology they were raised with. And as regards millennials, I think the big difference we've seen actually goes way beyond measuring masculinity, which is that the norm of disdain for sexual minority men has disappeared, and this is following the Obergefell decision that basically had an enormous impact on the social norms regarding the treatment of GLBTQ people, that basically normalized those folks as just human variation, rather than the way they were viewed in the '70s in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, as psychopathological. So I think millennials, along with the rest of society, does not view GLBTQ people as, in some way, abnormal. The other thing that has changed and has actually been over the generations is fathering. In the 1960s, fathers did very little care for their children. They played with them, they would do the rough and tumble play, but as far as feeding, diapering, waking, getting dressed, getting fed, none of that. And in response to the wife's employment, men increased their amount of childcare one-tenth of an hour a day.

Mills: Oh boy, could spare it?

Levant: Six measly minutes. Okay. By 1995, the latest time diary study that I know of-and these are very elaborate studies, require a lot of funding, which isn't available anymore-found that in households where both parents worked, women did 62% of the family work, which includes childcare and housework, and men did 38%. So that's much better than one-tenth of a percent, and men had 10% more leisure time. So men are doing more, they-we've gotten away from this idea called the essential father hypothesis, that dads don't engage in care, to the point now that I think we think of fathering as just parenting, and parenting doesn't have a gender. And basically, we have dads who provide full care to their children.

Mills: So a couple of years ago, APA put out a guideline for the psychological treatment of men and boys. That's a project that you started during your APA presidency, and it took quite a long time for us to get that completed. Can you talk about why that guideline was necessary. And, really, can you summarize what it says?

Levant: You're right, it did. It took 13 years, from 2005 to 2018. As you're aware, Kim, the APA has multiple levels of review for approving guidelines for practice. APA, as you know, is composed of both academics like myself and practitioners, and so we utilize the science created by the academics to specify evidence-based practices for different groups. So we've had guidelines for girls and women, guidelines for older adults, guidelines lines for GLBTQ folks, guidelines for racial and ethnic minorities, and so on. And when I was president, I set up a commission, a task force to create guidelines for practice in boys and men, just because there weren't any, but also because boys and men do not avail themselves of mental health treatment to the extent that girls and women do, largely because of adherence to masculine norms.

It is not masculine to ask for help. It is not masculine to express vulnerability. It is not masculine to not think of themselves as 100% strong, so men tend-and there's been a lot of studies showing correlations between various masculinity scales and either attitudes or intentions towards seeking help, that is the higher the score in the masculinity scale, the less favorable the attitude toward help-seeking or the less they intend to seek help if needed. So we felt this needed to be looked at, and we took the big picture. I mean, when you look at psychotherapy, it really began as an enterprise of men treating women, with Freud and Breuer and his hysterical patients in Vienna. And it's pretty much continued in that modality until the '70s and after the second wave feminist movement and the feminist scientific movement.

And Carol Gilligan and all of these folks in psychology who started revising the canon with regard to gender, and some of us-I was a clinician and others who were clinicians started experimenting with new methods to engage in treatment. One of the things that I ran up against is the fact that many of your listeners may be aware of, is a lot of men have a lot of trouble identifying and describing how they're feeling, they cannot give a good account of their emotional life. Sometimes, if you ask them how they're feeling, they'll tell you what they're thinking, or they'll tell you what they're going to do. And there's a word for this, I hope it won't turn off your listeners, it's alexithymia, A-L-E-X-I-T-H-Y-M-I-A. It's a Greco-Roman root which means "without words for emotions."

And in my research, I found that there was evidence that as a result of gender role socialization, that boys between infancy and six were socialized to restrict the expression of emotions. It may be of interest to you that as neonates, boys are more emotionally expressive than girls. But what do neonates do? They cry or they sleep. But this difference holds up until at least one year of age, boys, and they do a lot more at one year of age than they do hours after birth. But the difference starts to reverse itself by two, where girls are more verbally, emotionally expressive than boys. And between four and six, little boys lose their facial expressivity. Now, what's happening to boys between four and six? They're in preschool or elementary school, and they're getting policed by other boys. Basically, other boys are shaming them for expressing emotions, they're enforcing the masculine code.

