The phrase "toxic masculinity" is peak victim blaming. When women are oppressed, it's the outside forces of misogyny that are at work. When black people are oppressed, it's the outside forces of racism. When men are oppressed… it's their fault, it's "toxic masculinity" and "patriarchy" that they created themselves apparently to oppress themselves for some unknown reason.
No one calls misogyny "toxic femininity", racism "toxic blackness" or homophobia "toxic gayness", even though there are plenty of examples of "internalized misogyny/racism/homophobia". In many cases you find out that women oppress each other more than men do. There are entire subreddits, which don't get banned, where women discuss how trans women aren't real women or that you need to be a tradwife not to lose your femininity.
When other groups get oppressed, even if it's done by the members of the group itself, they just were brainwashed by external forces of the evil society. When men get oppressed, even if it's by outside forces, the society suddenly becomes perfectly just and it's these stinky men that oppress themselves, while still being infinitely powerful, for some reason.
"Toxic masculinity" doesn't work in practice at all, it's used in contradictory ways, but that's beyond the scope of this post. "Toxic masculinity" doesn't even work as an abstract concept, the phrase is constructed to suggest that the hardships men face are in some magical way completely internal, it's pure gaslighting and victim blaming.
No one calls misogyny "toxic femininity", racism "toxic blackness" or homophobia "toxic gayness", even though there are plenty of examples of "internalized misogyny/racism/homophobia". In many cases you find out that women oppress each other more than men do. There are entire subreddits, which don't get banned, where women discuss how trans women aren't real women or that you need to be a tradwife not to lose your femininity.
When other groups get oppressed, even if it's done by the members of the group itself, they just were brainwashed by external forces of the evil society. When men get oppressed, even if it's by outside forces, the society suddenly becomes perfectly just and it's these stinky men that oppress themselves, while still being infinitely powerful, for some reason.
"Toxic masculinity" doesn't work in practice at all, it's used in contradictory ways, but that's beyond the scope of this post. "Toxic masculinity" doesn't even work as an abstract concept, the phrase is constructed to suggest that the hardships men face are in some magical way completely internal, it's pure gaslighting and victim blaming.
