The Atlantic's June Cover: Helen Lewis on "The Men Who Don't Want Women to Vote"

Masculinism is presented as a growing movement that resists feminism and reasserts men’s primacy in American political life. Multiple anti-feminist strains are described as converging into a single influential force, drawing together pastors, politicians, influencers, podcasters, and online communities. The movement is said to have different entry points, ranging from concerns about male loneliness, education declines, stagnant wages, and harmful online behaviors to an extreme agenda that denies women the right to work, vote, and control their bodies. Policy goals include rolling back no-fault divorce, rewarding male breadwinners and homemakers through tax breaks, eliminating DEI efforts, and restoring workplace norms that tolerate sexual harassment. Hiring and promotion preferences for men are also described, framed as “affirmative action for men.”

"“Far from being a fringe belief system, masculinism has become the single most important force uniting the American right, bringing together an unlikely constellation of pastors, posters, senators, preachers, influencers, podcasters, and fanboys.”"

"“At one end of the spectrum are legitimate concerns about male loneliness, the declining share of men in higher education, stagnant wages for non-college-educated men, and the deadening effects of day-trading, gaming, and porn.”"

"“At the other end of masculinism, Lewis writes, is a political agenda close to that in The Handmaid's Tale, whereby women are denied the right to work, vote, and control their own body.”"

"“In other words, affirmative action for men,” Lewis writes. The policy goals of masculinism's proponents are very real: the rollback of no-fault divorce; tax breaks to reward male breadwinners and female homemakers; an end to anything with a whiff of DEI, even leadership programs for women in the military, including one cut by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; a return to the workplace culture of the 1970s, where sexual harassment was normalized; an open preference for male employees in hiring, promotion, and pay awards."

Read at The Atlantic