Watch men lose status to women in five charts

In our quest to figure out why the GOP is going so hard on violent, overt misogyny, we’ve established a few things. First, fear is often a winning strategy. Second, men care more than women about status.

We should also state that it seems obvious that the GOP is going after men. The GOP “almost always lose the women’s vote, and women vote in greater numbers than men,” Jackson Katz recently wrote. Thus, Republican strategists know they need “huge margins of victory among men—especially but not exclusively white men.”

Also relevant: The average person fears losses more than they value gains. People will go to great lengths to avoid feeling like we’re worse off in any way, including forgoing a likely windfall to avoid the slight chance of a small loss.

These facts indicate the not-insanity of the GOP playing up the potential for men to lose status.

Not only is this appeal to men not insane, but men are very much not insane to fear status loss.

Now, listen. Do I love men? Yes. I will admit to that. Do I think that men only freak out about stuff that is legitimately threatening? No, Ben Shapiro, the wet ass pussy is not going to harm you. It’s not going to get anywhere near you.

But in this case, male fear is based on something very real and very threatening.

Women are gaining status in the US and other high-income nations. And status, as we’ve said many a time, is a zero-sum game.

To illustrate this point, I’ve found five charts that tell a chilling tale if you identify as male in a high-income country.