So I theorize that boys who are socialized to conform to masculine norms, particularly the one of restrictive emotionality, grow up to be men who are mildly alexithymic. And I've done a number of studies to provide support for that and actually developed a treatment intervention, a manualized treatment, six sessions, for psychologists working with men. It can be incorporated into the regular treatment to help them recover their ability to talk about their emotional life, which is essential to doing psychotherapy, essential. Even the most behavioral methods of psychotherapy, like exposure therapy, expect that the patient is able to discern, within himself, how he's feeling. So it's something that when you're treating an alexithymic patient, a man, can be very helpful in terms of helping him gain and benefit from the therapy.

Mills: So I understand that over the past year, you and your colleagues have been doing research on men's behavior and health during the COVID-19 pandemic. What have you found so far?

Levant: If I can just back up from that question and say a few things, you did mention men's lower longevity than women in the beginning. In addition, men have higher morbidity in most major categories of illness than women, and men have poorer health behaviors than women. And so men smoke more, drink more, take more risks, do not go to the doctor's often, do not take medications that're prescribed. There are 30 control behaviors identified by a colleague in which men have poorer health habits than women. And obviously, you can make the linkages between the health and the morbidities and mortality. Now, in the COVID epidemic, at the time we started the study, which is in 2020, men were getting more severe infections, that is more ICU admissions, and were dying to a greater extent than women. And there have been some biological factors that have been connected to that, particularly something concerning immunity and so forth, but there are also prevalent behavioral factors.

And that's what we focus on, being psychologists, and we wanted to see to what extent masculinity played a role in men's unwillingness to engage in mitigation measures to prevent their infection with COVID-19. And we did find, indeed, that adherence to what's called the playboy norm, that is the belief in casual sex with many women, that it transmitted the effect of their endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology on their actual engagement in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended practices for mitigating COVID-19. So masculinity is the culprit. Another factor we found-as you know, the COVID epidemic has been politicized to the hilt, and so the other factor is we found that holding conspiratorial attitudes about the pandemic also moderated that relationship between masculinity and adherence to CDC practices, that is the more a man believed that COVID was a fraud and it was just designed to make President Trump look bad and all this other stuff, things along those lines, to that extent, they were less willing to engage in mitigation practices. And that's coming out in APA's journal, Health Psychology, I believe.

Mills: We'll be looking for that. So one-just to change gears a little bit and, probably, this would be the last question. In this past year, we've seen an uptick in the number of athletes who are talking about their health struggles. Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, probably, they're the most famous among these. But men are speaking up as well, including football and basketball players. Do you think that this reflects a broader change in men's willingness to talk about mental health, and will it make some men more open to reaching out for help?

Levant: Yeah, this has been going on for several decades actually. Most recently-I live in Northeast Ohio, and one of our basketball players, Kevin Love, had a panic attack during a basketball game and had to leave and go into the locker room and later was quite open about it. And he also was very critical of masculinity in what he said. Basically, he said, "We were raised to never show any vulnerability, we're always supposed to be 100% on and ready for competition. But we're human beings, and we're made of flesh and blood, not steel and bolts." And I think this can have a very positive effect because among certain groups of men, athletes are almost revered, at least good athletes are, and to see major athletes coming out, expressing their vulnerabilities, saying it's healthy to do so, saying they felt better after getting therapy, I think, can help a lot. Do we have any evidence that it has helped? Studies like that haven't been done that I'm aware of, but they should be.

Mills: One last word. I know I said that was the last question, but it occurs to me, just for our listeners, if there are men out there who really want to deal with their feelings, who want to become less restricted in the way that they live, where and how can they find help? How can they find a therapist, say, who would understand this?

Levant: Well, the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology has a service called Find a Psychologist. If you just go to the national register, I think it's nationalregister.com, the Find a Psychologist is right on the front page, and you can find a licensed psychologist in your local area. And I think most psychologists would be able to help such a potential client deal with the things that are bothering them.

But beyond going to a therapist, I would say to men who might be listening who might have some of these issues, we have to brave the shame. We were made to feel ashamed of ourselves for not being fully masculine, and that was nonsense. If you're married, if you have children, you have to learn how to open up your heart to your family, to really let them in, to take the barriers down. You can do it. It's not easy, you will feel bad about it, you might feel ashamed of yourself. But honestly, those lessons you learn as a child are not valid, and a better approach is to have an open heart and an open mind and to freely express your emotions to the people you care about.

