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zxcvasdyesterday at 3:21 PM5 repliesview on HN

The group of traits often described by "toxic masculinity" are overwhelmingly displayed only by males, so... it makes sense?

If you aren't someone who displays that specific bundle of traits/behaviors, I would suggest being stoic about it and not taking the term personally.


Replies

fc417fc802yesterday at 3:57 PM

If you replaced "males" in that sentence with ... well, let's be honest here, pretty much any other category, the statement would likely be deemed entirely unacceptable and the comment censored (ie [flagged][dead]) in short order.

Regardless of how the statistics for that specific set of behaviors break down my personal experience is that both the application and acceptance of such terminology (ie referring to various sets of behaviors which it might make sense to group together based on whatever metric) is highly selective in a manner that's convenient for the party expressing it. The statement is often true but the grouping superfluous, included only (seemingly) to push an agenda.

LanceHyesterday at 3:59 PM

But there is no corresponding discussion of "toxic femininity", or if there is, it is that discussion is framed as more "toxic masculinity" from the "manosphere".

It's a term used to apply guilt across all males to subvert any actual debate.

threethirtytwoyesterday at 3:45 PM

The term is overused. Females have extremely toxic behavior as well. But the term toxic feminist is not used to label them. It’s nowhere near as extreme.

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threethirtytwoyesterday at 4:42 PM

Crime is also overwhelmingly associated with race. Intelligence quotient as well. We don’t characterize race by statistical facts because we would offend the outliers.

I think it’s important to follow etiquette in common language rather then label entire minorities or groups based off of statistics.

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strkenyesterday at 5:12 PM

In this specific discussion, the traits labelled as toxic masculinity were as follows:

> You’re not allowed to feel things. Emotions make you weak. Just suck it up and power through. Bottle it up.

The person who most embodies these traits for me, in my life, is...my mum. I don't view them as exclusively toxic any more than I view them as exclusively masculine, either. Sometimes you really do just choose to hug your kids even when they were aggravating little twits five minutes ago and you're still mad at them, and that's a good thing.