The "having a boyfriend is cringe" trend, promoted by high-status women, may be an unconscious evolutionary strategy to suppress the reproductive success of other women, thus reducing competition for desirable partners.
When desirable partners are scarce, people adopt an "inner citadel" mindset to protect their ego. They convince themselves that relationships are undesirable ("men are trash") to cope with the difficulty of the modern mating market.
People's conscious, stated reasons for their actions (proximate explanations) often obscure deeper, unconscious evolutionary drivers (ultimate explanations), such as the drive to reduce mating competition while appearing compassionate.
The "cringe boyfriend" phenomenon shows a shift where relationships are evaluated like brand collaborations. The primary currency is not personal happiness but how the relationship performs online—measured in likes, followers, and content excitement.
Historically, cultures used rituals to push men beyond natural laziness. Today's anti-masculine narratives dismantle these social incentives, allowing many men to withdraw and not strive for traditional ideals of productivity and courage.
People are more effective at deceiving others about their true motivations when they first deceive themselves. Genuinely believing your own pro-social justification for a self-interested act makes the act more compelling and convincing to others.
A subtle form of female competition, the "bless her heart effect" involves disguising reputation-damaging gossip as an expression of concern. This allows an individual to subtly attack a rival while maintaining plausible deniability and a pro-social image.
Elite women promote anti-relationship views as a "luxury belief," conferring status on themselves while harming less affluent women, who data shows experience greater declines in fertility and happiness when they forgo marriage and family.
A central contradiction in modern feminism is its simultaneous critique of exploitative capitalism and its insistence that a woman's highest priority should be career advancement, often at the expense of family formation—a path elites often balance later using their resources.
Beyond stated morals, a pro-life stance can be an unconscious mating strategy. By making abortion less accessible, it raises the consequences of casual sex, which disincentivizes promiscuity and helps secure investment from male partners in long-term relationships.
The "swag gap" critique, where women lament their male partners' lack of style, is a form of failed cross-sex mind reading. It applies female standards of appearance-based status to men, who often signal high status through other means, including indifference to appearance.