Research Paper: Toxic Masculinity and its Affect on Young Men

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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

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