Toxic Masculinity and Climate Activism

A couple weeks ago, I was a panelist at a youth climate activism webinar. During this webinar, we were asked the question "where are all the he/hims?". It's a good question, one that I'd certainly considered in the past. After all, I'd realized long before this webinar that I could name many female activists, both ones I know personally and "famous" ones, but only a couple men. Even as I looked for an image for this post, I couldn't find any that included men at climate rallies (okay, maybe that's more because there's not a lot of copyright-free pictures on the Internet!).

I had a suspicion that this might've been due to the feminine connotations of being eco-friendly, but today I'll be discussing the actual evidence from a 2016 study on it.

the evidence

The studies showed a clear mental link between femininity and eco-friendly behaviour. Participants perceived canvas bags more femininely than disposable bags, and even rated themselves more femininely after recalling eco-friendly actions they'd taken in the past. In another study, male participants' masculinity was "threatened" by asking them to use a pink gift card to make some purchases. The men who were "threatened" by the pink gift card tried to reassert their masculinity by buying less eco-friendly products, whereas those who were given a more gender-neutral card purchased normally.

solutions

The mental association that many have between caring for the climate and femininity is stopping tons of men from being climate activists. As great as it would be to be able to kill two birds with one stone by facing the toxic masculinity society so fiercely reinforces and adding more people to the climate activism movement, it's not exactly realistic to completely solve the issue of toxic masculinity in the next few years. However, there have been studies regarding other ways this issue can be addressed:

1. affirmations

A study conducted online with 472 participants consisted of participants reading about two different drain cleaners, marketed differently. One was described as "better for the environment" and the other as "better at dissolving grease".

Beforehand, some of the men were told that they had "manly" handwriting and some were not told anything out of the ordinary. Those who had received the affirmation of their masculinity just beforehand were more likely to choose the more eco-friendly product.

2. branding

This second study is equally interesting, and possibly more easy to implement in real life. It was also conducted online (this time with 322 people). In this study, participants saw two different environmental organizations, both asking for funding. Here they are:

"Friends of Nature":

• logo was a light green and tan tree symbol

• frilly font

• mission statement focused around preserving tree areas

"Wilderness Rangers":

• logo was a black and dark blue howling wolf symbol

• bold font (no frills!)

• mission statement focused around preserving wilderness areas

These organizations, when it comes to what they stand for, are essentially the same. But because of this difference in branding, male participants were less likely to donate to "Friends of Nature" than women, but men and women were equally likely to donate towards "Wilderness Rangers". Many participants even reported that they would feel more masculine wearing a t-shirt with the "Wilderness Rangers" logo.

what does it all mean?

In the words of Pacific Standard Magazine: "saving the environment may require convincing Americans that real men recycle". Making these small branding switches might open up the concept of being environmentally conscious to a whole new audience.

On the other hand, we don't want to accommodate toxic masculinity by making the movement more "masculine" and by reinforcing the flawed idea that the climate activism movement is inherently feminine. Is it worth it to make these marketing changes?

I'll leave it up to you to decide what you think.