Circa 1990

moss light

Kings River, California

I want to use this post to clear something up. When I talk about toxic masculinity it always causes a big backlash, and I’ve noticed it’s mainly because men don’t know what it means. When I say I hate toxic masculinity, I do not mean that I hate that you’re a man or that I hate masculinity.

Toxic masculinity is THIS. Toxic masculinity is when men reinforce the idea that men should suppress and ignore softer displays of emotions that are associated with women. Toxic masculinity is reinforcing the fear of physical affection between men because it makes them appear too feminine or even ‘homosexual’.

Children need physical affection like this. And in a society that raises boys to be standoffish about *any* non sexual contact, much less homosocial contact (case and point: my autocorrect switches homosocial into “homosexual”).