It is a truth (now) universally acknowledged that men have a weird thing for the Roman Empire. If you’ve ever seen a man gazing dreamily off into space and wondered, ‘What goes on up there?’, there’s a good chance he’s reflecting on aqueducts and gladiators and forums and, of course, the first roads.
Allow us to make a quick generalisation: most women don’t think about the Roman Empire. Ever. Unless maybe we’re in Rome or, at a stretch, Bath. Men, however, think about it all the time – apparently.
We might never have known about men’s fascination with the Roman Empire if it wasn’t for Saskia Cort, a Swedish influencer, who asked her Instagram followers to find out: how often do the men in your life think about the Roman Empire?
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People were shocked to learn that there is in fact a common pattern. It turns out, lots of men think about the Roman Empire a lot of the time. For some, it’s a few times a month. Some men think about it a few times a week. Some even think about it every day — including, apparently, Elon Musk.
Evidently, some men saw Gladiator and Rome and never looked back.
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According to Cynthia Boaz, a political science professor at Sonoma State University, the fact that many men do seem to think about the Roman Empire, like, all of the time, isn’t all fun and games, but is actually an example of “white cis gender masculinity” at play.
“As a political scientist who studies gender politics, I find this whole thing fascinating,” she said in a TikTok video. “First of all, I’m guessing most of the men who say they think about it all of the time are probably white, cis men. And it’s no coincidence, because the Roman Empire is one of the most patriarchal and hierarchical societies that has ever existed. It is the epitome, the pinnacle of white cis gender masculinity.”
She added that the Roman Empire is remembered for “militarism, imperialism and infrastructure” along with qualities like “strength and authority”.