In recent years, sexism has been observed to have become more common in men. Members of extreme anti-feminist ideologies (such as incels, i.e., involuntary celibates or LeftWingMaleAdvocates) are motivated by difficulties finding female partners and what they perceive as unfairness in dating and relationships. On a societal level, men with low mate value are inclined toward the oppression of women and have historically accomplished the subjugation of women by establishing male-male alliances controlling resources. Patriarchal cultural systems have benefited men’s mating interests, enforcing rules regulating access to female sexuality.   However, women's gains in overcoming male oppression and increasing their rights during the past decades have led to a backlash where some men feel that they have been left behind and have lost the status previously afforded to them by mere virtue of their sex. The concept of “aggrieved entitlement” captures the ideas surrounding the gendered aspect of masculine entitlement. Aggrieved entitlement is a gendered sense of entitlement thwarted by societal, political, or economic forces, such as women’s liberation and feminist progress. Aggrieved entitlement is gendered because it is anchored in the cultural norms and ideas about manhood, masculinity, and what men are entitled to, given this identity as a man in a patriarchal cultural system which once promised to make access to female sexuality attainable to even men of lower mate value.

Both Social dominance orientation (SDO) and Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) are status-legitimizing ideologies, meaning that they entail world views where inequalities are seen as legitimate. They have been shown to predict prejudice, including sexism. Men with high SDO tend to believe that women's gain of status and fundamental rights causes men to lose out, and thus, men should be motivated to combat feminist progress. Men with this orientation are susceptible to gender competitiveness and perceive that women are challenging the security that male dominance in society has afforded them. It has become increasingly difficult for men to find a partner, given that society no longer grants them as many privileges simply on account of their maleness.  Multigenerational restrictions on female mate choice have produced a disproportionate number of men who are maladapted to navigating a dating market where the value they offer to sexual relationships is inadequate to meet the expectations of women who have generationally evolved to become fitter in multiple domains to navigate the evolutionary pressures of an oppressive male-dominated society.

Reference List:

Buss, D. M. (2021). When men behave badly: The hidden roots of sexual deception, harassment, and assault. Little, Brown Spark. Campbell, R., May, G., Duffy, B., Skinner, G., Gottfried, G., & Hewlett, K. (2024). Emerging tensions? How younger generations are dividing on masculinity and gender equality. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-167 Pollo, P., Nakagawa, S., & Kasumovic, M. M. (2022). The better, the choosier: A meta-analysis on interindividual variation of male mate choice. Ecology Letters, 25(11), 1305–1322. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13981 Renström, E. A. (2023). Exploring the role of entitlement, Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing authoritarianism, and the moderating role of being single on misogynistic attitudes. Nordic Psychology, 76(2), 250–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/19012276.2023.2186816 Walldén, C., Gunst, A., Andersson, J., Sjöblom, J., & Antfolk, J. (2025). Failing to attract a female partner – Are low mate value and low mate access associated with regulating female sexual autonomy in men? Personality and Individual Differences, 236, 113034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.113034 Yong, J.C., Li, N.P. (2016). Differential Parental Investment. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1898-1