Groundbreaking, Shocking Study: Women Prefer Men Who Act Like Men.

I hope you’re sitting down for this.

According to a study published recently in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the kind of men women find most attractive are those who perform acts of “benevolent sexism.”

We’ve talked about benevolent sexism before. In fact, the first time it was mentioned on this site was back in 2011 right here. If you’ve not heard the term before, that’s a good post to get up to speed with. Mary Elizabeth Williams, who writes for Salon, called us “charmers” as a result of that piece. Good times.

There was also this. And this. And this.

We even wrote about benevolent sexism in our book, Right for a Reason.

And through the years, we’ve often used this video to showcase precisely what kind of men make us literally want to run screaming.

Every dude in that video (and I use the term “dude” loosely), makes my skin crawl.

Anyway, back to the new study.

Women tend to be more attracted to men who view females as pure and nurturing but also weak and needing extra care — an attitude that has been named benevolent sexism. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

“We became interested in this topic, because we realized a paradox in the literature on benevolent sexism,” explained study author Pelin Gul of Iowa State University.

“Previous studies have found that men’s benevolent sexism has many detrimental consequences on women (such as undermining their competence, restricting their freedom, confining them to the kitchen), yet research had also shown that women prefer benevolent sexist men and even find these men more attractive than non-benevolent sexist men.”

The study looked at 782 female participants, and those women tended to find men who “held benevolent sexist attitudes” as “more willing to protect, provide, and commit for them, which in turn made (them) more attractive.” In the study, benevolent sexist men did things like give their coats to women who were cold, and open doors for them. They typically believed men should help women in emergencies, and that women were to be cherished and protected. Egalitarian men, on the other hand, didn’t believe women should be placed on pedestals, they didn’t offer their coats to women, nor did they hold open doors for women.

And here’s the most interesting part. FEMINIST women were just as likely as non-feminist women to prefer benevolent sexist men over more egalitarian men. I tend to think, actually, that this internal conflict is one reason so many feminists are miserable people. Deep down, they want real dudes, but they know they’re not SUPPOSED to want real dudes, so they end up with dudes like the ones in the video.

REAL MEN ACT LIKE REAL MEN. I can’t believe a study was needed to point out that men who act like real men are more attractive to women.

Keep the “benevolent sexism” coming, guys. There are plenty of us women who love you for it.