Toxic masculinity should not be normalized

Nowadays, toxic masculinity has become normal in the public. In many ways, “manhood” like “womanhood”, comes with conventional boundaries in the world. Society has developed certain expectations for men to prove their masculinity and in order to fit into gender norms. However,by normalizing toxic masculinity it might affect men’s mental health and to the whole society.    

       Masculinity in of itself, is not toxic. This is a cultural phenomenon where masculinity might take to the extreme and become a weapon. Toxic masculinity- refers to the dominant form of masculinity wherein male community use violence, dominance and control to assert their power and superiority. To be clear, behaviors that could tell that the masculinity is toxic are extreme self-reliance (the need to do everything on their own), shame, disassociation and avoidance of emotional expression or vulnerability, aspiration for physical, sexual and intellectual dominance, devaluation of women’s opinions, body, sense of self to the point where men feel validated in their abusive behavior, condemning anything feminine within another men or homophobia. Research has shown that, men who embody traits of toxic masculinity are more likely to experience serious mental issues as aggression, depression, stress, body image issues, substance abuse, poor social function. For example, traditionally, from the young age boys are taught to "man up”, “toughen up" when hurt or facing challenges. Then, most of the boys will suppress their emotions and feel shame for showing emotional vulnerability, which will lead to the conclusion that the only acceptable emotion for boys are anger and rage. The "man up" attitude matures to the rejection of empathy towards other people and assuming nurturing impulses as "weak”. Ignoring your pain and filling the gap by pushing yourself to exercise or train. Embracing unhealthy style, unhealthy diet, dangerous sports and being encouraged toward excessive drug and alcohol use, strive to be the breadwinner of the family, not asking for help as it could show fragility and ridicule. To articulate that, the"WOOD TV8” showed a guy who used to struggle with a loss of his brother (he died by suicide 4 years ago because of broken heart). "It was easy for me to say okay, I am having an extra drink, then the extra would turn into a two extra drink"said him. Also, important to mention that he experienced isolation, “I would never talk to anybody”. Later, it was found that he put down the bottle and picked up therapy. "Men in my circle, never taught to explore siding what mental health experts called toxic masculinity" said him. Studies show that in year before they killed themselves, only 25 percent of men saw a mental- health practitioner, while 68 percent of women did. Besides, Omni health center admits that, toxic masculinity- is a barrier to mental health treatment for men who have internalized views of masculinity, they are even less likely to go to see their doctor, but they are also less likely to be honest about their health history and symptoms. Essential part to mention, most of the men are unwilling to get treatment for addiction due to the fact that the public view it as a sign of weakness which will lead to drug overdose. Consequently, as we see all of this convictions and stereotypes will bring mental and physical damage, anxiety, stress, depression, trauma, isolation, drug overdose and even suicide.Suicide statistic rate translates one suicide every 40 seconds and there is a significance between genders. The number of suicides is much higher among males than females across all age groups in the world. Additional question is, if toxic masculinity would have not exist within society norms and asking for help or going to the therapy for men would have been considered as something “brave”, will the suicide rate remain on the same numbers ?.  

          As I mentioned above, toxic masculinity does not have an impact only to the men’s mental health, but to the whole society. Social impacts are evident when examining rates of violence, drug-related crime, anti-social behaviors, drug overdoses.

One of the ways it affects society is that it encourages and leads to violence. Aggression as well as violence can occur when a man feels he has failed to live up to society’s conventional expectations of masculinity or when he is trying to assert his dominance and masculinity or when it comes to  sexual aggression toward women, men who have influenced by toxic masculinity  are more entitled to believe they’re entitled to women’s bodies, leading to sexual comments and harassment toward women and a higher likelihood of believing rape myths as it confirms “WebMD” Daily Newsletter. On top of that, different studies confirm that rigid gender norms regarding roles, marriage and family contribute to male’s use of violence against female partners, and that when men make an assumption about themselves and see themselves as not “masculine enough” intimate partner violence or emotional abuse may be used to conform those gendered expectations. For example, every October, specifically for Domestic Violence Awareness month, the Violence Policy Center releases its “When Men Murder Woman” study, an accurate analysis of that year’s homicide data. While examining murders of women committed by men, the 2020 study found that 1,604 of 1,801 female homicide victims (89%) were killed by a man they knew and 60% of victims who knew their murderer were intimate partners or ex-partners, another study shows that 2,022 homicides involved a single female victim and a single male perpetrator, 61% of victims were killed by a gun.   Furthermore, most often, women were killed during an argument. For a long moment this sort of sexual harassments that are performed by men has been considered an excusable part of their nature in our society or they are just “boys being boys”. It is easy to observe, that sexual harassment has even become a coping mechanism for some men. Similarly, adding anti-social behavior would be appropriate to this section. Men are more likely to engage

In anti-social behavior than females, due to toxic masculinity and accountability for actions. As a result, unhealthy or harmful masculine attitudes will lead to physical assault others because of a perceived insult that might not have been an insult.

Another issue is drug-related crime. The majority of incarcerated people in the United States are male. Most people serving time in corrections facilities are people of color raised in low-income households. Shockingly, most men enter the prison system for drug-related crimes.

Many individuals are in dire need of mental health, anger, domestic violence, or sex offender treatment. Experts believe that studies of toxic masculinity and associated “man power” will provide insight into incarceration and drug-related crime rates as it says Green Hill Recovery.

“I know I am not the only person who let his toxic ideas about what it means to be a man destroy his own humanity” said Peter Sierra in Prison Journalism Project. He wrote that he stabbed a man seven times across his torso for an act he perceived as disrespectful and for as long as he remembers, he had not treated himself well. After, he asked himself “I subjected myself to countless incarcerations and attempted many murders just to satisfy the need to prove my manhood and what did that mean?”. Men turn violent over ideas of manhood and bravado.

To conclude, Normalising toxic masculinity does not only directly impact on men’s mental, physical health. But, to the whole society itself.