Toxic masculinity has been defined as “the constellation of socially regressive [masculine] traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence” (Kupers, 2005, p. 71). In Man Enough: Fathers, Sons, and the Search for Masculinity (1993), family therapist Frank Pittman argues that men who lack adequate fathering pursue unrealistic cultural images of masculinity and feel a constant need to prove their manhood. It exempts the men who participate in the labeling from self-examination. These psychologists posited toxic masculinity as culturally normative but curable through engaging men with fatherhood, positing an essentialist notion of masculine emotional development. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Since 2016, a notable number of media stories used “toxic masculinity” in discussions of U.S. President Trump and the #MeToo movement to describe the poor behavior of powerful white elite men in contrast to its earlier applications to marginalized men. I’ve been teaching and studying gender-based violence since around the year 2000. Some society journals require you to create a personal profile, then activate your society account, You are adding the following journals to your email alerts, Did you struggle to get access to this article? Y1 - 2019. The term “toxic masculinity” has been around for decades, a description depicting an interpretation of what it is like to be “a man.” The Good Men Project has defined it this way: “Toxic masculinity is a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status, and aggression. It exempts the men who participate in the labeling from self-examination. N2 - Australian cinema's depiction of male-on-male rape offers a lens for understanding homosociality, erasure and justice within Australia and other jurisdictions. I’ve caught myself using it as a shorthand: I understand that its appeal lies in its ability to summon a recognizable character type. “But our study shows how toxic masculinity also has detrimental consequences for the men who subscribe to these ideals. Toxic Masculinity archetypes, when presented alone without any comparable context, are also toxic archetypes. Recent theorizations of inclusive masculinities suggest shifts away from homophobia and misogyny especially among white, masculine elites. JMM presents peer-reviewed empirical and theoretical scholarship grounded in the most current theoretical perspectives within gender studies, including feminism, queer theory and multiculturalism. Denials are strenuous. 3, July 2017. James Messerschmidt (2010) and Betül Ekşi (2017) have both shown how male elites can bolster their power by condemning toxically masculine men. http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju62441.000/hju62441_0f.htm, http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Families-Research-programme.aspx, https://www.oecd.org/els/family/babiesandbosses-reconcilingworkandfamilylifeasynthesisoffindingsforoecdcountries.htm, Dollahite, D. C., Marks, L. D., Olsonm, M. M. (. What agenda (s) does the term serve? If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. The ad challenges viewers to confront #MeToo and issues of “toxic masculinity” that manifest in acts like bullying and catcalling. Bryant Sculos (2017) describes Kupers’ (2005) article as providing one “of the most prominent scholarly usages of the concept.” My survey of feminist articles published since 2016 confirmed the popularity of Kupers’ (2005) use as a subset (Parent, Gobble, and Rochlen 2019) of hegemonic masculinity surfacing in specific contexts, such as prisons or imagined national threats. Thao challenged him to use his tech savvy to help her take on a culture of toxic masculinity that can lead to domestic abuse. I searched academic databases to learn more about toxic masculinity. The media has normalized the common phrase “boys will be boys'' to excuse and normalize harmful male behavior. I argue that the therapeutic concerns of such actors produced an individualizing discourse that sought to reform marginalized men labelled as “toxic,” because of violence, lack of engagement in family life, and employment. Indeed, toxic masculinity has become a framework for popular and scholarly understandings of the gender factor in social problems. In 2019, for the first time, the term appeared in some of my students’ essays, although I do not use it in my teaching. There are many definitions of “toxic masculinity” that appear in research as well as pop culture. I have read and accept the terms and conditions, View permissions information for this article. Ekşi (2017) shows how branches of the Turkish National Police disparaged other branches as toxically masculine, situating their own violence as “restrained.” However, neither of the Bushes nor the Turkish Police use the term “toxic masculinity”; rather, Messerschmidt and Ekşi apply it as shorthand. This literature posited that emotionally distant father-son relationships produced “toxically” masculine men. Gendered Bodies and Power Dynamics: The Relation between Toxic Masculinity and Sexual Harassment" Granite Journal: a Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Journal: Volume 3, Issue 2 pages 28-33 Journal of Social Issues, Vol. Toxic masculinity continues to appear in media and scholarship. My searches confirmed that the term had suddenly exploded into popular feminist usage: Between 1990 and 2015, texts referring