
Is Toxic Masculinity a Valid Concept? - emersonrsantos
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201803/is-toxic-masculinity-valid-concept
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sbinthree
This article is very high level, but I have been giving this some thought.
Some aspects of masculinity can be toxic to the people around the man, but
those aspects also tend to be something that was once (and no longer is)
evolutionarily preferable. An example might be a man who has casual sex with
lots of women. If there is one thing those men tend not to do, it's reproduce
successfully. This is pretty ironic, because through most of history this may
have been a singular factor affecting the extend of one's reproductive
success. Toxic masculinity then might be something that used to have
reproductive utility, doesn't anymore, but is perpetuated mainly by men and
for men. It's mostly men that are impressed by hookups that other men have. No
one is nearly as "impressed" when you actually have a child and raise them to
be successful, which is strange, because that is the essence of reproductive.
Whatever men do that is good for reproduction in our actual environment (make
big bucks in tech being an example of something that has no precedent in
evolution) could be considered masculine. Whatever men do, to impress other
men, that is harmful to the people around them and yet not useful for
reproduction (lots of casual sex while using birth control) could be
considered toxic (?). Otherwise, no, whatever works isn't toxic.

