Toxic Masculinity has been a hot topic among many individuals lately. With the rise of LGBT acceptance and the forefront of gender norms being challenged, a lot of people have been swaying away from how they are told to behave. Before I get into anything, let me just explain what toxic masculinity is defined as. Toxic Masculinity is adherence to traditional male gender roles that restrict the kinds of emotions allowable for boys and men to express, including social expectations that men seek to be dominant (the “alpha male”) and limit their emotional range primarily to expressions of anger. Toxic Masculinity is a cultural concept of manliness that glorifies stoicism, strength, virility, and dominance, and that is socially maladaptive or harmful to mental health. Toxic Masculinity perpetuates an archaic and dangerous definition of what a man is and it continues to affect how men interact with each other, how involved they are in the upbringing of their children, how they treat women in their lives, and how they come to terms with their own emotions and sexuality. Now please understand that Toxic Masculinity and Masculinity are two different things. One thing many opposers of toxic masculinity like to say is that it is an attack on masculinity and that is most certainly not the case. Masculinity exemplifies confidence, responsibility, competitiveness, protectiveness, leadership, and many other characteristics that are great for both men and woman to have. Masculinity becomes Toxic when traits such as violence, sexism, homophobia, sexual conquest and a pursuit of social status becomes the dominating forces in an individual’s personality.

So why does toxic masculinity exist? Toxic masculinity is perpetuated onto boys at an early age. With the popularization of terms such as “boys will be boys,” “boys don’t cry” and “man up,” from an early adolescence boys are taught to repress their emotion and that violence and anger are justifiable. Societal gender norms help intensify toxic masculinity by teaching men that in order to be a “man,” you must fit into what society defines a man to be. This causes disastrous affects to the livelihood of men due to men in the US representing 80% of arrests for violent crime, 97% of arrests for mass shooting, 98.9% of those arrested for forcible rape, 87.9% of those arrested for robbery and many more. Toxic masculinity can also be incredibly deadly because men die by suicide 3.5x more often than woman. Male gender roles tend to emphasize greater levels of strength, independence, risk-taking behavior, economic status, and individualism. Reinforcement of this gender role often prevents males from seeking help for suicidal feelings and depression which can ultimately lead to suicide.

Toxic Masculinity is not a joke or an attack on a man’s manhood. Toxic Masculinity is a real universal problem that needs to be better understood or we will continue living in a society that puts men at a standard of “manhood” that is damaging to their mental and physical health and for society as a whole. Until we are able to attack this societal ideals that men are unrealistically expected to achieve, violence, homophobia, sexism, rape and many other problematic acts will continue to plague society for as long as we know it.