to toxic masculinity never numbered above 20 a year. Toxic masculinity isn’t just about behaving like a man. The term has shaped conversations about Trumpism and the #MeToo movement (Pettyjohn et al. The articles highlight the relevance of traditional male gender norms for men and women who have served in the armed forces. the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Nevertheless, their approach of analyzing what condemnation of other men’s masculinities achieves politically seems promising. Masculinity is an area of sociology that has, since the mid-1950s, drawn on many theories,including structural functionalism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, … I then unpack feminists’ scholarly adoption of the term, highlighting the lack of conceptual clarity. These same male proclivities foster resistance to psychotherapy. Surprisingly, more than half of the top 60 returns provide no definition: the term is used descriptively, without theorization or operationalization. Many linked toxic masculinity with other disparaging labels. Bliss confirmed to me in a 2019 email that he coined the term to characterize his father’s militarized, authoritarian masculinity. Toxic masculinity is largely bullshit because the behaviors that it describes have no real relation to masculinity. article from 2005 entitled “Toxic Masculinity as a Barrier to Mental Health Treatment in Prison.” Here Kuper argues that toxic masculinity is the foremost psycho-social barrier to psychotherapy among Nevertheless, toxic masculinity increasingly appeared in academic texts after 2016. Some of the stresses and complexities of life in men's prisons are explored. Right now, what are thought of as… Toxic masculinity appears as a key term within this newly “post-femininst” popular feminist vernacular, treating sexism as a character flaw of some men. The Havok Journal is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. For more information view the SAGE Journals Article Sharing page. Toxic masculinity and violence against women are to be explored in a new film festival conceived by two Scottish charities. Masculine discrepancy stress, substance use, assault and injury in a survey of U.S. men. As an alternative, I suggest analyzing condemnations of certain forms of masculinity for their political effects. The concept of toxic masculinity is used in academic and media discussions of masculinity to refer to certain cultural norms that are associated with harm to society and to men themselves. Reference Levant, Rankin, Williams, Hasan and Smalley 2010), which is composed of five items (full wording appears in the online appendix). Open Journal of Social Sciences, 8, 419-437. doi: 10.4236/jss.2020.86032. I argue that talk of toxic masculinity provides an intriguing window into gender politics in any given context. A more recent 2017 study, which analysed toxic masculinity in Bollywood movies, found pervasive gender bias in storylines. Around the same time, feminism enjoyed renewed popularization. Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. TY - JOUR. It's also about broadening the definition of what is considered valuable. I wondered where this term had come from and why everyone was suddenly talking about it. article from 2005 entitled “Toxic Masculinity as a Barrier to Mental Health Treatment in Prison.” Here Kuper argues that toxic masculinity is the foremost psycho-social barrier to psychotherapy among Instead, it involves the extreme pressure some men may feel to act in a way that is actually harmful. More than half of those did not define it, relying on it to signal disapproval. What exactly is toxic masculinity? The current article addresses gender issues that become magnified in prison settings and contribute to heightened resistance in psychotherapy and other forms of mental health treatment. However, I take care not to use the term as a scholarly concept. “Toxic masculinity” is a relatively new buzz phrase to capture, in the contemporary moment, problematics of male behavior and masculinist beliefs. The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties. Toxic masculinity and violence against women are to be explored in a new film festival conceived by two Scottish charities. Please check you selected the correct society from the list and entered the user name and password you use to log in to your society website. Some of the stresses and complexities of life ... 714 Journal of Clinical Psychology, June 2005 Finally, I discuss feminist research that analyses how condemnation of toxic masculinity by elite men can bolster gender hegemony. Thus, we might analyze the politics behind condemnations of toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity refers to the notion that some people’s idea of “manliness” perpetuates domination, homophobia, and aggression. Following Raewyn Connell’s (1995) discussion of masculine hegemony as a field of discursive positions and practices, we can see how disavowal of toxic masculinity can serve the interests of already privileged men. Special issue of the APA journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity, Vol. Our sample has an alpha reliability of .89 between the battery components. Toxic Masculinity in Henry V . The email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check and try again. For most of that time I rarely encountered the term “toxic masculinity,” despite relying on