Mills: Dr. Levant, I want to thank you, not just for joining us today but for this very important work that you've been doing for so many years. I personally appreciate it. I'm sure many of our listeners do as well. Thank you.

Levant: Thank you.

Mills: You can find previous episodes of Speaking of Psychology at www.speakingofpsychology.org or on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And please leave us a review. If you have comments or ideas for future podcasts, you can email us at speakingofpsychology@apa.org. Speaking of Psychology is produced by Lea Winerman. Our sound editor is Chris Condayan.

Thank you for listening. For the American Psychological Association, I'm Kim Mills.

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Men, masculinity, and mental health, with Ronald F. Levant, EdD

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Ronald F. Levant, EdD, discusses how cultural expectations of masculinity affect men's mental and physical health, how our ideas of masculinity have changed over time, and what psychologists have learned about how to reach out to men.

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This article discusses the heightened risk of suicide among the LGBTQ+ youth, particularly those who experience discrimination, bullying, or lack of support from family and community. Research shows that LGBTQ+ youth are significantly more likely to attempt suicide compared to their heterosexual peers, largely due to societal rejection and internalized homophobia or transphobia.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news

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The American Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific and professional organization that represents psychologists in the United States. APA educates the public about psychology, behavioral science and mental health; promotes psychological science and practice; fosters the education and training of psychological scientists, practitioners and educators; advocates for psychological knowledge and practice to inform public policy; and champions the application of psychology to promote human rights, health, well-being and dignity.

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Gender and Sexuality Representation in Film

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Gender and Sexuality Representation in Film

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GLAAD's report highlights the increase in LGBTQ+ representation on television, emphasizing a more inclusive portrayal of sexuality and gender. However, it also critiques the limited and often stereotypical representations, particularly of bisexual and non binary characters. These representations shape public perceptions of what is considered "normal" or acceptable in terms of sexuality, which influences how people experience their own identities.

Heidi Spillum, W. P. (2024, May 16). Where we are on TV report 2023-2024. GLAAD. https://glaad.org/whereweareontv23/

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GLAAD | GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance.

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Where We Are on TV Report 2023-2024 | GLAAD

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GLAAD's annual Where We Are On TV report not only propels national conversations about LGBTQ representation, but informs GLAAD's own advocacy within the television industry.

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This article reports the ongoing epidemic of violence targeting transgender individuals in 2024, highlighting the disproportionate rates of fatal violence within the community. It underscores how transphobia, gender policing, and the lack of legal protections contribute to these tragedies. The article's emphasis on the intersectionality of race and gender within the trans community is crucial. This resource serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggles of transgender people in the U.S. and the urgent need for societal and systemic changes to combat violence and discrimination.

Fatal violence against the transgender and gender-expansive community... HRC. (n.d.). https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-gender-expansive-community-in-2024

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Skip to Content

The Human Rights Campaign is both saddened and infuriated by the deaths of at least eight transgender and gender-expansive people whose lives were tragically and inhumanely taken through violent means, including gun and intimate partner violence, in 2024.

Since 2013, the Human Rights Campaign has tracked incidents of fatal trans violence- the same year the Federal Bureau of Investigation began reporting on hate crimes motivated by anti-trans bias- and provided action items that can help end the violence.

These victims, like all of us, were loving partners, parents, family members, friends and community members. They worked, went to school and attended houses of worship. They were real people who did not deserve to have their lives taken.

As we continue working toward justice and equality for trans and gender-expansive people, we celebrate the lives for those we have lost in 2024:

Righteous TK "Chevy" Hill, a 35-year-old Black transman known to his friends and family as TK and Chevy, pushed for Black LGBTQ+ inclusion throughout his community. Chevy opened 'Evollusion,' a full-service hair salon dedicated to serving the LGBTQIA+ community in Atlanta, to help Black queer people feel comfortable in a traditional Black barbershop setting.

Chevy was tragically shot and killed in East Point, Georgia on February 28, 2024, in the front yard of his home.

HRC has been tracking reports of fatal anti-transgender violence for the past several years. Previous reports can be found here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018.

While every case is unique, far too often, we see the same themes and trends emerge in the fatal trans violence cases we report. Young trans women of color -- particularly Black trans women, continue to be disproportionately affected. Victims are often killed by partners, family members, and acquaintances, and guns are used in the majority of deaths. Additionally, misgendering and deadnaming remain far too common in media and law enforcement's reporting of these cases.

