Professionalism, Mark Zuckerberg, Corporate Culture, and "Masculine Energy"

Introduction

Mark Zuckerberg, as founder and CEO of Meta Platforms (the parent company that includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads), has more than three billion daily users as of 2025 across the various platforms owned by Meta, which are governed by the company’s dual-class stock structure giving Zuckerberg the vote of more than 51 percent.[1] On January 15, 2025, in an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Zuckerberg stated that corporate cultures are now "culturally neutered" and that society should encourage and include more "masculine energy" in the workplaces. He goes on to argue that "having a culture that, like, celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits."[2]

Masculine Energy and Bro Culture in the Technology Industry

In terms of technology corporate culture, masculine energy describes a leadership style that promotes assertiveness, decisiveness, speed, and risk-taking.[2] This can be considered an extension of “bro culture”, a culture in tech companies where confidence, dominance, and assertive leadership are valued. [3]

Advocates suggest that these qualities resonate with the requirements of competitive tech markets like startups. However, critics suggest that using gender-centric ways of describing effective leadership imitates an exclusionary norm in which masculine-associated behavior takes precedence over other forms of leadership, such as those based on teamwork, discussion, or caregiving[3]. Here, rather than simply labeling qualities of a good leader, such discourse can influence how an organization views a competent and authoritative individual.

Additionally, these discourses of “masculine energy” and bro culture interact with existing gender inequalities in technology leadership, which can perpetually reinforce differentials in access to power in this sector.[3]

Representation of Gender in the Technology Industry

The underrepresentation of women in the technology industry persists in the United States. Based on statistics from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the early 2020s, women comprised about 25-30 percent of people engaged in STEM occupations, with numbers dropping to lower levels in software engineering.[4]

Gender inequalities are just as evident in leadership roles. Industry studies have found that men hold 65–70% of senior leadership roles in technology firms.[5] Some authors have suggested that a lack of diversity in leadership can perpetuate organizational cultures that undervalue collaborative, rather than consensus-building, methods in favor of more masculine qualities such as assertiveness and competitiveness.[6]

Sociological studies on gendered organizations have further indicated that a predominantly male leadership structure affects organizational norms and decision-making in organizational strategic priority setting and risk tolerance.[6]

Founding Culture

Facebook's original slogan is "Move fast and break things.". This was a phrase coined by Mark Zuckerberg, which he used in a letter to investors in 2012.[7] The motto emphasizes that if you never break anything, then you aren’t moving quick enough. Shifting focus on rapidly innovating and iterating rather than exercising caution due to the organizational structure. Many critics stated that by following this motto and this philosophy, ethical policies served as barriers to progress through disruption. The slogan was officially retired in 2014 and replaced with the motto "Move fast with stable infra."[3]

Performative Masculinity and Public Image Formation

One can see a gradual incorporation of elements linked with direct physical strength and combat sports into the public image of Mark Zuckerberg.[1] Ever since the early 2020s, Zuckerberg has publicly demonstrated his involvement in Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions and training, emphasizing these activities in terms of discipline and resilience.[8] Further high-profile events, such as talking about a "cage match" with Elon Musk have linked Zuckerberg with combat sports culture.[9]

These performances operate symbolically, using physicality in martial arts to showcase dominance, hardness, and strength. In this framing, fighting and aggression are used to reshape Zuckerberg’s public image to match his leadership style. [3]

Documented Concerns

The prioritization of innovation over safety is reflected in multiple documented instances where damages occurred. This aggression and masculinity established by Mark Zuckerberg reframes the motto of "Move fast and break things" to something that is in line with public expectations of gender norms.

Teen Mental health

The Meta internal investigation was leaked to The Wall Street Journal in 2021 and found that around one-third of female teens reported that they felt negatively about how their body looked because of Instagram.[10] The investigation also found that 13.5 percent of UK female teens who used Instagram reported having thoughts of suicide attributed to Instagram, while 17 percent of female teens used Instagram that made their eating disorder worse.[11]

Myanmar Abuse

The 2022 Amnesty International report stated that Meta's algorithm “intentionally highlighted and promoted content” that incited hatred toward the Rohingya minority in Myanmar prior to Military Violence in 2017.[12] The report stated that between 2012 and 2017, Facebook had been warned by civil society activists regarding its role in the dissemination of hateful content on its platform. Approximately 700,000 displaced Rohingya and Meta has failing to provide reparations.[13]

Cambridge Analytica

In 2018, news of an unauthorized harvesting of data belonging to 87 million Facebook accounts by Cambridge Analytica via a Facebook third-party app became public knowledge.[14] Facebook discovered the data breach from Cambridge Analytica in 2015, but did not alert impacted users or issue a public statement until the CBS and New York Times published their findings.[15] In 2019 to resolve potential violations of the privacy provisions of the Federal Trade Commission and imposed a fine of $5 billion on Facebook.[16]

A Case Study: Antonio García Martínez and the Apple Controversy in 2021

Antonio García Martínez is a former tech industry executive, most famous for writing a memoir in 2016 called Chaos Monkeys. The memoir got him into trouble for his depiction of women in the tech industry in Silicon Valley, which led to a short time and subsequent firing at Apple in 2021.

