Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums Sexism & Patriarchy What are the methods through which toxic masculinity is propagated?

6 replies, 6 voices Last updated by 038 deepika Singh 2 years, 1 month ago
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    Yash Tiwari
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    Toxic masculinity is the way most men are taught to act by society, even if no one told them to do so. Society often teaches men not to show their emotions, and that being aggressive or dominant means being a “manly” man. Toxic masculinity seems to be mainly propagated through social expectations, as well as through media content targeted towards straight men. It is also present in the ways that women are portrayed, and the way that members of other groups are sometimes mocked and stigmatized. A study on toxic masculinity by the sociologist Michael Kimmel suggests that contemporary masculinity is a product of socialization and that men learn it from the beginning in their childhood, as well as the essentialist view of gender differences attribute to humans the natural features associated with maleness.

    The methods through which people are socialized into toxic masculinity are threefold. The first method is through the so-called “selfish culture”. What I mean by that is that the values of this culture, such as the need to be more successful than others, only care about oneself without regard for others, etc., emphasize traits that correlate with toxic masculinity. These are characteristics that allow a man to be successful in a competitive or dog-eat-dog environment. The culture of toxic masculinity is most commonly propagated through the family structure and the entertainment industry. In many cases, children are unconsciously taking in this type of behavior as they interact with their fathers, brothers, authority figures and through the media they consume.

    Toxic masculinity is bad for everyone men are forced into rigid roles, men are often hurt by other men (and sometimes women), and women are often blamed for men’s abusive behavior. It’s part of a larger cycle that reinforces patriarchal structures while also putting pressure on the gender non-conforming and those who don’t believe in traditional gender roles. There are a couple of ways that toxic masculinity can be spread, especially online. It can be spread through memes shared on Facebook or through posts from social media accounts, such as Twitter. Toxic Masculinity can also follow certain ideologies and be propagated by interactions among people in groups. As a result, there are several hostile groups online that perpetuate the behaviors of toxic masculinity. Imagine a 10-year-old boy who sees his father as the primary breadwinner because his mother is a homemaker.

    Toxic masculinity is so pervasive it’s likely most people have absorbed it in some form. Men are trained to identify themselves through the eyes of others, to be emotionally detached and physically tough, to be unemotional yet sexually aggressive and dominant, and to live up to a certain idea of what it means to be a man. Toxic masculinity has been used as a concept to describe the behavior of abusers, profiled by psychologists and criminologists in cases of violent crime. But it has also been used to explain the psychological influences on other men who witness this behavior perpetrated by others and yet still fail to speak out.

    Manpreet Singh
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    America was a prime illustration throughout the last four years, of a contemporary civilization under Donald Trump’s dictatorial rule. Authoritarian is a form of toxic masculinity, as we mentioned earlier. He readily fits into the popular stereotype of a real, powerful ‘man’ who is characterized by his success, a lack of support for minorities, and all-embracing misogyny (Messerschmidt & Bridges, 2017). He described himself routinely as a superior success for minority groups as Trump was in a position of power. This is why he attracts his fans, the majority-white and supportive of his harsh laws supporting poisonous male customs (Messerschmidt & Bridges, 2017). Furthermore, Trump failed to demonstrate significant concern about the pandemic by pushing the economy to reopen its various components. This demonstrated his covetousness for money to continue capitalism, another feature of hegemony (Messerschmidt & Bridges, 2017).
    Despite the current pandemic, men are more likely than women to commit suicide. They prefer to disguise vulnerabilities, disregard themselves, and are unwilling to seek medical or professional assistance. Toxic masculinity limits the ability of males to seek support and communicate their feelings and leads to a high suicide rate (Smalley et al., 2005). Not only men with toxic male characteristics but also women who are exploited in the same misogynous context face mentee dissuasion. If women are in the workplace, they defy men’s domination in the workplace. This results in an imbalance in society, which often results in men displaying misogynous behaviors such as sexist remarks, unequal wages, and conventional harassment (The Atlantic, 2016). With America leaning recently toward powerful women, we thought of how to teach young men and boys to respect women from an early age. The effect of having a female coach in a toxic men’s sport environment has been established by Madsen and Farrell (2018). We hope that you will start to build your own ideas on how we can change the paradigm so that toxic masculinity does not become mainstream. The challenges in social culture, such as power, mental health, and misogyny, are currently linked to toxic men. Some people strive to make a difference, however. For one thing, in an effort to standardize qualities that are inconsistent with traditional male standards Gillette (2018) made an advertisement. It demonstrates how we as individuals can start normalizing emotional and empathetic males and strive to stigmatize that man as ‘gay’ or ‘feminine.’

