While movies may make the macho lifestyle seem alluring, a new study has found that hypermasculine males could suffer from a host of health and social issues as they age.
"Our study shows how toxic masculinity
...the liberal concept (the science is settled!) that men are knuckle dragging bastards who spend all their time watching football, drinking beer, burping, farting, and thumping their women. This doesn't apply if the menare girls transitioning to boys, or boys transitioning to girls, or either transitioning to sheep...
also has detrimental consequences for the men who subscribe to these ideals," says Michigan State University sociologist Stef Shuster in a statement. The study was published in the journal Sex Roles.
Shuster defines "toxic masculinity" as a belief in men being "autonomous and not showing a lot of emotion."
To study the correlation, the team analyzed nearly 5,500 older men and women and tried to determine the level at which each male participant subscribed to traditionally masculine ideals. They found that the most macho individuals suffered from loneliness, financial problems and even poor health as a result of their isolationist tendencies.
"Having people with whom we can talk about personal matters is a form of social support," says Shuster, whose study found that men were less likely than women to confide in others.
Shuster adds, "If people only have one person that they can share information with, or sometimes even no people, they don’t really have an opportunity to reflect and share."
This refusal to seek outside help can cause toxic masculinity adherents to become siphoned out of society as they age, according to Shuster. Indeed, male boomers ‐ those born between 1940 and the mid-1960s ‐ are increasingly struggling to maintain and forge friendships as they retire, which is, in turn, exacerbated by relocating homes or their partner dying.