What kind of program has this internet-brain-rotted masculinity brought us? A public-health official who neglects fatal outbreaks of preventable diseases because he seems to believe that only the strong should survive. A Department of Defense, renamed the Department of War, that launches a needless war of choice in the Middle East. A government that props up the fossil-fuel industry (manly) while deliberately suppressing green alternatives (girly), leading to a catastrophic rise in energy prices when that war doesn’t go as planned. A president who imposed tariffs to bring back “manly jobs,” but only drove up inflation instead.
It’s hard to see how any of this has made men’s lives better. But maybe making other people’s lives worse is enough.
I would argue that there are absolutely many things wrong with the idea of “masculinity” as a normative, structuralist concept. Putting people in boxes never ends well, because people are individuals and the goal should be making the world safe for individuals. If you want to reduce masculinity to a purely descriptive concept then just use those descriptions. But the idea that there’s a certain set of traits which define some ideal man is and will always be a toxic idea.
I quoted the article, these aren’t my words personally, just for the record.
Republicans are using this idea of masculinity to sway men into voting for them. The article is a really interesting read and does well at treating the topic of masculinity as it relates to this movement and not as a way to push men and boys into certain traits.