    Semantee Chattopadhyay
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    Masculinity refers to the performed behaviours attributed to manhood. Toxic masculinity refers to a subset of violent, destructive or oppressive behaviour was performed in an attempt to live up to a mythological idea of masculinity. Let’s take Batman, for example, he is intelligent, self-sacrificing and dedicated to justice. Some of his behaviour is toxic. His aggression, emotional detachment from the misogynistic control over women are all forms of toxic masculinity. It’s not that all men are toxic but their behaviour can be. Everyone is capable of these behaviours. One reason this exists because we have a problem with our cultural definition of what a real man is. Manhood is framed in opposition to womanhood. So toxic view of masculinity sees anything feminine as a threat to masculinity. Boys attitude young age to a be aggressive, competitive and strong at all costs. Receive this played out whenever a boy is bullied for being weak because they’ve was crying or expressing emotions. So toxic li masculine behaviour occurs when a man feels the need to defend or assert this unhealthy idea of masculinity. This can double down on toxic behaviour such as denial of feelings, verbal abuse and physical or sexual violence. In our patriarchal society masculinity is valued over femininity. Masculine presenting people are encouraged to show domination over women and feminine presenting people can be displayed in the form of sexual objectification, possessiveness and predatory behaviour. There is also a dangerous sense of entitlement that comes from the narrative saying that the more masculine you are the more entitled you are to respect, power, a job and sex. When women disagree or say no, aggression anger or violence can follow because there tonight what is owed to this masculine power. This toxic sense of entitlement contributes to the rampant rape culture in this country.

    DISHA SAPKALE
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    Toxic masculinity means men are asked to behave in a certain way which people are following from old times like men need to be strong, they can’t express their emotions, they are aggressive, etc. This all things men need to follow under the society cultural and norms pressure. The cause of the toxic masculinity is the traditional stereotypes of men which has the characteristics to be a man like showing no emotions, aggression, low empathy, controlling others, dominating and what not. Due to the toxic masculinity it mostly suffer women’s because of the violence and aggression of the men. From old times, the society has the cultural and norms that men should not show their emotions and weakness instead of that to be an man they need to be aggressive and dominate others which is wrong because of the teaching of childhood that don’t show emotions and be a man like by been aggression than the mindset of the men will be obviously toxic masculinity due to which it will suffer others. In some session or parts of media and television, women are portrayed in such a way that men are dominating women and showing aggression or hatred towards women. We can also see that from very small age boys don’t have any knowledge about the personality or what are certain way to behave but they are used to taught to be a man and behave like being ruling and don’t be expressive. Toxic masculinity mainly affects the mental and physical health of the person. It also affects women because if women argue for herself in certain situations than the aggression takes place which leads to violence which is not acceptable. There should be prevention of toxic masculinity and it will happen, when people will stop teaching to boys from childhood to behave in certain ways to be an man.

    PALAK KASHIV
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    Masculinity means is one of the attributes of man, in simple showing manhood with pride in the society it becomes toxic when there is no need of showing masculinity for just sake of being able to birth as man, people have very wrong stereotypes of man, man is strong, they can dominate the society, they are the support system of the family, a real man never shows their emotions these notions sometimes can be toxic to another gender of the society, everywhere we go man gets the first preference when the women try to enter in the conversation man asked them to stay outlet man to man have a conversation and sort the disputes even if there is no requirement of masculinity. It is taught to males from when they are small that you cannot cry like a girl you be a man that thought sticks with the child for a lifetime and they pass on it to other generation. Toxic masculinity is not good for anyone it only leads to rigidness and disputes and a man becomes selfish; they even have abusive behavior which by the time becomes a habit. Even the media need to change this when they are filming any commercial or show. Toxic behavior includes extra possessiveness towards females, objectifying their dressing style how they get ready. Try to normalize men expressing their emotions publicly and try to show gender-neutral behavior. A man’s ego should not hurt if women say no to something you value their choice. Many males need to control their anger issues and rage inside them because can be harmful to them as well as for another person.

    038 deepika Singh
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    Toxic masculinity is another extension of gender stereotypes where a man is expected to behave in a certain way so that he is ‘manly enough ‘ to be called a man. I believe that masculinity is not a bad thing but forcing it upon people and making it toxic becomes a issue that needs to be addressed. The traits of toxic masculinity forces a person to be emotionally and physically tough. Men are supposed to be strong and dominating by fighting back in all kinds of situations. They are not supposed to ‘cry like a girl’ or show any signs of emotions normally associated with women because being emotional and affectionate poses a threat to toxic masculinity. They are excused from giving any meaningful apology or having an effective conversation just because it is against the rules of masculinity.

    It’s hard to point out a single cause of toxic masculinity, largely because its concept varies across different places, cultures, religion and classes. But one thing is clear – toxic masculinity is not only harmful for others but also for men on whom it is forced upon. Adhering to toxic masculinity can lead to a man bottling up his emotions for years in turn experiencing several health and anger issues. Men are less likely to see a doctor when necessary out of fear of appearing weak and vulnerable. They often fail to seek help from their friends and elders.
    While toxic masculinity definitely has effects on individuals, it can also have larger societal impacts. Heinous crimes such as rape, sexual assault, violence are encouraged through toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity is a issue of concern and needs to be acknowledged and this can only be done when we put an effort to avoid assigning certain characteristics to specific gender identities.

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