@i-am-insane said in Sex Objects:
@kisupure
shrug
There’s a reason it’s called toxic masculinity, after all. Men aren’t supposed to have ‘feelings’, only pride.
Oh, dear. That phrase never should have escaped the sociology courses it was invented in.
Academic rant incoming…
Sorry if I am misinterpreting your post, but it sounds like you’re saying that masculinity is called toxic by that phrase.
Toxic masculinity is supposed to be a subset of masculinity. The phrase isn’t supposed to suggest that men are toxic. It’s about how men are a victim of the patriarchy, too, just in different ways than women.
Toxic masculinity is, indeed, the traits you’re taught by the patriarchy (including by traditional culture and traditional religions) that reduce you to nothing more than status, violence, and sex. “Boys will be boys.” “Boys don’t cry.” “Suck it up.” “Stop talking about your feelings, what are you, a girl?”
That bullshit. Locker room crap. Dehumanizing to all men.
It was described by sociologists as a thing that men can get past, for their own good, and for everybody’s good, because men more in touch with their feelings, and more confident about themselves as caregivers, would make themselves much happier, and, in theory also reduce the amount of destructive interactions they would have with each other and with women.
It’s really sad that men’s rights activists nowadays are just scumbags who hate women. There was a brief moment in the '80s, around the time this phrase was invented, when men started a men’s liberation movement to try to teach each other to get over this harmful cultural programming. But then the internet came around and ruined that.
What would be an alternative masculinity? A positive masculinity? Great question. I’m sure you have ideas there.
There is a self-help group of men who focus on this a lot, called the Mankind Project. I have a friend who swears by it. There are also some mainstream authors like Michael Ian Black who explore this.
Wow, we get deep here, in the forum about science fiction fetishes.