Straight man cancer


Straight man cancer is a derogatory neologism used by Chinese feminists to describe men who are stubbornly supportive of traditional gender roles and therefore considered sexist and chauvinistic. Coined by the users of Chinese social networks Douban and Weibo in mid-2014, it refers to conservative men who unapologetically upholds traditional patriarchical values and belittles women's movement and gender equality, and are usually nationalistic and variably hostile to foreigners and ethnic minorities. In general, "straight male cancer" is comparatively similar to the term "toxic masculinity" in English.
The term originated from mainland China. It became popular in 2015 when scholar Zhou Guoping was accused of having the syndrome after a Weibo post. However in recent years, the use of the term has been accused of misandry and is met with significant backlash on social media with counter-insults like "feminist cancer" or "feminist whore". The Chinese feminist movement is also vilified as "field feminism" to denigrate feminists as barking extremists.

Causes

Historical self-sufficiency

The self-sufficient economy, a basic socio-economic formation in Chinese feudal society, has lasted for more than 2000 years in ancient China. It did not require any aid, support, or interaction, for survival; therefore it is a type of personal or collective autonomy, which contributes a lot to the formation of the idea of male supremacy.
Since men have advantages in physical strength, some occupy positions in the main production sectors and some women are relegated to a secondary position in production.

Preference for sons

Numerous Chinese families which still have been influenced a lot by the patriarchal tradition, especially the rural families, tend to have a preference for boys rather than girls.