back
1 comments
I think the discussion of traditional masculinity is shoehorned into this topic. The facts are that Americans of both genders report having fewer friends since 30 years ago. The decline is more pronounced among men - in 1990 they had more friends than women, now they have fewer (but both genders have fewer friends than in 1990)[0].

I think it's obvious that traditional masculine attitude have declined since 1990, so men's worsening friendships relative to women can't be blamed on worsening masculine attitudes. And of course, that part of the decline shared by both genders can't be blamed on masculine attitudes, unless women have adopted "tough guy" machismo since 1990...

I'd love to see a more critical and open-minded analysis of these trends. To me it remains something of a mystery. One possibility is the rise of social media is actually eroding friendships. Or maybe the relative lack of single-gender spaces actually causes a problem for same-gender friendship formation?

[0] https://www.americansurveycenter.org/why-mens-social-circles...