According to a new study, men are afraid of recycling because they think it makes them look gay.
The study, published in the journal Sex Roles, evaluated how participants perceived various environmentally friendly behaviors. More than 950 participants marked eco-friendly activities (such as caulking windows, paying bills online, recycling, turning off the A/C, or using reusable grocery bags) as masculine or feminine.
As Out reports:
In other words, guys don’t like recycling or bringing their own grocery bags because people will either view them as gay or at least question their “heterosexual identity.” I wouldn’t call this a case of “toxic masculinity,” as at least one outlet did, but it does point out an unhealthy, socially constructed view of gender.
Recycling is about as feminine as taking out the trash — in other words, it has no connection to masculinity or femininity at all.
But while readers of this study reconsider how they perceive activities such as recycling, it’s worth noting that recycling is not the best way to help the environment. For instance, many plastics are nonrecyclable, which can lead to them taking up valuable resources before they ultimately get thrown away.
For the environmentally inclined (this is for both of you, men and women) here’s a better way to save the planet (in addition to reusing materials so they don’t have to be recycled in the first place).
Last week, Ethiopia planted more than 353 million trees in 12 hours. Individual recycling may have an insignificant effect, but planting trees could do so much more. According to CNN, “A recent study estimated that restoring the world’s lost forests could remove two thirds of all the planet-warming carbon that is in the atmosphere because of human activity.”
If you care about the environment, remember that doing so is not a masculine or feminine trait. We can all recycle or bring reusable bags to the grocery store, but we should also consider more effective efforts, such as planting trees to improve the air.
That’s not feminine or masculine. That’s just good stewardship.
