A man's access to these benefits may vary depending on how closely they match their society's ideal masculine norm.
[1][6] In Western patriarchal societies this ideal has been described as being "white, heterosexual, stoic, wealthy, strong, tough, competitive, and autonomous".
[1] Men who have experienced bullying and domestic violence in youth, in particular, may not accept the idea that they are beneficiaries of privilege.
Such forms of coercive violence are linked to the idea of toxic masculinity, a specific model of manhood that creates hierarchies of dominance in which some are favored and others are harmed.
[1] According to McIntosh, privilege is not a result of a concerted effort to oppress those of the opposite gender; however, the inherent benefits that men gain from the systemic bias put women at an innate disadvantage.
[4] Efforts to examine the role of privilege in students' lives has become a regular feature of university education in North America.
[6] Psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic proposes that incompetent men are disproportionately promoted into leadership positions because instead of testing rigorously for competence, employers are attracted to confidence, charisma, and narcissism.
[8] Some men may also be advocates of women's rights but deny that their privilege as a whole is a part of the issue at hand.
[14][15][16] In India some of these practices have contributed to skewed sex ratios in favor of male children at birth and in the first five years.
Other reasons include patrilineal customs whereby only sons can carry on the family name, the obligation to pay dowry to a daughter's husband or his family, and the expectation that sons will support their birth parents financially while it is regarded as undesirable or shameful to receive financial support from daughters.