Inculcated Hysteria

I saw in the news today that they are teaching young boys in grade schools that masculinity is inherently toxic; and how some college's in the US are teaching men "cuddle" therapy with their male classmates to combat toxic masculinity...

I just want to start by saying that I actually do believe that toxic masculinity is a thing, but that it is not unique to men. And similarly, on other hand, believe in toxic femininity, and that it is not unique to just women.

Let me unpack that.

It's impossible to deny that rape culture exists. Cartel's rape immigrant children as payment for passage into this country. Communities without father figures succumb to toxic gang culture, which sees women as objects and therefore commodities to use as both a means of production and initiation. Rape is used as a weapon of war in the Congo, an initiation process into the guerrilla factions that employ child soldiers. It is real, it is evil. To understand it's existence I think it can further understood by studying other species, not just our own.

Other mammals of higher intelligence such as apes, dolphins, and elephants have complex socialization methods. One such example is the musth cycle in elephants. When a male elephants hits puberty, he starts to secrete a green slim from behind his knee caps and becomes violent and erratic. He will attack rhinos, with whom he would normally have a peaceful relationship with, to assert his dominance. It isn't until an older male elephant comes along, takes the young bull under his wing, and shows him how to use his strength- for more productive purposes like finding food and protecting the herd; that this biological cycle stops after about two weeks. In areas where the ivory trade is especially bad and there are no more older male elephants, this biological musth cycle that normally lasts only about two weeks, can last upwards on up to two years. In these areas people and elephants can no longer live together. For males, biology and socialization seems to be interconnected. For females, the coming of age is biological. Menstruation throws females into the world of reproduction concerns, sanitation, and disease. Responsibility is bestowed by mother nature herself; and her offer is non-negotiable. She HAS to grow up- she has no choice. Males on the hand, in our species as well as in others have developed complex rituals designed to imbue responsibility. Consider the Bar Mitzvah, or Boys Day as it is celebrated in Japan. What are these days other than the softening the blow of imbuing responsibility with gifts and validation? It is the community coming together to recognize his agency, while simultaneously holding him to the responsibility that comes along with it.

Men who have no support or accountability take their natural evolutionary drive to hunt, and see everything as prey. It's an natural impulse without boundaries or limits and it is toxic. Similarity women who have a natural instinct from evolution to be skeptical of men, succeed in protecting themselves from such toxic men. But without the presence of positive male influence present in her life to reassure her, and socialize her into the culture of men; her natural skepticism cannot be limited and is without bounds- she will be more likely to choose a maladjusted male, and hence is more likely to be hurt by him. This will teach her over time to be exponentially suspicious of men over time with each failed attempt at finding a suitable mate.

Toxic femininity then is the boundless exponentiated fear and or skepticism of men. It manifests itself in the child abuse to telling a little boy that he is inherently toxic by virtue of his gender. It can lead to witch hunts as seen with the #YesAllMen movement. And with each new example of toxic masculinity in media, toxic femininity becomes increasingly inculcated into our society and institutions by virtue of its own confirmation bias. As this happens, men will even begin to be convinced by the proclivities of toxic women, believing their own natural instincts to be inherently bad. And women, who are possibly higher in testosterone, go out into the workplace to hunt for a career become increasingly skeptical of men- will not be gendered to restrained their aggression. So both toxic masculinity and toxic femininity aggravate the other- convolutions of toxicity seem endless.