Does Toxic Masculinity Exist?
There is a big debate and discussion around the term toxic masculinity. So does it actually exist and what does it represent? In this article we will read about the different kinds of masculinities and how toxic masculinity affects its recipients.
Is there one type of masculinity?
A very interesting fact is that there are many types of masculinities that are expressed in different and various environments. There has been a major discussion around how men communicate with women, but there is actually little to no research around the way men communicate with eachother. In each and every external environment, men are required to develop different communication and expression skills that are described as varying masculinities.
For example, when men are trying to flirt with women, usually, they communicate in a more delicate and friendly way, in order to gain their attention and their interest. This is one type of masculinity. On the other hand, in men’s groups, men tend to express their feelings and thoughts in a more vernacular way, in order to engane in the conversation and create new friendships. That’s also another way of how the term “masculinity” is expressed.
What is Toxic Masculinity?
Toxic masculinity is the worst case of how stereotypes can form men into toxic creatures that depend on power and dominance, in order to feel good about themselves. This can have a bad effect, especially, to their female partners.
Toxic masculinity can be expressed through physical or emotional abuse and can even lead to what we call femicides (a type of homocide), in which men, after years of abusing their female partners, do actually murder them. It’s also proven that toxic environments are more prominent in gay couples than lesbian couples. That explains why the term is called toxic masculinity and not toxicity in general.
Toxic masculinity can be found in more conservative countries, where men are expected to be way more powerful than women and also women are seen as objects rather than equal human beings.
In conclusion, we can agree on two things:
- Masculinities are varying types of male behavior that are not bad and are formed in different social environments.
- Toxic Masculinity, on the other hand, is the worst and most stereotypical kind of masculinity, in which, men feel powerful and dominant only when they abuse -in different ways- others and especially women.
