There’s this belief in most feminist circles that culture has been portraying masculinity in a toxic way, encouraging men to be overly aggressive, sexual and repress their emotion. While I do not believe that this has been the case, I do think feminists are starting to bring it into reality.

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The problem with the “toxic masculinity” theory is that there’s simply no evidence that it’s been heavily encouraged by recent media. For instance, the most prominent male heroes in media would probably be Frodo Baggins and Luke Skywalker, considering Star Wars and LOTR are both incredibly culturally influential and widely acclaimed (LOTR is the most read novel of all time, and Star Wars became an absolute juggernaught of post 1970’s media.) Luke solves his conflicts by refusing to cut down a defenceless man and his emotional connection to his father, Frodo is literally defined by his anti-violence. Both are celibate during their respective trilogies. This is as far as you can be from “toxic masculinity”, and yet this canard has only increased in its intensity. This has lead to a belief that we need to “challenge toxic masculinity in stories”, but in doing this, we over-correct for a problem that wasn’t actually there to begin with. If anything I’m starting to think we need more well thought out and good examples of masculinity in fiction; not less!

Now ask yourself, what are the three most common feminist insults? “Nice guy” (men who are not aggressive enough), “incel“ (men who have no sexual experiences) and “fragile” (men who display emotions). You see what’s happening? “If I can’t find a toxic masculinity problem, I’ll MAKE a toxic masculinity problem!” They need toxic masculinity to exist to further their goals, so to prove themselves right they’ve generated a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is what is known as a “positive feedback loop”: feminism generates ”toxic masculinity”, which in turn generates more feminism, and the loop reinforced itself.

One thing about positive feedback loops: they‘ll always collapse eventually, depending on how stable they are. This can’t continue indefinitely, but while it does continue it will only cause more harm for men AND women alike.