Toxic masculinity: Will the 'war on men' only backfire?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Dr Michael Flood, an associate professor in sociology at the University of Wollongong who researches gender, sexuality and violence, suggests the term 'toxic masculinity' has two main uses in modern discussions about men's changing gender roles.

"The first is emphasising how masculinity is patriarchal — based on entitlement, based on power, based on dominance — and fuels some men's violence and mistreatment of women or indeed other men," said Dr Flood.

"Overlapping with that is another use of the term to [highlight] the ways masculinity constrains men's own lives, health, relationships and so on."
...
He is also not surprised by the lashing out against it — it's a predictable response, he said, to "any kind of critique of traditional masculinity or men's mistreatment of women".

But he also views it as an opportunity.

"I think some men push back [against the idea of toxic masculinity] because they don't hear the message of hope and support that is in that critique ... that men themselves will benefit from abandoning toxic masculinity.

"And so I think there is a whole lot more that could be done productively with the language of toxic masculinity and the insights it suggests," he said.

"There have been bits and pieces of this kind of work going on" — for example, the Male Champions of Change program implemented by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.

"But it's not at scale and there is nowhere near enough of a widespread community conversation around how we socialise boys and men."'

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Comments

"...go peddle your papers somewhere else."

The bulk of men including myself have no backlash reaction. We just see it for what it is and ignore it. If some guys want to play along, they can. Up to them. Thing about men is that unless it's a matter of absolute necessity (as in wartime), we don't tend to march in lock-step, line up in rows, and obey whatever. Well, at least not men in America, anyway. It's a cultural as well as gender thing.

The typical man in the US looks at it, laughs, chalks it up to another feminist creeping harassment, which we are used to, and we go on about our business. Pisses people off but too bad for them.

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