Around 47% of young men in Romania believe that feminism makes men feel guilty for problems in society, according to the “Masculinity today. Research on young men’s attitudes” study published by the Center for Public Innovation, the FILIA Center, and the Center for Gender Equality Policies on Thursday, June 18.
The research analyzed topics such as feminism, relationships, sexuality, media consumption, social values, and democracy. It found that 56% of young men in Romania believe that women still do not have all the necessary rights or that women are more discriminated against than men.
Moreover, 73% of respondents strongly agreed with the statement “men who have had many sexual relationships are experienced,” and 58% strongly agree that “women who have had many sexual relationships are loose.” Around 54% of respondents strongly agree that “a real man never refuses sex,” and 53% strongly agree that “in a couple, the partner must be available for sex whenever the partner needs it.”
“For young men, the online environment has ceased to be a simple communication channel and has become the main ecosystem in which they form their values and identity. This is also the major challenge, and the solution: without media literacy and without credible democratic alternatives, this space can become a pathway to radicalization,” explained Ovidiu Voicu, executive director of the Center for Public Innovation.
The results confirm a global trend, namely that young men are targeted by campaigns of far-right movements, which manipulate them into supporting traditional patterns regarding gender roles. However, the research shows that they are not a lost target group for the feminist movement, as their values are often ambivalent. The same young men who believe that household responsibilities and child-rearing should be equally shared in a couple also believe, at the same time, that the man should have the final say or that a woman needs the protection of a man.
At the same time, Romanian young men do not reject democracy, but rather support it formally, while at the same time being tempted by the idea of a strong leader who bypasses rules and institutions. More than half (58%) of young men in Romania agree that “we should have a strong leader who does not bother himself with Parliament or elections.” Finally, 44% of young men in Romania believe that “sometimes dictatorship is a better form of government than democracy.”
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