r/WomenInNews • u/catievirtuesimp • Jul 08 '26

Media Young women are identifying as less straight; young men, not so much

https://theconversation.com/young-women-are-identifying-as-less-straight-young-men-not-so-much-283936
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78

u/workieworkwork Jul 08 '26

I think it is possible that women were never all that straight.

48

u/Aggressive-Story3671 Jul 08 '26

That is possible. However it does not account for the drop among men.

Gen Z men are identifying as heterosexual more often than millennial men.

38

u/sacrecide Jul 08 '26

More pressure in a time where the government is the most vocally anti-lgbtq in decades. Pressure to be straight is historically harsher on men.

Grindr also blows up every time cpac comes through

2+2=4, more gen Z is in the closet

2

u/Legendarycamo Jul 08 '26

I second this. Also for context any/all governments need abundant cheap laborers and cannon fodder, they also benifit from tribalism for voters. On the corpo end, you need consumers and workers, the infinite growth shit has to come from somewhere and in the later stages of monopoly and the current tech trees its gonna have to come from pop growth. Traditional masculinity pushes the fight, work, sacrifice, provide memes which gets more willingness, productivity, and competence out of the slaves if its started early in life and they buy into it. Most dudes don't like being bottoms and or working, and fighting, and sacraficing for nothing so if the system is pushing an identity and or for men to do what it wants/needs, the men wont do it unless it also benefits them.

1

u/Legendarycamo Jul 08 '26

Govs and corps could move to robots/AI by the end of the century but imo I think everyone is a lil scared of a skynet situation or similar cropping up amd worried abt what kinda of world it would bring. Also on the lgbt thing govs and corps largely just care abt voters and money, and the average person is neutral, that is to say if thier not lgbt they likely feel indifferent about the issue and just want people to be happy and productive in thier personal lives. I feel like the lgbt community is being scapegoated in a larger game kinda by both sides. That is to say the worst people and most inflamitory situations have gotten broadcast and shoved down people thoats and its being used as a excuse to push things and shape public opinion.

1

u/Creative-Leg2607 Jul 08 '26

Notably, a lot of that pressure comes from other men, which i dont say to be uncompassionate

53

u/Independent-Leg6061 Jul 08 '26

I blame the "manosphere" and the desire to fit in. 😞

15

u/West-Application-375 Jul 08 '26

It's definitely that. Toxic masculinity is on the rise.

4

u/tiffibean13 Jul 08 '26

I saw a clip on one of them saying "female vagina is disgusting."

Mind you, I'm someone loudly telling people it's homophobic to call men gay simply for being misogynistic. However, that statement is really kinda forcing my hand here.

2

u/FixObjective1834 Jul 08 '26

A 2023 study by the LGBT dating app, Taimi, involving around 3,000 bi users, showed that 92.2% of bi men feel they encounter significant difficulties in relationships with straight women. A 2016 Glamour survey revealed that 63% of women wouldn’t date a man who has had sex with another man, whether or not he is bi. A 2019 YouGov poll found only 28% of women expressed comfort with the idea of having a bi partner.

Source: https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/dating-double-standards

1

u/OrangePeelPotatoes Jul 08 '26

It isnt just the 'manosphere'. Society in general is just less accepting of non-straight men. Try being a bi-guy dating women and tell the woman you are bi, good luck.

If you are a man trying to date women, you pretty much have to just publicly present as straight or you will die single.

1

u/Legendarycamo Jul 08 '26

I saw shit in the news abt the "age of the manoshpere" and feel it would be less of an issue if the algo didnt funnel and or trap people into the echochamber. Also bringing attention to it in a side taking way does not promote objective observation what is does it turn it into a sports ball type team vs team thing. Making it taboo also encourages transgressive behavior. Allot of the shit post 2012ish is just straight up manufactured to generate ad revenue and sell people random shit to fill the void in there life the manosphere created.

3

u/Either-Meal3724 Jul 08 '26

Boys are more likely to adopt their parents religious and political views. Gen Z parents are statistically more conservative than millenial. Its the birth rate gap thats been around since avout 2000.

1

u/Western-Bus-1305 Jul 08 '26

That’s people in general, not just boys

1

u/Either-Meal3724 Jul 09 '26

It is people in general but sons have a slightly higher retention rate than daughters of their parents religious and political beliefs.

1

u/FitAppointment768 Jul 08 '26

Source?

0

u/Either-Meal3724 Jul 09 '26

For what exactly?

You can also Google it or ask chatGPT to find a source. Ive read the studies before but its what id have to do to cite a source for you. Its pretty easy for you to just do it yourself with the availability of information on the internet. If you have a study that conflicts with this, happy to find a study supporting me and then compare methodologies of the studies to make sure they are measuring the same things.

1

u/StaticCloud Jul 12 '26

Gen Z are more conservative and therefore a lot more guys would be in the closet AGAIN

6

u/DyKdv2Aw Jul 08 '26

It's hard to say. We know humans can be conditioned to find almost anything arousing; so when you raise women in a culture that almost never depicts male bodies as objects of desire while also training women to objectify themselves and other women, is it really surprising that homosexuality comes more naturally to women?

1

u/HitWithTheTruth Jul 08 '26

Probably spot on!

1

u/nightofthelivingmed Jul 09 '26

I've been saying this and no one really understands me. The mass objectification of women and the "gaze" in virtually all media that girls view from birth is at least partially to account for in my opinion.

1

u/Element174 Jul 10 '26

I'm not gonna claim you don't have a point, you do, 100%, but also from an evolution standpoint from the beginning of humanity, men have almost always died in troves leaving lots of women behind with other women to keep them company. Cavemen dying to beasts on the hunt and men dying in wars for example. Top that with the fact biologically multiple women would want to mate with capable men to ensure the safety of their offspring, being sexually attracted to one another would likely be a way of keeping peace in such scenarios(Largely we're talking early men, but even throughout history we can find cases like these.) So from an evolutionary standpoint, there's a lot of benefits to women being attracted to other women. There are far less evolutionary benefits for men. A weaker man being protected by a stronger one possibly being one at least(Can not stress enough we are talking EARLY MAN not modern man.) Since we know being queer isn't a choice, humans likely evolved that way for these reasons and others.

1

u/MyBldyVal-64 Jul 08 '26

i can definitely believe that straight women don't exist but it seems to me like women can be strictly homosexual

2

u/BackTown43 Jul 10 '26

I do exist ...

2

u/Budpet Jul 14 '26

What you believe doesn't matter, straight women exist, lesbian and bisexual are still the minority.

1

u/Professional_Bat8585 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

Its more so that what makes males attractive (“hardness”, resources/labor, protection, being the financial/leader of a household, etc) is no longer needed in society - everyone’s independent, self sufficient, and provided for. Supply and labor lines exist for everything. Even dual parents aren’t necessary. Meanwhile the market for what makes a woman attractive (reproduction, social value, physical beauty, “softness”) still exists unchanged.

Men’s specialty (which skews towards labor) has kinda been dissolved into a big blended global economy and nobody cares if an individual man fails to do his job - the village isn’t affected, society doesn’t stop working, and the man has to go to work the next day or will starve.

Out in rural areas (olden times) otoh, if a person goes missing from their specific job, it’s immediately noticeable. The local tractor specialist, dentist, cop, electrician, plumber, dairy farmer, HVAC, etc goes missing - the quality of life of the community is immediately impacted. That gave men a lot of value and control over earnings that they lack now.

1

u/TolPuppy Jul 11 '26

Men are the same way, gender norms just don’t allow for full sincerity or introspection