The Men of the future
I think men of the future (100 years from now) will remain same in some ways and change in some dramatic ways.
There are three big changes
The men will spend significantly more time, effort and money to look good, be good and stay young: Hundred years ago, less than ~18% of American women earned money. When women looked for a suitable partner, the man’s ability to provide a great life for the family was an important trait in match-making. Men of a hundred years ago were judged less by their outward appearance and personality but more by their ability to provide. Today, ~60% of the American women earn money, have financial freedom and can very easily support themselves. Thus, men today have to offer more value than just be providers. One can easily notice this in millennial and Gen-Z men, where grooming, keeping themselves fit, having a great personality and be great human beings will be considered more and more important. In fact, the higher achieving the man in terms of financial success, higher their desire to achieve these other qualities. Men over the next 100 years are going to come under much greater public scrutiny for their looks, behaviors and outlooks. Sales of male grooming products have grown with a perfect correlations to women’s rise in financial independence. I think its time men face the same beauty standards as women. And no man in corporate America can say the kind of things that you see on Mad men. This is great thing.
A NZ Research paper on this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969698911000634
There is a gradual shift away from muscles. I think the generations are slowly and slowly moving away from obsession with huge bodies and big muscles. For simplicity, if we assume the act of building big muscles is supposed to signal superior mating traits to the opposite species (consciously or sub-consciously), The signals are changing. In 1900, 90% of the jobs were physical in nature and by 2100, almost 90% of the jobs will be cerebral in nature. Physical qualities which signal intelligence, mental health, creativity and fun will gain more traction than rugged looks and big muscles. The definition of fit is changing from physical health to overall mental and physical health.
Men will participate equally in child-care: The fact that men didn’t will feel like an absolute absurdity to generations of the future. Men’s participation in child-care, companies offering paternity leaves and shared child-care responsibilities are on the rise for last few decades and it will continue to do so for next decades.
Things about men that will stay the same
Men will stay competitive: Men have always been very competitive and will continue to demonstrate that in business, sports, and other spheres of life.
Men will continue to be biggest perpetrators of violence: history has shown again and again that a small group of men who like violence can create that at a large scale. This will sadly continue to be true.
Percentage of men to continue to suffer from depression will continue to be high: Men suffer from more depression than women today and this will continue to be the case.
