Thanks for the response. I understand the need to gather groups together and find some common label to describe them. It is easier than dealing with individual failures. This sounds like a good definition. But I protest that this toxic masculinity is a dominant feature in males, or that it is always toxic. For example, throughout history, from the beginning of our time living in caves, the male was always dominant, as the male was the one who hunted for food and needed to be bigger and stronger, and this naturally led to dominance within the family. It is only in the last 100 years or so that our society has evolved so that being bigger and stronger is no longer necessary for survival, bringing women into the mainstream. So it was a survival necessity earlier, it has only become “toxic” recently.
In addition, I object that toxic masculinity is a predominant feature in males. I doubt that the percentage of males who have raped or otherwise been violent to women is all that high. But the ones who are “toxic” like this tend to repeat their behavior over and over, while most of us behave ourselves. So the “toxic” ones get the press because they committed the offenses, and that gives the appearance of predominance. Some of this comes from socialization, but much of it comes from an excess of testosterone.
I guess I am just too defensive about this. I am not misogynist, I have given the bulk of my political donations to women on Emily’s list (and was a member for years), for example, tried to encourage my girls to focus on education and shoot to be doctors, not nurses (for which I suffered no end of scorn from them), I have had great relationships with women and never sexually harassed or assaulted a woman. I have done very few things in my time that would be considered racist, and I am trying to help end racial discrimination. And I have had gay friends — that sounds trite, but I have had a lot of gay friends, close friends, and they never consider me to be homophobic. But I just discovered Medium recently, and I am becoming depressed at all the articles that label me as a racist, misogynist, homophobic bigot, simply because I am a straight White male. I don’t know how to respond to these charges, but I can’t help but protest.
