Masculinity Attitudes Across Rural, Suburban, and Urban Areas in the United States

Abstract

This article uses the 2011–2019 National Survey of Family Growth to explore how masculinity attitudes differ by rural, suburban, and urban contexts across three social axes: sexual identity, race/ethnicity, and education. It examines within-group differences based on spatial context among 17,944 men aged 15–44 who are straight, gay/bisexual, Black, white, and Latino, as well as among men with less than a bachelor’s, a bachelor’s, and more than a bachelor’s. This contributes to existing knowledge in several ways: it is the first project to build on important qualitative studies through the use of a nationally representative sample; it contributes to the scarce research on how rural gay/bisexual, Black, and Latino men understand masculinity; and it examines how education shapes the relationship between spatial context and attitudes about masculinity. Results indicate that spatial context has a stronger relationship to attitudes among white men, straight men, and men without a bachelor’s than among Black men, Latino men, gay/bisexual men, or men with a bachelor’s or above. Theoretically, what this shows is that spatial context is more strongly related to masculinity attitudes for men who are advantaged on the basis of sexuality or race than for men who are marginalized on these axes. When significant differences emerged, rural men were more conservative than urban and suburban men, and suburban men were more conservative than urban men. These results show that there is a relationship between spatial contexts and attitudes about masculinity, but that it depends on social identity and level of education.

A qualitative analysis of beliefs about masculinity and gender socialization among U.S. mothers and fathers of school-age boys.

“…No notable differences were found between rural and urban parents in this study. This is inconsistent with prior research finding more conservative attitudes among rural than urban men; however, a recent study found that this relationship was moderated by the level of education with weaker effects among more educated men (Silva, 2022). As our sample had above-average education levels (66% completed some college), the effects of rural versus urban context on attitudes may have been less evident.…”

“Homophobia” in the Country? Rural America and the Stigmatization ofLGBTQPeople: An Empirical Test of Norm‐Centered Stigma Theory

“…2017), these findings are inconsistent with Norton and Herek's (2013) study that focused solely on transgender attitudes wherein rural men and women did not significantly differ in their attitudes toward transgender people. Building from scholarship that has demonstrated that rural men are more likely to endorse conservative attitudes about masculinity (i.e., men have greater sexual needs than women) than urban men (Silva 2022), these findings demonstrate that rural men and women may have qualitatively different experiences that shape their LGBTQ attitudes. It may be that rural men feel particularly embedded in maintaining hetero‐cis‐normativity and consequently, harbor more anti‐LGBTQ perspectives.…”

“…People in rural areas are more likely to oppose abortion (Albrecht 2022;Johnson and Scala 2021) and same-sex marriage (Baunach 2012;Sherkat 2017), show ambivalence toward female leaders (Urbatsch 2018), approve of reducing immigration (Johnson and Scala 2021), and exhibit higher rates of racial resentment (Mettler and Brown 2022) compared to their urban counterparts. Furthermore, rural men are more likely to endorse conservative attitudes about masculinity (i.e., men have greater sexual needs than women) than urban men (Silva 2022). Given that research indicates that traits such as traditional religious beliefs, Christian nationalism, and voting Republican are associated with a greater likelihood of stigmatizing LGBTQ individuals (Bills and Hayes 2022;Davis and Perry 2021;Jelen 2017;Worthen et al 2017), we suspect that rural residents, who share many of these traits, are more likely to exhibit stigmatizing attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals when compared to nonrural residents.…”

Older Mens’ Experiences with and Preferences for Physical Activity

“…It should also be acknowledged that although hegemonic masculinity was used as a guiding framework for coding the interview data in this study, it may not represent some contemporary views of masculinity, or reflect some of the varying influences on what constitutes masculinity in different contexts. Hegemonic masculinity defines several masculine ideals in traditional, stereotypical ways that may have been more common in previous generations; however, these ideals have more recently been debated (MacLean, Hunt, Smith, & Wyke, 2017;Silva, 2021;White, 2021). Some of these changes in the ways that masculine ideals have been framed include healthier behaviors, such as some men not considering themselves to be reluctant health seekers (White, 2021).…”

“…Some of these changes in the ways that masculine ideals have been framed include healthier behaviors, such as some men not considering themselves to be reluctant health seekers (White, 2021). Masculine ideals have also been reported as varying across different spatial contexts, with rural and suburban expression notably different from urban ideals (Silva, 2021). These contemporary views need to be considered when the generalizability of these findings is considered for men of other generations, or those living in different spatial contexts.…”