An un-bylined article in Medical News Today says

Manhood is a "precarious" status-difficult to earn and easy to lose. And when it's threatened, men see aggression as a good way to hold onto it. These are the conclusions of a new article by University of South Florida psychologists Jennifer K. Bosson and Joseph A. Vandello. The paper is published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"Gender is social," says, Bosson. "Men know this. They are powerfully concerned about how they appear in other people's eyes." And the more concerned they are, the more they will suffer psychologically when their manhood feels violated. Gender role violation can be a big thing, like losing a job, or a little thing, like being asked to braid hair in a laboratory.

In several studies, Bosson and her colleagues used that task to force men to behave in a "feminine" manner, and recorded what happened. In one study, some men braided hair; others did the more masculine-or gender-neutral-task of braiding rope.

Source: Association for Psychological Science via Medical News Today

What's funny about that study (which all grains of salt small-scale studies should be taken with) is that men felt anxious about their "masculinity" after being asked to braid hair vs. braiding rope.

I don't get that.  Some of the hottest sex I've had with women was after braiding their hair or doing other nominally "feminine" things with them. Now it might not be "masculine" behavior but for some reason (can't imagine why) a lot of women really, really like it when men braid their hair. And not in a "thank you, now I'm ready for church" sort of way either.

Further down in the article Bosson adds

Who judges manhood so stringently? "Women are not the main punishers of gender role violations," says Bosson. Other men are.

It's pretty obvious that most men aren't attracted to "feminine" men the way a lot of women are, and that's fine. But if men really aren't the main punishers of gender role violations" then why should any other man give a crap?

When it comes to a choice of doing things that men think are "masculine" that turn women off, vs. things that men don't think are that "masculine" but turn women on, I'll take the second choice any time. But I think that's mostly because, being heterosexual and liking to get laid, being attractive to women seems like a much better idea.

What am I missing here?

Update: In comments tu quoque points out, correctly, that this post is pretty heterocentric since I focus on gender in terms of getting laid.  Mea semi-culpa.  First because this is primarily a sex blog, but also second because a heck of a lot of ostensible purpose of performing gender revolves around what is and isn't supposed to be attractive to the "other" gender.  And finally because there's a lot of judgment, too often accompanied by ostracism and/or violence, around men who don't perform hetero "masculinity" I'm interested in critiquing both the subject itself and logic underlying the judgment.  Since "being attractive to women," and consequently "getting laid" is supposed to be the gold standard of masculinity I definitely think it's worth pointing out that men appear to be more concerned about masculinity than most women, and that manifestations of that concern (anxiety about braiding hair, for instance, or carrying your wife's fucking purse!) can be outright counterproductive to the goal as stated.

Echidne of the Snakes says

As the Kinsey Institute noted in a study this year, men who can't sustain an erection while wearing a condom are less likely to wear a condom while having sex. (Duh.)

Men who reported having sex with three or more partners in the past three months were almost twice as likely to report erection loss compared with men having fewer partners. These findings underline the importance of encouraging men to discuss condom use with new lovers.

Men who lost their erections were much more likely to remove condoms prematurely, or to report that the condoms broke. Earlier research showed that men who didn't know how to use a condom properly were more likely to report breakage.

Source: Echidne of the Snakes

That sounds about right. Sometimes I've had erection problems with condoms too. Although when that's happened it turns out there are roughly 10,000 other mutually orgasmic heterosexual activities that don't require them. No real reason to obsess about the one or two where they are. And, not to put too fine a point on it, sometimes when you do those things first it turns out you can get a condom on without erection loss.

Who ever said only women need to receive foreplay?

More to the point, who ever said only women enjoy receiving forplay?

Mmmm, foreplay.

Little-known sex-related movie trivia: Since the 1970s the movie Last Tango in Paris has been indirectly responsible for a surprising number of minor hip and leg abrasions and pinky-finger strains. The cause? That scene where the Marlin Brando character seemingly-effortlessly rips the panties from the Maria Schneider character.

Like many other things you see in the movies that trick is harder than it looks. In case you’ve ever wanted to try it yourself or with a partner, Cumingirl of the absolutely 100%-accurately-titled blog Christian Nymphos has a completely practical tutorial.

One thing that can be really passionate in the bedroom is having your husband RIP your panties off of you just before you make love.  But sometimes the fabrics are too hard to rip and sometimes your panties are too expensive to throw away!  If you are interested in adding this spice to your bedroom, then listen up to some quick and easy tips that will make it easy for you and your husband!

First off, you need to find some sexy panties (thongs work the best but any kind will do) really cheap.  Make sure that you KNOW they will fit you well, and then buy lots of them.  I found some lacy thongs on sale one time for $1/each.  There were just tons of thongs all thrown on a large display table in the middle of the lingerie dept.  I think I bought 25 or so that day!

Now, once you get home, put a pair on and stand in front of the mirror.  Imagine that you and your husband are making out and you want him to be able to just RIP those panties off of you so that you two can make passionate love!  In order to make it easier for him (and to make sure that he doesn’t hurt you in the process) you need a pair of fingernail clippers or scissors.  A knife will work but fingernail clippers or scissors work better.

She said it here.

I adore the group of authors at Christian Nymphos because it just so head-on contradicts stereotypes about the sexuality of people with profoundly-deep faith, and about people of different abilities and ages. I admire them too because they’re so up front about finding solutions to problems facing women who’s libidos are higher than their husbands who are also very committed to the tradition of marriage. But I digress…

Anyway, I won’t say how I know this but there actually are a couple of tricks to successfully tearing someone’s undies off when they haven’t been prepared first.

The first, most important trick is being able to quickly recognize when not to do it, whether its because they’re too nice, too comfortable, too expensive, or otherwise hard to replace or just because they’re not going to tear. There are more than enough other entirely mutual-mood-enhancing ways to remove underwear so why set your heart on that one particular way, at that particular moment, when you’re not 100% sure it’s going to be 100% pleasing for both of you?

Next tip? It’s a two parter. First part? You weren’t thinking you/he would just walk over, grab the waistband and yank middle-school-wedgie style were you? Didn’t think so! No. Again I won’t say how I know this but like a lot of things related to sex, romance, and role-playing undie ripping works, um, very well indeed after considerable, passionate hugs, burning kisses, strokes, caresses, locked eyes, sultry looks, flared nostrils, and just general all-round exploration… while still mostly clothed. And yes, it takes a little multi-tasking ability but while you’re losing yourself in each other’s embraces you want to reserve enough of capacity for strategic thinking to find seams or other weak points, and, if it looks like it’s a good time, to subtly test, pre-stress, and generally loosen them. That way when the time comes you’ll know where to start and which way to tear.

Next? Again don’t ask how I know but it doesn’t really ruin the mood if you get a tear going from the elastic of a leg band that stops dead at the waistband. As with a lot of role-playing it’s the thought that counts… plus a little deftness. If you do hit an extra-strong seam or binding before the whole garment comes apart just switch to one of those other ways to slip, slide, lower, otherwise get them the rest of the way off while staying in whatever character you and your partner have been playing.