Research Paper: Toxic Masculinity and its Affect on Young Men

By -

Essential Research Question: How does reinforcing toxic masculinity affect young men? 

Questions:

1. What exactly is toxic masculinity?

2. Specifically, what are examples of toxic masculinity in American culture? 

3. How do we (i.e society, individuals) reinforce traits of toxic masculinity?

4. What are the results of toxic masculinity? 

5. Why should we redefine masculinity?

6. Does toxic masculinity only affect men? 


Why: 

    Believe it or not, I first heard of the idea of toxic masculinity through Instagram. I was scrolling through my explore page one day when I found a page that posted some quick and interesting facts about toxic masculinity. This small taste of what toxic masculinity is and how prevalent it is in our society spark a flame in me. Since I first came across the topic of toxic masculinity I've been interested in learning more and doing research on what exactly is toxic masculinity and how do we, as a society, reinforce the negative stereotypes of what is manly. 

    Here is a personal example of people subconsciously reinforcing traits of toxic masculinity. About three years ago I was having a conversation with my brother and sister-in-law. My brother was inquiring into my love life, as nosey older brothers will do. I'll never forget my brother asked me why I didn't like manly men. Why I only liked to date guys that were "feminine." He told me that all the boyfriends I'd ever had didn't dress like manly men, didn't act like manly men (i.e too emotional), and didn't work manly men jobs. At the time I didn't know how to respond. His comments caught me so off guard. I tell this short story to reiterate my point that toxic masculine culture is all around us. That is why I'm choosing to write my paper on this topic. Toxic masculinity is a real issue and it needs to be addressed. A man's manliness shouldn't be based on what he wears, his emotions, or his job. These implications and restrictions we place on men in order to define "manliness" must be put to an end or else we are doomed to repeat the cycle. 

(I'll get off my mini soapbox now...)

Overview: 

    So as you can probably tell toxic masculinity is a topic I've recently gotten rather interested in. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the topic but I have been doing some research on the topic. Toxic masculinity according to dictionary.com is simply the cultural concept of manliness that glorifies stoicism, strength, virility, and dominance that is socially maladaptive or harmful to mental health. The most common example of toxic masculinity is that "real men" (whatever the heck that means) don't show emotions. Our society tells men that to be manly they cannot show emotions (sadness, happiness, love, etc) because that would make them weak. Think about how harmful that concept is to men. Men are taught to bottle up their emotions and just "deal with it." Not only are men affected by that harmful concept but so are women. Due to men's lack of emotions women are seen as too emotional. Toxic masculinity hurts everyone! 


Titles of Books:

Nonfiction Resources: 

For the Love of Men by Liz Plank (I've actually purchased this one to read!)

The Man They Wanted Me To Be by Jared Sexton

Boy Will Be Boys: Power, Patriarchy and the Toxic Bonds of Mateship by Clementine Ford


Adolescent Literature: 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Simon Vs. The Homosapien Agenda by Becky Albertalli


Resources:
    For my research paper, I plan on using For the Love of Men by Liz Plank. Plank did countless hours studying and researching to write her novel on toxic masculinity and exploring a new way of defining manliness in American culture. I think her book will help me out tremendously in writing my research paper. I also hope to use the school's databases (probably ESCBO) to find trustworthy statistics to use in my essay. For example, I found one stat that said young men who join a frat are 300% more likely to commit rape than a young man who is not in a frat. I hope to find more stats like this one to talk about in my essay and explore why it is that stats like this exist and what do the stereotypes we place on young men have to do with it. I would also like to find some articles that give ideas on how we can reverse the damage done by toxic masculinity. 

Claim: 
    To put an end to a never-ending cycle of socially maladaptive insecure men, American society has to stop reinforcing toxic masculinity on young men. 

Challenges: 
    The definition of masculinity varies between cultures. I think that my biggest obstacle in writing this essay is going to be that I make it clear that I am talking about toxic masculinity in American culture. Some issues I discuss in my essay may not apply to other cultures. Also, I think another obstacle is going to be that not everyone is going to agree that all stereotypes that reinforce toxic masculinity are bad. I think that obstacle brings up another point of is the stereotype really not bad or has that stereotype just been conditioned as an aspect of manliness through our culture? 


Quick Resource:
I found this on Instagram and found it very powerful. I hope this helps those who may not be familiar with the concept of toxic masculinity. 












Comments

  1. Mikayla TaylorNovember 12, 2020 at 7:20 PM

    I really like this topic. I think that this idea of masculinity and what men are supposed to do, effects a lot of adolescents. Another question you could focus on is: how does adolescent literature reinforce the idea of masculinity among adolescent males? Or does adolescent literature redefine masculinity? Maybe explore titles that have characters whom redefine masculinity and titles where characters reinforce the “toxic” masculinity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Todd WhittakerNovember 14, 2020 at 7:40 PM

    I saw this topic being floated around when we were discussing topics in class, and I was hoping someone would grab it! This is a great research topic.

    I think you should consider adding La Linea to your books you discuss. Miguel becomes responsible for his sister, arguably because he is older, but possibly also because he is a man. There's a lot to dig into with that book concerning this topic.

    A question I have is is there a toxic femininity? Do females have something similar?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Speak and the Symbolism of Nature

By Anonymous -
   Laurie Halse Anderson's,  Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice.    Melinda st
Read more