Tuesday, May 08, 2018

"Toxic Masculinity"

The illiberal left's jargon is weirdly, consistently off-putting. ("Toxic" is a good example; there's a another word I have almost had to strike from my vocabulary, even in its literal uses.) And they're nuts...so that's a problem. And the anti-male sexism / misandry is strong in them. And so on. And, as per usual, the jargon isn't mere jargon; it is used to convey their theory about what sucks about men. Hint: basically everything.
   However, everybody knows that lots of men suck in certain ways that are rather general and not purely individual. Masculinity goes right in important and well-known ways (standard nod to Will Kane in High Noon); it also goes wrong in important and well-known ways (bullies, rapists, serial killers, Stalin). Guys find out that some guys are psychos pretty early on in life--earlier than girls do, I'd bet. In fact, if my life is at all representative, the first fifteen years or so of an average guy's life are largely spent learning to deal with / stomp members of the crazy segment of the male population. Good masculinity involves strength in the service of good ends; crazy psycho Neanderthal masculinity involves violence for...I dunno...whatever the hell those guys are aiming at.
   Anyway, the point is just that "toxic masculinity" could be seen as a stupid way to express an exaggerated and distorted version of a real problem. The illiberal left loves the tactic of spewing loaded neologisms all over the place, encouraging the generally sympathetic cultural superstructure (academia, the media, etc.) to adopt them, thus semi-covertly propagating ideas that can seem not-too-radical if you don't know too much about them. I'd certainly say not to overlook the actual problem of masculinity gone wrong...though I'd also suggest coining some new terminology that can quickly express the non-crazy version of the idea in question. I don't think it's really possible to wring all the stupid out of the term "toxic masculinity."

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