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The Effects Of Toxic Masculinity On Men And Women

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Recommended: Description of toxic masculinity and how it impacts society

A prevalent cultural phenomenon called toxic masculinity compels males to conform to traditional masculine ideals and encourages damaging gender stereotypes. However, toxic masculinity impacts both men and women by perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes, limiting emotional expression, and contributing to mental health and relationship problems. Today’s writers explore the damaging effects of toxic masculinity on men and their relationships. In Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, and in Phillip Reese's article, When Masculinity Turns 'Toxic': A Gender Profile of Mass Shootings, and Matthew Cantor’s, Dude, the Patriarchy Messed Up My Life—and Yours Too, illustrate how society places expectations of strength and power on men and boys while they …show more content…

When children are young, they are taught that men and women are different. The problem with this is that it has a profound impact on the values we tend to hold dear: power, domination, and aggressiveness above empathy, caring, and teamwork in how we educate our boys to be men. Philip Reese notes that mass shooters often exhibit toxic masculinity. The author explains, “Their actions are rooted in a twisted form of masculinity, one that equates violence with power and sees women as objects to be dominated” (Reese). It's essential to recognize that toxic masculinity can have far-reaching and devastating effects. In the context of mass shootings, toxic masculinity can manifest as a desire for power and control over others, especially women, and a belief that violence is an acceptable means to achieve those ends. This can lead to tragic consequences not just for the shooter, but also for the victims and their families. It's crucial to address and challenge toxic masculinity in order to prevent such violence and create a safer and more equitable society for all. Another example of the impacts of toxic masculinity is shown in“ Dude, the Patriarchy Messed up My Life – and Yours Too”, Matthew Cantor. Toxic masculinity can affect men's mental health, Men who are unable or unwilling to meet these expectations may suffer mentally, emotionally, and physically is just one of the adverse effects. He argues, “The demand for men to be strong, dominant, and emotionless can lead to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues” (Cantor). The pressure to conform to narrow and rigid standards of masculinity can lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, as well as substance abuse and even suicide. The stigma against seeking help for mental health issues can also exacerbate the problem. It's crucial to

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When we talk about masculinity in America today we theorize that violence that happens more often than we like, from mass shootings or crime in general, including rape and murders in the real world and in the virtual thrill world of videogames and movies we find a parallel connection of masculinity as violent. Even though an overwhelming majority of violence is committed by men and boys we as americans rarely connect gender as a major key in violence. But when we lay out the plane lines about culture of violence were almost always hinting that it is a masculine trait that is a taught behavior. The modern society has conjured up the idea of the ideal man, that showing emotions is wrong but one must be charming, seeming smartish but more of an attitude of control showing that manhood has a hierarchy. Weakening the not so tough guy, society giving them labels to show they are outside of the gender binary.

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Society should not base masculinity with these traits since it is learned by observation and demonstration, and this leads men to disconnect their emotions. The author is trying to take away the blindfold on society's eyes because there is an injustice towards men and woman. These aspects of masculinity are how men are taught to be, but if we remove, eliminate, or ignore those aspects and misconceptions men will express their emotions openly without having to restrict themselves and be able to fit in society or at least feel like they are a part of the society. As you can see these views make men disconnect with their emotional side Jensen mentions this when he gives the example of his friend that worked on Wall Street and his friend described it as “coming to work as like walking into a knife fight when all the good spots along the wall were taken” (131). If we stop identifying masculinity as conquest, men would stop trying to be competitive, dominant, and even violent men might not need to always be on their guard to keep this appearance all the

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In the video clip Tough Guise 2, masculinity is a pose to male identities because of how the media is portraying them as violent, tough, strong, independent, and aggressive. These characterization of masculinity can be harmful to male because of what they have to act like in order to be seen as masculine. For instance, violence is portrayed as a masculine factor for males in the media with guns, fighting, or crime related actions. So, when younger boys see violence in video games and social media, they are going to think that it is okay to imitate that behavior in order to be seen as masculine. This can impact young boys to start violent behaviors at a very young age and get involved with illegal crimes.

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Over time, the thought patterns of many individuals mould to believe only one perception of what is morally acceptable— a perception that is completely faulty. The ideology of the male body and demeanor is only one of the many societal norms constructed by the media, and it alone can result in mental health fatalities, mass violence, or the mere elimination of self-identity whilst attempting to meet the ever-changing ideals of masculinity. The continuous and stereotypical depiction of masculinity in the media has idealized invulnerability, toughness and physical strength as the sole qualities of a ‘true man’. As a result, the complexity of masculinity is flattened, and immense pressures are placed on individuals to meet requirements that are entirely faulty. According to Katz, cultures, topics, and even genders are not one-dimensional; in order to fully comprehend the meaning the entirety of something, one must look at more than its representation in the media.

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Context Why do men feel the need to conform with toxic masculinity in American society? In American society, people tend to notice that there is a stigma surrounding the fact that men thrive off another man’s approval, being aggressive towards women, men concealing their emotions, and marginalizing certain groups. Toxic masculinity is an ever growing problem in America and can affect others around them. For example, fights and excessive drinking that are usually presented by males. Even the American Psychological Association (APA) has deemed traditional masculinity as dominant, aggressive, competitive and stoic.

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There is a lot of pressure on men in society to be manly; however, what exactly does it mean to be manly? Though many people have different opinions, a lot of them conclude that a man has to be strong and somewhat emotionless to be considered a man. This assumption can lead to Toxic Masculinity, which is “A false idea that men are expected to be as manly as possible” (The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth About 'Toxic Masculinity, 2017). Men are forced to face these assumptions not only from those around him, but also from people he might see in Media. Media reinforces Toxic Masculinity which in turn causes men to belittle women.

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