Are Women Actually Propping Up Toxic Masculinity At Some Level?
In the broader societal discourse of people who watch and consume too much news stuff, there are a lot of various gender role discussions, from “What is a woman?” to toxic masculinity to how to raise boys/girls and all the rest. Most of these discussions have been around for generations, but they seem new or more forceful now just because there are so many channels and ways to consume information, so it can feel like we’re drowning in it. Plus, many people have a platform, be it LinkedIn, X, Insta, Discord, Reddit, FB, or whatever. So, the hot take ecosystem is alive and well. I make some small amount of money within it myself.
The “toxic masculinity” concept is interesting. Personally, I think we had what we’d call semantic or scope creep on the idea. At first, it was a discussion about guys like Louis C.K. and Harvey Weinstein and the worst stuff that men do. Got it. But then, over a few years, it became that everything men do can be seen as “toxic,” and that triggered a corresponding backlash whereby now you have a lot of younger men going to the right side ideologically, because that’s where this “toxicity is fake news!” narrative lives.
