{"id":35023,"date":"2023-08-27T19:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35023"},"modified":"2023-08-29T07:44:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T07:44:15","slug":"what-elon-musk-and-mark-zuckerbergs-canceled-cage-match-says-about-masculine-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-elon-musk-and-mark-zuckerbergs-canceled-cage-match-says-about-masculine-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"What Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s canceled cage match says about masculine\u00a0anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kristen Barber<\/a>, University of Missouri-Kansas City<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to be on hold<\/a>, if these men do ever end up sparring, it\u2019ll give a whole new meaning to the term \u201ctech bro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two billionaires\u2019 business interests have butted heads in the past: Musk\u2019s 2016 test launch of a SpaceX rocket destroyed Zuckerberg\u2019s US$200 million satellite<\/a>. In 2022, Musk said Zuckerberg shouldn\u2019t dominate social media<\/a> and encouraged people to abandon Meta-owned Facebook. Meta also recently launched Threads, which competes directly<\/a> with Musk\u2019s X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new \u2013 if not bizarre \u2013 form of one-upmanship for the two men. At one point, it was rumored that the livestreamed fight would take place in Rome\u2019s Colosseum<\/a>, where gladiators once gruesomely battled to the death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What in the name of Maximus<\/a> is going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Musk and Zuckerberg have attempted to frame their pugilistic pursuit as a once-in-a-generation event, they are far from alone. They join the ranks of other high-profile men in public and political positions who have shown off their physical strength to burnish their status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a gender scholar<\/a>, I\u2019ve seen how these fights \u2013 let\u2019s call them \u201cperformances of virility\u201d \u2013 tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money can\u2019t buy masculinity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t usually see two wealthy white billionaires duking it out. So what would Musk and Zuckerberg gain from fighting each other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As sociologist Scott Melzer writes in his study of fight clubs, \u201cManhood Impossible<\/a>,\u201d fighting is culturally associated with masculinity, and U.S. culture celebrates men\u2019s violence in the right contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For white-collar white men, Melzer explains, fighting can help them to feel they have passed a test of adulthood and fulfilled the cultural requirement of strength. The fighting helps them prove to themselves that they are \u201creal men,\u201d despite their soft \u2013 probably manicured \u2013 hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, the chest puffing between Musk and Zuckerberg is a desperate display of masculinity for two tech nerds with deep pockets. They say money can\u2019t buy happiness. Perhaps money can\u2019t buy masculinity, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris Paap, author of \u201cWorking Construction<\/a>,\u201d explains that men who don\u2019t take risks are often seen by their peers as weak and effeminate. Men who risk their health and well-being, on the other hand, prove their bravado for the respect of their peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is particularly the case for working-class men. But politicians have also put on gloves to fight for admiration \u2013 and political clout \u2013 through displays of physical prowess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, Justin Trudeau squared off against Senator Patrick Brazeau in a boxing match<\/a>. A member of Canada\u2019s Parliament who came from money and political royalty, Trudeau declared before the match<\/a> that he was \u201cput on this planet to do this \u2026 I fight \u2013 and I win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After emerging from the bout victorious, Trudeau\u2019s image as a scrawny nepo baby<\/a> all but evaporated. Three years later, he became prime minister just like his dad<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cover
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a boxer in a 2016 issue of the Marvel comic book series \u2018Civil War II: Choosing Sides.\u2019 Marc Brainbant\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are countless examples of other powerful men looking to showcase their virility. Russian President Vladimir Putin infamously rode horses shirtless<\/a>, while U.S. President Joe Biden once said that when he was in high school, he would have taken Donald Trump \u201cbehind the gym and beat the hell\u201d out of him<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For almost two centuries, performances of masculinity \u2013 from William Henry Harrison to Donald Trump \u2013 have been a part of successful U.S. presidential campaigns<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of men \u2026 again and again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is no coincidence that Musk vs. Zuckerberg comes at a time when there is popular perception that masculinity is in crisis. Women are obtaining college degrees at a faster clip than men<\/a>, while income gaps are closing. Suicides and overdoses among men \u2013 often termed \u201cdeaths of despair\u201d<\/a> \u2013 are on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belief in a \u201ccrisis of masculinity\u201d<\/a> spikes during times of progressive social change. And proponents of this view tend to blame feminists and other social progressives for critiquing traditionally masculine mores and values, which, they claim, is causing men to spiral<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender scholars<\/a> point to the turn of the 20th century and the 1990s as other moments of social change that sparked similar anxieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1890, moves toward coeducation stoked debates around girls and boys being taught the same curriculum. Advocates suggested that sex shouldn\u2019t matter in the classroom and that girls\u2019 education should prepare them for jobs outside the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This didn\u2019t go over well with men who benefited from gender segregation. The Boy Scouts of America actually emerged in 1910 so that boys were assured a space where girls and women weren\u2019t allowed \u2013 and where boys would be \u201csufficiently\u201d acquainted with masculinity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the emergence of identity politics in the 1990s, which highlighted rights-based ideologies, scrutinized, in particular, the privileges of white men<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, social progress \u2013 whether it\u2019s more women in the workplace, more women in political office<\/a> or girls permitted to join what is now referred to as \u201cthe Scouts\u201d<\/a> \u2013 seems to stoke men\u2019s insecurities. You can see it in the popularity of men\u2019s rights advocates like Jordan Peterson, who claims men are being asked to castrate themselves<\/a> in the name of equality. And you can see it in conservative commentator Ben Shapiro\u2019s scorn toward<\/a> the \u201cBarbie\u201d movie, which has been lauded for calling out patriarchal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these moments, men have historically taken predictable actions to reclaim the idea that they are inherently different from women \u2013 and thus belong in different spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sociologist Martha McCaughey<\/a> has pointed out how evolutionary biology has become the popular way to argue that men just can\u2019t help their \u201cinnate propensities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes the urge to dominate others, whether that\u2019s in business, in bed \u2013 or, yes, in the ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristen Barber<\/a>, Associate Professor of Race, Ethnic and Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas City<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristen Barber, University of Missouri-Kansas City While the cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to be on hold, if these men do ever end up sparring, it\u2019ll give a whole new meaning to the term \u201ctech bro.\u201d The two billionaires\u2019 business interests have butted heads in the past: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025,7],"tags":[1789,2921,14602,6674,14605,2294,2024,316,14604,14606,5758,486,14603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35038,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35023\/revisions\/35038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}