Is there such a thing as toxic masculinity?

MayCaesar

As I understand it, femininity is the gentle, caring side of a person, and masculinity is the direct, forceful side of them. Both masculinity and femininity are present in everyone, and both are essential for living in a human society. Women tend to be much more feminine and much less masculine than men, but it is not a hard law.

I suppose you could call "toxic masculinity" that supremacist behavior some individual exhibit, where they make it a point to always be straight and to the point, but end up doing it in a rude way. My granddad was a bit like that: he would always say horrible things about others and justify it by "always speaking the truth" - but the "truth" he had to say was pretty terrible.

Similarly, there should be "toxic femininity", which I would define as use of feminine charm to manipulate people. Those individuals who act all nice and caring, but end up actually only caring about what they can get from you ("gold diggers" would be an example), are quite toxic in their behavior.

Note that in the last two paragraphs I did not say anything about genders. Again, masculinity and femininity are present in all human beings. Due to biological differences, societal conditioning and, perhaps, some other factors, different traits tend to be prevalent in different genders. But it is important to always judge the particular individual for the traits specific to them and not make assumptions based on the general pattern the group that person belongs to tends to exhibit.

itsnicolemate

@MayCaesar Again. Another great argument. I agree with you yeah. Toxic femininity is becoming more apparent especially in places like brizzy and other large cities and so because they are being perceived as toxic they are putting more shame on the masculinity and everyday acts of men. So that’s pretty much my view.

Plaffelvohfen

I think there are toxic people, regardless of their gender...