Depending on where you spend most of your time and energy,
certain terms and phrases get a definite eye roll. Don’t believe me? Go to any
non-Women and Gender studies gathering or activist rally and start talking
about White or Male privilege. At the least, you will clear a room rather
quickly. At most you will be met with extreme defensiveness, and outright
denial of the existence. The same would go for the newly popularized term,
toxic masculinity. Many people, especially those who are men, happen to shutter
at the notion that simply being a man could be toxic. People take it as an
attack on general masculinity, refusing to acknowledge the difference between
masculinity and toxic masculinity. They use this so called “attack” on
masculinity as proof that the problem isn’t really a problem with men, It’s
instead a device used by feminist to “take down the man.” This is by no
mistake. The media has by and large sought to discredit feminist and equality
activists by making the message murky and unclear and by purposefully
misunderstanding the argument. Its been a tool by those in power to accuse
feminists as “man-haters.” And this tactic has proved to be quite useful. But
what do we do when well known advocates fall for such tactics? Here is one
example of a famous, progressive minded woman, refusing to call herself a
feminist and also accusing the term ‘toxic masculinity’ of being dangerous to
you guessed it… our boys.
I hate to say it Meryl, but you missed the point.
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