Current Events > Do you believe toxic masculinity is real?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/lets-leave-toxic-masculinity-behind-with-2020-11523151

One thing that the long quarantine has revealed to us is that a lot of guy things are kind of ancillary to survival.

Stripped of the necessity of doing them, where does that leave men who define themselves by those parameters?

Toxic masculinity is defined as a collection of cultural norms that are harmful to the men who perpetuate them and to society in general. It does not mean all masculinity is poisonous. Instead, its a way to look at what is manly and assess whether it actually helps or hurts.

One good example is sorting various activities into mens duties and women (or effeminate, usually rendered as gay) ones. Ive seen men question whether things such as cooking or washing their buttholes is gay. President Donald Trump, who desperately wants to be perceived as an aggressively macho dude, once claimed that changing a babys diaper made men like the wife. Even artistic endeavors like painting and playing the piano get lumped into the is this for pussies existential crisis despite the fact the vast majority of celebrated artists and pianists are male. This is a great example of the toxicity because it shows how men can dominate an arena and still punish men for being in it. Its not only harmful; its galactically stupid.

Toxic masculinity has left men ill-equipped for the crisis because on the extreme end of the spectrum is the notion that feelings and vulnerability are the domain of the female. Melanie Hamlett wrote a tremendous article in Harpers Bazaar last year about how men increasingly disconnect from each other and rely on their wives and girlfriends entirely for their emotional needs. Thats a burden at the best of times, but when everyone is stuck in close proximity with nothing to do it can become unbearable. Mens emotional needs go unfulfilled, as do the needs of the women they make responsible for them and who neglect their own needs in return.

The good news is that this crisis might have finally started the damn to break. Without game days or bar trips a lot of men are starting to embrace more face-to-face activities albeit virtually. Keeping in touch with male friends through Zoom or WhatsApp and other more intimate means besides focusing on exterior stimulus like watching a fight on television is putting holes in the walls that men have pointlessly built between themselves due to toxic masculinity.

Poster Boy for toxic masculinity:

Majority voting yes so far

JACKBUTTMOMMY posted...

Anything by and large can be taken to extremes and therefore become toxic. Because you can have too much of a good thing.

anyone voting no is an idiot

---

Hard to argue that it's not a thing, though I still find manly character tropes fun in games and movies. It doesn't have to be negative.

Trump is a pudgy crybaby who never worked for anything in his life. Saying anything about him is manly is giving him too much credit.

Collat posted...

manly character tropes fun in games and movies. It doesn't have to be negative.

A lot of manly tropes are awesome. It's the harmful parts of "masculinity" that's toxic. 90% of masculinity is somewhere between nontoxic and positive.

If you think the term Toxic Masculinity translates to "it's bad to be a man", lmao at that strawman.
---

It does but not in the way Twitter activists think of it, heck toxic femininity exists as well.
---

I believe people who are masculine can exhibit toxic traits, but masculinity itself isnt inherently toxic.

Hop103 posted...

It does but not in the way Twitter activists think of it, heck toxic femininity exists as well.

go on...

---

Ive seen toxic things like inappropriate humor and asking for a kiss from a dental assistant. She was not happy.

---

I do think it could use a new name though.

The people who the term applies to are probably going to like being called masculine. I usually just call them assholes or pieces of shit.

Yes it's real. An ex-coworker use to shame me for using cream and sugar with my coffee. He told me only pussies drink it like that and real men drink it straight up black. What a weird guy.

---

Veggeta X posted...

Yes it's real. An ex-coworker use to shame me for using cream and sugar with my coffee. He told me only pussies drink it like that and real men drink it straight up black. What a weird guy.

Weird dude indeed. Sounds insecure.

Of course not Ollie
---

Collat posted...

I do think it could use a new name though.

The people who the term applies to are probably going to like being called masculine. I usually just call them assholes or pieces of shit.

Agreed.