the concept of masculinity in my research and teaching. The term “toxic masculinity” has been around for decades, a description depicting an interpretation of what it is like to be “a man.” The Good Men Project has defined it this way: “Toxic masculinity is a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status, and aggression. While Eric Anderson (2009) hails such shifts as indicating a weakening of gender hierarchies, others have argued that normative masculine disavowal of homophobia and sexism can disguise ongoing gender inequalities (Bridges & Pascoe, 2014). Thus, the toxic/healthy therapeutic understanding of masculinity carried into feminist scholarship via citation. Toxic masculinity emerged within the mythopoetic men’s movement of the 1980s, coined by Shepherd Bliss. Boys need the right kind of masculinity, the idea goes, and mothers can’t give this to them. Toxicity is centrally related to three foundational concepts introduced by the influential masculinities scholar Raewyn Connell: hegemonic masculinity, itself formulated in relation to two other expressions of the masculine, as subordinate and marginalized. Similarly, Jennifer Randles’ (2013, 869) research on the U.S. “Thriving Families” program for low-income, mostly minority, parents found it promoted heterosexual marriage and engaged fatherhood as, in the words of the program’s executive director, “a civilizing influence on men.”, The label toxic masculinity tended to be applied to marginalized men. Feminists have adopted toxic masculinity as shorthand for characterizing homophobic and misogynist speech and violence by men. While some feminist scholars use the concept, it is often left under-defined. Toxic masculinity teaches men that their identity is dependent on their ability to exert dominance over women, and a common way for men to do this is through sexual assault and harassment. 2019). The concept of toxic masculinity is used in academic and media discussions of masculinity to refer to certain cultural norms that are associated with harm to society and to men themselves. He says it became vital for him to speak on the topics of community, at-risk youth advocacy, effective criminal justice rehabilitation and turning around toxic masculinity. I was struck by the confidence with which the student referenced the term as a concept anyone would know. Nouns have obligatory adjectives. Toxic masculinity involves the need to aggressively compete and dominate others and encompasses the most problematic proclivities in men. Abstract . By continuing to browse This idea that men need to act tough and avoid showing all emotions can be harmful to their mental health and can have serious consequences for society, which is how it became known as “toxic masculinity.” Find out about Lean Library here, If you have access to journal via a society or associations, read the instructions below. Traci Brynne Voyles, Toxic Masculinity: California’s Salton Sea and the Environmental Consequences of Manliness, Environmental History, Volume 26, Issue 1, ... Elaborating on Gender Differences in Environmentalism,” Journal of Social Issues 56, no. Because the term “toxic masculinity” puts men (and women) into a bind that is inescapable and unapproachable. For more information view the SAGE Journals Sharing page. Abstract Coined in late 20th-century men’s movements, “toxic masculinity” spread to therapeutic and social policy settings in the early 21st century. The discussion proceeds to the interplay between individual male characteristics and institutional dynamics that intensify toxic masculinity. Thus, the institutional and structural privileges men accrue (what Connell terms the “patriarchal dividend”) are systematically obscured. Resistance in the age of Trump: talking about toxic masculinity ‘Men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving’ – quote from The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love – a book by bell hooks (2004) I conclude that feminists should critically analyze the meanings attributed to toxic masculinity but not assume those meanings are stable, well-conceptualized, or even feminist. Toxic masculinity involves the need to aggressively compete and dominate others and encompasses the most problematic proclivities in men. Toxic masculinity has been defined as “the constellation of socially regressive [masculine] traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence” (Kupers, 2005, p. 71). Eberly suggested that emotionally absent fathers contributed to young men’s violence and was likely a factor in the Columbine shootings: “Young men badly need to see mature masculinity modeled (sic) out. Another word tied to poisonous manhood is "hegemonic manhood." Films like these may soon come with their own disclaimers. I trace the term’s origins in late 20th-century men’s movements and its adoption by, often conservative, policy-makers, therapists, and others engaged in working with troubled/troubling men. The ad challenges viewers to confront #MeToo and issues of “toxic masculinity” that manifest in acts like bullying and catcalling. If you do not receive an email within 10 minutes, your email address may not be registered, ‘I’d Rather Have No Brains and Two Balls’: Eunuchs, Masculinity, and Power in Game of Thrones, The Traffic in Feminism: An Introduction to the Commentary and Criticism on Popular Feminism, Violence and the Gendered Negotiation of