KUALA LUMPUR: If you did not receive any special gift or candlelight dinner for Valentine’s Day, don't fret.
That’s because Malaysian men rate sex and romance lowly when it comes to masculinity. To them, manhood means having a good job, taking care of the family and ensuring enough money.
The men of China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, on the other hand, think sex is more important.
According to a masculinity study on Asian men, urban Malaysian men rate sex and romance lowly – only 0.9% chose an active sex life while a mere 0.7% picked success with women as important indicators of their masculinity.
On the upside, Malaysian men are good providers with family as their priority.
Family and money – next to good jobs – are their top concerns and the main defining facets of their manhood – 24% of them rate having a good job as the most important thing in being a “man”.
The Masculinity in Asian Men research was conducted on 10, 934 men aged 20 to 75 years old in five Asian countries: China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Sponsored by Bayer HealthCare, the study involved 3,000 Malaysian men and was completed in 2006 but the findings are yet to be published.
In other Asian countries, though, most men picked active sex life (89%), success with women (87.9%) and physical attractiveness (85%) as key indicators of masculinity.
Chartered psychologist with the Health Research Development Unit at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Prof Dr Sarinah Low Abdullah, said this attitude is conditioned by society.
“Masculinity is very much influenced by socio-demographic parameters. For most men, their sense of self, sexual desire and behaviour are related to their sense of power, respect and success,” said Prof Sarinah, one of three Malaysian academics in the Europe-Asian team of researchers.
She added that the masculinity of Asian men was still an unexplored area in sexual heath studies.
“There have been many research looking into the masculinity and sexual health of European and American men but no proper one has been carried out on Asian men yet,” she said.
The research was divided into three parts: men's attitude towards life events, sexual behaviour and their attitude towards erectile dysfunction.
The findings, nevertheless, reinforced the male stereotypes in the individual participating countries, specifically in their concept of masculinity: the Taiwanese and Japanese quoted being a man of honour as the most important quality, the Chinese defined it as having control over one's life while for South Koreans, it was having an active sex life.
A common characteristic among all Asian men, however, was their inability to express themselves, especially when it comes to sexual health, she said,
“A part of the male personality is not to show emotions. They cannot cry or show that they have problems. They won't even talk about their sex problems unless they are in excruciating pain. Often, they need women to push them to open up.”
Said Prof Sarinah, the research revealed that importance of career and financial status seem to decrease with age for men, while physical attractiveness, sexual performance and success with women will increase as they get older.
However, she noted, no research has been carried out on how the older men channel their increased sexuality.
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