Toxic Masculinity Analysis

In Denying Rape but Endorsing Forceful Intercourse: Exploring Differences Among Responders, researchers found that when college men were asked if they would “rape a woman” without consequences and no one would know, 13.6% replied yes. That percentage jumped to 31.7% when they were asked if they would “force a woman into sexual intercourse.” Behind closed doors, men often feel like they’re entitled to women and their bodies. This sense of entitlement does not stop there. The hegemonic, or toxic, masculinity that is engrained into young men from as early as infancy can give them a sense that they are owed the affection of women, and allowed to take anything they want as a way to assert themselves as a man. Violence on college campuses has a
The goal of the project is to examine masculinity and the patriarchy and how it affects society and our day to day lives. In Talking Toxic Masculinity, Dana Raphael discusses the project; its reception by the media, its goals, and the reasoning and causes behind its establishment. Raphael defines toxic masculinity as the boundaries and attitudes that tell men what the only way to embody their gender is. She also points out the double standards that this concept of masculinity places on men and women. She further discusses the manifestation of violence that is a possibility, such as when Elliot Rodgers shot and killed multiple people near and on the campus of a university in California after being turned down by multiple women. The author calls people to dismantle the environment that allows the perpetrators of this violence to
Many critics don’t agree with the actions being taken and deem them unnecessary, or harmful to the masculinity of a young man. For example, some critics believe that these actions are feminizing the young men, instead of simply teaching them to follow more respectful gender roles. As Frank Minter says in his article The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth About ‘Toxic Masculinity’, “ They are trying to further emasculate young men instead of, you know, teaching them to be gentleman.” We see here, and in many other arguments, the neglect of the violent aspects of masculinity and the use of femininity and masculinity as warring opposites. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, women in college, or around college age, are three to four times more at risk for sexual assault during this stage in their lives. The violence on college campuses is not as simple as teaching young men to be gentlemen, it is a matter of unteaching college-aged men the toxic standards that they have been raised to try and