Some of these cases involve clear anti-trans bias. In others, the victim's trans or gender-expansive status may have made them more susceptible to violence by forcing them into unemployment, poverty, homelessness and/or survival sex work.

In all cases, it remains clear that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia conspire to place the trans community at risk of fatal violence.

In the pursuit of greater accuracy and respect for transgender and gender-expansive people in both life and death, HRC offers guidelines for journalists and others who report on these communities.

In doing this work, some cases surface for which there is insufficient information available to determine inclusion in our formal fatal violence recording. HRC monitors developments to these cases closely and frequently calls for further investigation into the causes and circumstances surrounding their deaths.

This report demonstrates how anti-transgender stigma, denial of opportunity and increased risk factors compound to create a culture of violence - and provides clear ways each of us can directly make an impact to make our society a safer place for trans and gender-expansive people.

The Human Rights Campaign reports on news, events and resources of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation that are of interest to the general public and further our common mission to support the LGBTQ+ community.

You'll receive email updates from HRC. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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Fatal Violence Against the Transgender and Gender-Expansive Community in 2024

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While the Human Rights Campaign continues to work toward justice and equality for transgender and gender non-conforming people, we mourn those we have lost in 2024.

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Transgender Rights (Intersectionality: Gender and Identity)

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Transgender Rights (Intersectionality: Gender and Identity)

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Disclosure is a documentary that explores the history and impact of transgender representation in film and television. Featuring interviews with trans actors, activists, and creators, it highlights the harmful stereotypes and misrepresentations that have dominated media portrayals of trans people, including roles often played by cisgender actors. The documentary also examines how these portrayals have influenced public perception and policy toward the transgender community. This example ties directly to the concept of gender in the media by showing how the media perpetuates and challenges social constructions of gender. It also touvhes on intersectionality, addressing how race, gender identity, and social status intersect in shaping the representation of trans individuals in the media.

Watch disclosure: Netflix official site. Watch Disclosure | Netflix Official Site. (2020, June 19). https://www.netflix.com/title/81284247

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Validating and vilifying, triumphant and traumatic. Groundbreaking artists reflect on trans representation in film and TV. Watch trailers & learn more.

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Gender and Politics (Intersectionality: Gender and Power)

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Gender and Politics (Intersectionality: Gender and Power)

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The article discusses how the Democratic Party is struggling to retain young male voters, particularly those who have shifted towards supporting Republicans. Factors such as the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, Trump's appeal, and concerns over masculinity and identity politics contribute to this trend. To regain this key demographic, Democrats need to address these issues and adapt their strategy. The article shows how gender dynamics affect political power and voter behavior.

Paz, C. (2025, March 3). The Democrats’ young man problem is real. Vox. https://www.vox.com/politics/402055/democrats-young-man-problem-gen-z-republican-shift-vote-trump

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The Democrats’ young man problem is real

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Three theories for the Democrats’ failures with Gen Z men.

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This article examines both progress and persistent inequalities in gender dynamics across different sectors in the United States. It highlights gains, such as women's increased representation in the workforce and higher education, while also acknowledging persistent wage gaps and underrepresentation in leadership positions. Despite advancements, systemic barriers remain, demonstrating how gender roles continue to shape economic and social opportunities. The findings align with class discussions on the social construction of gender, where societal structures maintain inequities despite progress. Additionally, the intersectionality of gender with race and socioeconomic status further exacerbates disparities, reinforcing how multiple social identities influence experiences of inequality.

Schaeffer, K. (2024, February 27). For women’s history month, a look at gender gains – and gaps – in the U.S. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/27/for-womens-history-month-a-look-at-gender-gains-and-gaps-in-the-us/

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For American women, job opportunities look much different than they did 50 years ago. Women have made gains in labor force participation and wages, and they've increased their presence in the highest-paying jobs. Some of that progress has stalled in recent years, however, and large gender gaps persist at the top levels of government and business leadership.

Ahead of Women's History Month, here's a look at some of these trends and data points, based on Pew Research Center surveys and analyses as well as federal data.

Women made up 47% of the U.S. civilian labor force in 2023, up from 30% in 1950 - but growth has stagnated, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows. The share of women in the labor force generally grew throughout the second half of the 20th century but has since leveled off.

