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‘Toxic masculinity’ is toxic terminology — The Centre for Male Psychology (www.centreformalepsychology.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As I psychologist, I’m concerned about mental health, especially the mental health of men and boys because it’s been overlooked for so long. Because there was so little interest in how much the negative discourse around masculinity impacts boys, my colleagues and I ran a survey. We found that around 85% of respondents thought the term ‘toxic masculinity’ is insulting, and probably harmful to boys.

My latest research has just been published. It assessed the views of over 4000 men in the UK and Germany, and found that thinking masculinity is bad for your behaviour is linked to having worse mental wellbeing. [... And] positive views of masculinity are linked to better mental wellbeing.

This is why we oppose the usage of the term toxic masculinity and any negative generalizations of men as a gender.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (8 children)

The change in terminology is telling

For women, we didn’t use “toxic femininity”, we used “sexist gender expectations and roles”

Why the sudden need to change, as soon as men are the subject?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I don't think someone needs to be particularly antifeminist to see that mainstream discussion of gender has tended to "other" men, placing men and boys in an oppressor category, ignoring how the discussion might affect them, or genuinely blind to that reality.

While it's true that the term was coined during men's movements of the 80s/90s, it had a different contextual meaning then: more like a counterfeit male code to be contrasted with the idea of a true "deep" masculinity. Apart from that difference, the reality is that most men and boys are not part of a today's "conversation" about masculinity, but instead feel like it is being imposed on them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's why I only bring up toxic masculinity in a group of other men where I can explain what I'm talking about. The general perception is it's just something to blame men for.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I suggest you use the terminology "harmful gender expectations" it's a bit more of a mouthful and it's less catchy. But then again the reason "toxic masculinity" is catchy is because it creates a strong negative emotional reaction in a discussion that should be intellectual or empathetic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You can suggest whatever you like, feminists will continue to use "toxic masculinity" because feminists like that it's a misandrist slur with a definition that can't be pinned down. They are hypersensitive to word choice and continue to use this because it a cheap and easy way to disparage men in general and excuse >any< behavior of women.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Right but that wasn't its original intention, before feminists got ahold of it. I generally lead those conversations with "simping is an example of toxic masculinity." Cue reeeing from feminists, but w/e

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