Marvel licensed the film rights to Spider Man to Sony.

Then X-Men to Fox.

Then Hulk to Universal.

And throughout all of this, the lawyers have fought over which villains or characters properly fall within each category, signing new deals or borrowing characters and rights.

The Disney-Fox merger made things simpler for X-Men versus not-X-Men characters. But the Spider-Man cross licensing for Sony-produced Spider Man movies that take place within the same universe as MCU makes it more complicated, too. So did the Netflix rights to Daredevil and Jessica Jones and a few other characters in that orbit.

Wtf is it for?

To make money, including making sure that rights don’t lapse from non-use.

There are fewer than 4 billion men currently alive.

Yes, and what percentage are everything that you expect a man to be? There are plenty of men who are smart but not protective, hard working but not high earning, etc.

If your whole definition of a successful man is based on whether a woman will stay with them long term, then first, I’d point out that’s a stupid definition, and second, even if we were to use that definitions there are plenty of ways that marriages fall apart. A man who doesn’t change diapers or won’t clean up after himself is at risk of getting left, no matter how much money he has. Bad communicators are also at risk. Infidelity destroys marriages. So does violence or angry outbursts. These are pretty far removed from what you’re talking about, and men who fall for believing in these rigid gender roles are exactly the type of people who find themselves receiving divorce papers. Plenty of high earning divorced boomer men out there, and there are plenty of happily married men who depend on their wives’ incomes.

Feminism since the 1970s has been advocating for financial independence for women so that they can leave someone regardless of how much they earn.

And more fundamentally, if the sole sign of manhood is being able to stay in a long relationship, then there are a lot of different ways to achieve that. Being authentic to oneself is an important way to have meaningful relationships with friends and families and spouses, and is an important foundation for a successful marriage, too.

There are, like, literally billions of men who don’t fit this archetype you’re describing. Many of them are beloved and idolized by society. Some are artists, musicians, dancers, writers. Lots are stoners or slackers. Some are clergy or philosophers or historians, and not always drawing steady income. And they can be surrounded by loved ones.

Go be yourself and stop caring about what some narrow slice of society expects.

And this study, that this article is about, specifically shows that believing this nonsense is correlated with suicide. That’s why it’s actually dangerous to try to convince people of this falsehood.