Slurs against masculinity: masculine honor beliefs and men's reactions to slurs

•We created a taxonomy of slurs against men and masculinity.•Men are offended by slurs that challenge their masculinity.•Homophobic, feminine, and bravery slurs provoke more extreme reactions.•Masculine honor beliefs are related to reactions to slurs against masculinity.

We examined the manifestation and effects of slurs against men and masculinity. In Study 1, we created a taxonomy of slurs against men and masculinity. In Study 2, we established that men may respond with physical aggression when targeted by these slurs. In Study 3, we demonstrated that slurs in different categories of our taxonomy produce varying levels of perceived offensiveness and likelihoods of aggressive responses. Finally, in Study 4, we showed that men's masculine honor beliefs are associated with their perceptions of slurs as offensive and the ratings of their likelihood of responding physically, especially for slurs that directly challenge their masculinity. These findings extend the extant literature that has examined the content of and reactions to slurs and physically aggressive responses to provocation, as well as that which has examined conceptualizations of masculine honor from both cultural and individual difference perspectives.