A question about 'Toxic Masculinity'

Lethn · 2019-02-14T15:41:47+00:00

What you're experiencing is called indoctrination and I'm quite confident in stating that. You've been told all your childhood that something is the case when it isn't and the moment you've come out of your self-segregated bubble it's confusing the fuck out of you because you're being suddenly exposed to a huge variety of different views and arguments and you're realising how out of touch that particular world view is.

It's something I've been studying myself for awhile because I think a lot of people go through similar situations without even realising it and it doesn't have to be anything that dramatic but it's very easy to grow up within a certain social circle that has specific worldviews that don't match up with reality and they never get challenged because they close themselves off from the rest of society. This doesn't just happen in Catholic schools and right wing areas and so on but left wing bubbles too which is how you get feminist ideology in the first place.

To answer your question properly about toxic masculinity, it is absolutely a buzzword and it was invented by feminists. Your Catholic school is probably desperately trying to hammer it into students how bad they are for being male in a desperate attempt to appease feminists and increase their 'reputation' because there's nothing more valuable to a school than public perception.

The reason I explained all the other shit is this is how they end up doing this sort of shit to students. I grew up in a migrant town myself and on the opposite end of the political compass though I wasn't hard left or anything myself. I didn't realise how much of a left wing bubble it was until I travelled way more as I've grown up and realised how fucking white the rest of the country is, I'm in Britain by the way.

FemaleIsEasyMode · 2019-02-14T15:50:09+00:00

IMO, I find its just another word used to shame men and vilify them for any behaviour that isn't approved of. It's use is extremely fluid, for example: give money to a cam whore and its considered toxic masculinity for supporting the sex trade, don't give money and its considered toxic masculinity for making you keep your money to yourself. Its just another word in the war on men. Just another word to shame men and shut them down.

GingerRazz · 2019-02-14T17:00:16+00:00

I've seen two main camps of thought on this topic here. One is that toxic masculinity simply doesn't exist and is a tool used to blame men for all the ills of the world and treat them like defective women. I fully agree that toxic masculinity is commonly used this way and you should have your guard up for this is a person is using the term.

The other camp believes that there is a such thing as toxic masculinity and toxic femininity both exist and describe deviant behaviors that are significantly more common in one gender than the other much in the same way masculinity and femininity describe general traits that are more common in one gender. I tend to fall more in this camp.

At the same time, I feel like the common abuse of the term toxic masculinity means that you should be extremely cautious with using the term to make sure you are using it for things where you see men as struggling rather than to use it to attack behavior you see. I seldom use the term because because of the baggage involved with it, but I still see a value to use both terms in talking about problems far more commonly expressed by one gender. Infanticide could be considered toxic femininity because the gender bias is so extreme. Refusal to accept aid when in dire need could be considered toxic masculinity. Demanding help and playing the victim over minor inconveniences when capable could be considered toxic femininity. This isn't to say only men or women can do these behaviors, just that they show an extreme gender skew.

That being said, in common usage, it's anti male propaganda. Mansplaining as toxic masculinity is a core example. Being condescending isn't a gendered behavior, so they created a gendered term to blame masculinity for the behavior as to call it toxic masculinity whenever a man explains something.

Leben_ · 2019-02-14T17:29:46+00:00

It's a buzzphrase that is thrown around. But when you ask a feminist or someone who uses it what is toxic masculinity? They will spew out nonsense like "boys will be boys" and so on. But more likely they'll have no answer or spew a bunch of illogical statements that apply to both genders.

There's no toxic masculinity or femininity. There are toxic people.

Razorbladekandyfan · 2019-02-15T01:17:40+00:00

Do you think toxic femininity exists?

UsedToBeRadical · 2019-02-14T15:41:32+00:00

Toxic masculinity might as well exist, but some people blame it for even gender neutral behaviors like bullying or domestic violence, which is ridiculous.

It's just another way to promote the stereotype that only men are the violent ones.

BetterBadIdeas · 2019-02-14T19:09:05+00:00

'Toxic masculinity' is just 'original sin' by another name and serving another ideology. It's an amorphous wrong one is guilty of by default and can only feel absolved of by adopting the ideology that told them they were guilty of it in the first place.

At least when the church came up with it there were talking snakes and shit.

PowerToAnnihilate · 2019-02-14T20:14:05+00:00

Neither toxic masculinity nor femininity exist imo. Call a spade a spade. Society doesn't influence people to commit hate crimes on the other sex.

Title	A question about 'Toxic Masculinity'
Author	ChokolatFingahs
Upvotes	5
Comments	12
Date	February 14, 2019 3:32 PM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/aqkxzb/a_question_about_toxic_masculinity/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/a-question-about-toxic-masculinity.883810 https://theredarchive.com/post/883810

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