How do you feel about the term “toxic masculinity” ?

Retstortion · 2018-10-12T18:26:09+00:00

It’s a shaming tactic by feminists

perfectdisguise22 · 2018-10-12T18:40:50+00:00

Made up term to label actions some women dislike “toxic.”

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2018-10-12T18:36:24+00:00

I love it.

It rapidly identifies people who aren't going to be helpful/ameniable to discussing men's rights.

stonewall1979 · 2018-10-12T20:18:30+00:00

Honestly it doesn't bother me. What I'm scared of though is how it will change our culture and how it's going to affect my son. He's going to be 7 soon and I'm scared that no matter how good a job I do as his father, he's going to have a much more difficult life because of the BS that's happening now.

Being a good dad is hard. Being a good, single Dad with 50% custody and parent time, feels overwhelming.

I have a 5 year old daughter too, and I'm scared for her because of all of this. That she won't find a decent man when she's older because our cultural climate today is hurting out daughters too.

yomamaisanicelady · 2018-10-12T18:28:23+00:00

I’m not going to stop working out just because some fat person doesn’t want to get off their couch. I’m not saying I’m better than them, but them calling my masculinity toxic makes no difference to me.

PowerToAnnihilate · 2018-10-12T20:00:52+00:00

It only exists because there is a fetish with the word toxic as of late...

bonus: the phrase toxic blackness or toxic femininity would be construed as racist or sexist. Its a way to make masculinity be seen as a bad thing (oh wow, its NONtoxic masculinity, gold star)

RDMgardy · 2018-10-12T18:37:34+00:00

I think its funny

Reptilian_Brain_420 · 2018-10-12T21:00:22+00:00

Same way I feel about the term "newspeak"

Tedesche · 2018-10-12T22:03:10+00:00

It’s a term feminists use to disguise their desire to change culture to mold men more to feminist desires as an attempt to help men.

It’s also used to lay many social ills at the feet of men, such as rape, mass murder, racism, and crime in general.

So basically it’s just their newest tool for criticizing men as a gender—something they call sexist when done to women.

ifelsedowhile · 2018-10-12T22:26:27+00:00

I have two problems with it:

1) It's too loosely defined to the point of having little meaning since everything and everyone could be included in it, from a ghetto thug to an overstressed white collar husband with no criminal record.

2) Women play a major role in promoting overcompetition and lack of emotional release in men since they place certain expectations on us and they don't seem to give up on those expectations or they are not encouraged to change their preferences in a partner by feminist media and the same feminist media don't address the responsibility of women.

LedZeppelin1602 · 2018-10-13T00:42:02+00:00

I believe the theory has some merit as men should be encouraged to express their emotions but the term is incorrect.

For one there's no contrasting toxic femininity to discuss ways women hold women back, secondly it purports that masculine norms and male behaviour prevents men from opening up emotionally but In my opinion men learn not to open up emotionally because society and women don't want to hear it.

When men open up emotionally they're seen as less in control by their girlfriends and wives and less desirable. When people who use the term toxic masculinity they often refer to men letting out the "right" emotions, which are on the feminine spectrum not the male spectrum, male-majority emotions like aggression is spoken of as an inherently bad thing but aggression like competitiveness can and are used in a constructive way as much if not more than in a negative way but are labelled toxic masculine norms, this can In my opinion also apply to "toxic" phrases like "man up", sure this can be used to dismiss men and devalue a boys experience and not listen to boys or men by way of telling them to "walk it off" but depending on the context and tone this can be used to encourage boys and men to overcome hurdles and persevere and in short grow an thick skin and become strong-willed to face a demanding world.

Anytime mens issues are brought up its seen as taking away from women. Society favours helping women more than men and men learn this subconsciously if not conciously so learn not to speak up about emotions and when Kavanaugh expressed emotions they were used against him by women and the media further teaching men that society doesn't care abut mens emotions.
So the idea that is masculinity at fault for men not opening up in the correct way about the right emotions is to me disingenuous as there's more to it than that.

Also there's never any talk of positive masculinity only toxic masculinity and as such it seems a tactic to infer that all masculinity is toxic

dmfreelance · 2018-10-13T01:09:47+00:00

use of the term completely ignores the fact that women contribute to "toxic masculinity". It completely ignores the fact that in some cases, men are even the primary victims of 'toxic masculinity'.

It's a term coined by a bunch of women who are incapable of empathizing with what men go through on a day to day basis.

iainmf · 2018-10-13T05:04:54+00:00

I think it is telling that plenty of men object to the term and people still use it. When men display 'healthy masculinity' and express their feelings of hurt, or distaste, or some other negative reaction to the term 'toxic masculinity' the response is often essentially "I don't care about your feelings, get back in line".

Why isn't the response to objections "I'm sorry, I think of a better way to express myself that isn't so hurtful"?

Razorbladekandyfan · 2018-10-13T18:46:03+00:00

I prefer to talk about Gynocentrism and terms that are will help understand the situation of men.

BetterBadIdeas · 2018-10-15T20:57:41+00:00

The claim is always that "toxic masculinity" is not an attack on masculinity but toxic aspects of it...which begs the question of toxic femininity. If one is not attacking men as a whole, as is claimed, then one must have examples of toxicity on the other side of the equation, lest they be claiming inherent moral superiority, and therefore attacking masculinity, contrary to their claim.

Of course I have yet to see any feminists willing to aknowledge the existence of or put a definition to "toxic femininity"...which tells you pretty much everything you need to know on this topic.

redavid · 2018-10-12T19:58:21+00:00

It's annoying that so many people seem to conflate 'toxic masculinity' with 'masculinity'.

Title	How do you feel about the term “toxic masculinity” ?
Author	reanimatedjimjones
Upvotes	7
Comments	19
Date	October 12, 2018 6:25 PM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/9nmrjy/how_do_you_feel_about_the_term_toxic_masculinity/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/how-do-you-feel-about-the-term-toxic-masculinity.1184451 https://theredarchive.com/post/1184451

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