Masculinity Among Young Black School Boys in South Africa, The Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Connecting Militarism, Neoliberalism, and Multiculturalism to Understand Violence, Hybrid Masculinities: New Directions in the Sociology of Men and Masculinities, “Prepared Testimony by Don Eberly Founder, Chairman and Ceo, National Fatherhood Initiative Director, the Civil Society Project Before the House Judiciary Committee Subject—Youth Culture and Violence.” Federal News Service—Congressional Hearing Prepared Testimonies, Washington, The Myth of the Tough Men’s Burden: Reproducing a Hegemonic Masculinity at the Turkish National Police, Centre for Social and Family Research, Department of Applied Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology for the Department of Social and Family Affairs, Post-postfeminism? Women can express masculinity, just as artfully as any man, just as any man can express femininity. An Irish family policy article argued for engaging men with fatherhood so that “their wildness is tamed to the extent that they can adjust to the discipline of domestic routines and remain with their children and partners and in their families (as opposed to prison, for instance)” (Ferguson and Hogan 2004, 8). In my undergraduate course, “Reflecting on Violence,” I introduce students to the concept of masculinity and teach them that gender-based violence is historically and culturally specific, involving both structural and situational power relations. Contact us if you experience any difficulty logging in. Academic texts made up the largest proportion of returns until 2014; after 2017, returns numbered in the thousands, mostly non-academic. T1 - On a screen darkly: Outback Noir, Erasure and Toxic Masculinity. Decoding the pattern Explaining the term toxic masculinity, Dr Soumiya Mudgal, Consultant, Psychiatrist, Max Hospital, Gurugram, says, “It is male behaviour that is most aggressive. Pittman’s regular column on men’s issues in New Women Magazine may have helped popularize the term. Toxic masculinity provided a discourse for diagnosing men’s problems in the face of the gendered fall-out from deindustrialization, during which well-paid jobs in “masculine” occupational sectors disappeared while feminized service sector occupations expanded. Use the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Toxic masculinity (also referred to as “hegemonic masculinity”) is defined as a practice that legitimizes men’s dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of women. Terry Kupers’ research on men in prisons argued “toxic masculinity involves the need to aggressively compete and dominate others and encompasses the most problematic proclivities in men.…Toxic masculinity also includes a strong measure of the male proclivities that lead to resistance in psychotherapy” (Kupers 2005, 713–714). Toxic masculinity can be a difficult topic for … Sign in here to access free tools such as favourites and alerts, or to access personal subscriptions, If you have access to journal content via a university, library or employer, sign in here, Research off-campus without worrying about access issues. However, the term needs interrogating if we are to fully understand its implications. On my way home that day, I tuned into a radio interview with Clementine Ford discussing toxic masculinity as the theme of her book Boys Will be Boys. The e-mail addresses that you supply to use this service will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. Toxic masculinity can be thought of as "hyper-masculinity", with a narrow and oppressive description of masculinity defined by violence, sex, status, and aggression. I noticed that students who didn’t use it gave fuller analyses of masculinity and different forms of violence. Since 2013, feminists began attributing misogyny, homophobia, and men’s violence to toxic masculinity. The study also found that embracing toxic masculinity is self-harming. Learn about our remote access options. I surveyed 60 scholarly articles published since 2016 mentioning toxic masculinity. And it has become an easy target for conservatives calling for ‘real men’ to ‘fight back’. It appears in feminist scholarship on issues such as sexual harassment (McGinley 2018) and mass shootings (Blair 2016). In a 1990 interview, Bliss told Daniel Gross: “I use a medical term because I believe that like every sickness, toxic masculinity has an antidote” (Gross 1990, 14). The phrase toxic masculinity is reductive and deterministic, and struggles to emerge from its historic essentialist roots. Resistance in the age of Trump: talking about toxic masculinity ‘Men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving’ – quote from The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love – a book by bell hooks (2004) Might analyze the politics behind condemnations of toxic masculinity as shorthand for characterizing homophobic and misogynist and... Between individual male characteristics and institutional dynamics that intensify toxic masculinity as shorthand for homophobic... Assault and injury in a survey of U.S. men official warning against what some scholars called... Citation data to the past and individualizes sexism as a question of personal attitudes and injury in a of. Served in the labeling from self-examination dividend ” ) are systematically obscured a that... 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