The BLS projects that women will continue to make up slightly less than half of the labor force through 2032.

Women outnumber men in the U.S. college-educated workforce, now making up 51% of those ages 25 and older, according to Current Population Survey data from the fourth quarter of 2023. Women first surpassed men in the college-educated labor force in the fourth quarter of 2019. They remained more than half of this group through the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a sharp recession and an overall decline in the size of the nation's labor force.

The gender shift in the college-educated labor force happened about four decades after women overtook men in the number of adults earning a bachelor's degree each year.

About a third of workers in the country's 10 highest-paying occupations (35%) are women - up from 13% in 1980, a November 2023 analysis of Census Bureau data shows. Women have increased their presence in almost all of these high-paying jobs. Workers in these occupations typically earn more than $100,000 a year and include physicians, lawyers and dentists.

Despite these gains, women are still the minority in nine of these jobs. Pharmacists are the exception: 61% are women. The share of women in the other nine occupations remains well below their share in the U.S. workforce overall.

The share of women in opposite-sex marriages who earn as much as or more than their husband has roughly tripled over the past 50 years, according to a spring 2023 analysis of Census Bureau data. In 2022, women were the sole or primary breadwinner in 16% of opposite-sex marriages, up from 5% in 1972. Husbands and wives are roughly equal contributors in 29% of marriages today, compared with 11% in 1972.

Looked at another way, husbands were the breadwinner in 85% of marriages 50 years ago. That has dropped to 55% of marriages today.

The gender pay gap - the difference between the median earnings of men and women - has remained relatively flat in the United States over the past two decades, according to an analysis of hourly earnings of full- and part-time workers. In 2022, U.S. women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar men earned. That was about the same as in 2002, when women earned 80 cents to the dollar.

When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to employers treating women differently as a major reason, an October 2022 survey shows. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%).

Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently.

Women still lag in top leadership positions in business and government. Women have made inroads in a wide range of leadership positions in recent decades, but have not reached parity with their male counterparts in most cases. As of September 2023:

Federal and state legislators: 28% of U.S. congressional members and about a third of state legislators are women.

Governors: 8 Democratic and four Republican women serve as governors.

Presidential Cabinet: President Joe Biden's Cabinet is a rare example of gender parity in government leadership. Of 25 Cabinet or Cabinet-level positions, 12 are held by women (48%).

Executive business leadership: 11% of Fortune 500 company CEOs are women, along with 30% of Fortune 500 board members.

Slim majorities of Americans say there are too few women in top political offices and executive business positions, a July 2023 survey shows. When it comes to the number of women elected to political office, 53% of adults say there are too few, 8% say there are too many, and 37% say it is about right. Views of women in business leadership are similar: 55% of adults say there are too few women in these roles, 6% say there are too many, and 37% say there are about the right number.

In both cases, Americans cite the same top reasons why there are fewer women than men in these roles: that women have to do more to prove themselves than men, and that women in each field face gender discrimination.

The public is divided over whether being a woman makes it more difficult to get ahead, according to an April 2023 survey. Half of Americans say that being a woman hurts a person's ability to get ahead in the U.S., while 24% say it helps, and 25% say it neither helps nor hurts.

Women are more likely than men to say being a woman hurts one's ability to get ahead in the U.S. (58% vs. 40%).

These divisions also exist in views of women's standing in the workplace. A February 2023 survey found that 28% of employed adults say that being a woman makes it a little or a lot harder to be successful where they work, while just 11% say it makes things easier. Another 49% say being a woman makes things neither easier nor harder.

Women are more likely than men to say that being a woman makes it at least a little harder to be successful in their workplace (34% vs. 21%).
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 15, 2018.

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For Women's History Month, a look at gender gains - and gaps - in the U.S.

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Women made up 47% of the U.S. civilian labor force in 2023, up from 30% in 1950 - but growth has stagnated.

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When Harry Styles appeared on the cover of Vogue wearing a dress, it sparked a heated debate about masculinity. Supporters praised him for challenging rigid gender norms in fashion, while critics, including conservative commentators, argued that his attire was a threat to "traditional manhood". This reaction demonstrates how masculinity is socially policed, reinforcing the idea that men should dress and behave in specific ways to conform to societal expectations. As discussed in class lecture, gender expression is culturally constructed, and deviations from these norms often face resistance.