Martínez began his professional career as a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs in 2008 during the global financial crisis. His experience in high finance is an important skill set which brought him to the tech industry. Martínez relocated to Silicon Valley in search of new opportunities where he went on to found a firm called AdGrok, which focused on developing solutions related to ad management technology. His firm performed very well in such a cutthroat industry, leading to an acquisition offer from Twitter. AdGrok was acquired by Twitter in 2011 for $10 million. Martínez then went on to work for Meta, where he got assigned as a product manager dealing with ad targeting. He handled some of the most critical activities performed by Meta in order to raise revenue. Martínez left Facebook in 2013 in order to work on other projects.

Chaos Monkeys & Reception

Martínez published Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley in 2016. Chaos Monkeys provides an insider’s view into life in start-up companies, in venture capital firms, and in tech corporations. Chaos Monkeys quickly became a bestseller. Bloomberg said that it was an unfiltered look at the realities of Silicon Valley[17], and TechCrunch noted that this is ‘required reading’ if you're part of a start-up in any way.[18] The very outspoken manner in this book appealed to some readers wanting insider information on how tech companies really work.

Controversial Content

Some elements in Chaos Monkeys were very controversial despite it being a commercially successful work with good reviews. Some quotes in this book described most women in the Bay Area as "weak, naive, and basically useless," advised women to have "more cleavage or charm to be effective in meetings," and compared a professionally attired woman in a conference room to "viewing a gun" as a warning sign.

These comments were not shared in private messages but in a published book available to all. They were deemed problematic not just in representing a willingness of a publisher to publish such thoughts but in representing a normalization of "bro culture" in tech circles in the Bay Area in the 2010s.

Apple Recruitment & Termination

Apple recruited Martínez in April 2021 to work on their advertising platform team. His experience with Meta and knowledge in advertising systems make this recruitment appear good from a purely tech-oriented angle. However, this recruitment did not go unnoticed among Apple’s employees. In a matter of 24 hours, Apple’s employees formed a petition and asked for an investigation into this recruitment. The letter asked a multitude of questions. Did Apple’s recruitment committee read Martínez’s book? How did this recruitment indicate Apple’s dedication to inclusion and diversity in their work environment? Apple's reaction was swift. They let Martínez go in a matter of days and issued a statement saying, "people who discriminate against others have no place at Apple."[19] Martínez rejected this firing on Twitter, saying he will sue Apple for wrongful termination.

Importance

The Martínez case highlighted the problem existing in the Silicon Valley culture. His controversial ideas have been readily available in public domain with the publication of Chaos Monkeys for five years, and it took a collective outcry from Apple employees for him to face repercussions over them. Him being among top companies in tech reflects a problem existing in this culture, because Martínez being in a job shows that this poisonous culture is very much a part of today as well.

References

• ↑ a b Griffin, Riley (January 10, 2025). "Zuckerberg Says Most Companies Need More 'Masculine Energy'".
• ↑ a b Ibrahim, Nur (January 15, 2025). "Mark Zuckerberg Wants More 'Masculine Energy' in Corporations. Here's What He Said". Snopes.
• ↑ a b c d e Stokel-Walker, Chris (October 7, 2024). "Why you shouldn't move fast and break things". LeadDev.
• ↑ "Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity". Bureau of Labor Statistics. January 29, 2025. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
• ↑ Krivkovich, Alexis; Goldstein, Drew; McConnell, Megan (December 9, 2025). "Women in the Workplace 2025". https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/women-in-the-workplace.
• ↑ a b Acker, Joan (1990). "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations". Gender and Society. 4 (2): 139–158. ISSN 0891-2432.
• ↑ Liles, Jordan (July 29, 2022). "Did Mark Zuckerberg Say, 'Move Fast And Break Things'?". Snopes.
• ↑ Barinka, Alex (November 10, 2023). "Should Meta Disclose Mark Zuckerberg's Cage Fighting Risk?". Bloomberg. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
• ↑ "Musk says fight with Zuckerberg will be live-streamed on X". Reuters. August 6, 2023. Retrieved December 15, 2025. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help); |first= missing |last= (help)
• ↑ Wells, Georgia (September 14, 2021). "Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show". The Wall Steet Journal.
• ↑ Rivers, Tammy (November 12, 2025). "How Does Instagram Affect Body Image". MotleyRice.
• ↑ "Myanmar: Facebook's systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations – new report". Amnesty International. September 29, 2022.
• ↑ Ortutay, Barbara (September 29, 2022). "Amnesty report finds Facebook amplified hate ahead of Rohingya massacre in Myanmar". PBS News.
• ↑ "Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal". Wikipedia.
• ↑ "Facebook Cambridge Analytica Scandal: 10 Questions Answered". Fortune. April 10, 2018.
• ↑ "Facebook Data Privacy Scandal: A Cheat Sheet". TechRepublic. July 30, 2020.
• ↑ Huet, Ellen (June 30, 2016). "Book Review: Chaos in the Valley". Bloomberg.
• ↑ Biggs, John (July 9, 2016). "Inside the ape cage with Antonio Garcia Martinez, author of Chaos Monkeys". TechCrunch.
• ↑ Metz, Rachel (May 13, 2021). "Apple parts ways with newly hired ex-Facebook employee after workers cite 'misogynistic' writing". CNN.

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