Hamish Bowles, T. M. (2020, November 13). Playtime with Harry Styles: “You can never be overdressed.” Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/harry-styles-cover-december-2020

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Playtime With Harry Styles: “You Can Never Be Overdressed”

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Dressing up, making music, living in the moment: This is what matters to Harry Styles. Boundaries and labels? Not so much.

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The NPR article explores how strict gender norms shape children's development worldwide, reinforcing harmful stereotypes. Boys are encouraged to be dominant and aggressive, while girls are expected to be nurturing and passive. These expectations limit children's potential and contribute to systemic gender inequalities. The article emphasizes that gender is a social construct, shaped by culture, media and family influences, and highlights how these norms intersect with other social factors, affecting children differently based on their background.

Singh, M. (2017, September 21). Macho man, little princess: How gender norms can harm kids everywhere. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/09/21/552573637/macho-man-little-princess-how-gender-norms-can-harm-kids-everywhere

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What do Bolivia, Belgium, Burkina Faso, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam all have in common?

The pervasive idea is that girls are vulnerable and that boys are strong and independent.

In a set of studies published Wednesday in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the researchers concluded that between the ages of 10 and 14, children begin to fully embrace and internalize the belief that girls and boys are intrinsically different - and should act accordingly.

A 12-year-old girl in Delhi, for example, told researchers she understood that "when [girls] are small they can wear any clothes, but as girls grow up they have to wear covered clothes, talk in a certain manner." In Shanghai, parents and kids said in interviews that girls are meant to act gentle and quiet, whereas boys should be brave, strong and tough. And a 13-year-old boy in Baltimore explained that fathers aren't as protective of their sons as their daughters, because a son is raised to "to be a man" whereas a daughter will always be a "little princess."

"The health consequences of these gender norms are huge," says Robert Blum, a pediatrician and professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University who led the study. When boys and men are taught that girls are weak, sexual objects for the taking, "adolescent girls pay a vast price," Blum says. "They are at greater risk for HIV and STIs, child marriage, they are at far, far, far more risk of gender-based violence."

For boys, an emphasis on being strong - or macho - encourages them to engage in risky behavior like smoking, drinking and usingdrugs at an earlier age. They're also more likely to get injured in traffic accidents and die of homicide, Blum says. "To believe that some are beneficiaries and some are victims is absolutely wrong - everyone is a victim of these gender norms."

None of the findings surprised Anju Malhotra, who leads the gender and development program at UNICEF. "This kind of study is very important to lay the groundwork," to change gender norms, she says. "But we need to quickly go beyond that and invest in policy and programs."

For Malhotra this includes working with governments to improve girls' access to education and jobs through scholarships and affirmative action schemes. UNICEF's Gender Action Plan - which Malhotra oversees - also highlights the importance of improving women's access to health care. These are simple, obvious steps, she says, but the only real way to change gender norms are through laws and policies that empower girls and women.

Blum agrees - and points out that policy changes over the past few decades have already helped change certain social norms. "In 1980 there weren't really laws against rape within marriage," he says. "Today in many places it is criminal."

But he says policy isn't enough. "The first step is to work with young people," he says, "and give them the opportunity to consider different ways of thinking about gender."

To that end, groups like Promundo in Brazil and GREAT in Uganda encourage boys and girls, as well as their parents and teachers, to question gender stereotypes through workshops and seminars.

In Serbia, the nonprofit Center E8 offers teenage boys a couple of days off from school if they agree to attend a workshop on gender.

That's what roped in 19-year-old Djordje Aleksandrovic. He first attended such a seminar four years ago.

"By the end of that first seminar, I really started to question a lot of things," Aleksandrovic says, like the idea that there was something weird or wrong about being gay. And after learning about workplace discrimination and sexual harassment, he "realized that on paper [women] have equal rights - but it's not like that in real life."

"These were topics that were never discussed," he says, either at home or in school. "And at first I maybe didn't agree with everything that they said."

But then, "it made me see other side of the story," he says. "And I saw not everything is black and white."
Maanvi Singh is a freelance writer based in London. Contact her @maanvisings

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Macho Man, Little Princess: How Gender Norms Can Harm Kids Everywhere

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Girls are vulnerable, boys are strong. It's a dichotomy that researchers observed in 15 countries around the world - and one that has big consequences for children's health and success.