The Volatile Sex: Toxic Masculinity and Its Effects
The Science of Toxic Masculinity and How We Can Do Better As Men
Bad jokes, wives tales, and so-called “common knowledge” are just a few of the things that attempt to sway us, leading us to believe that women are the emotionally erratic, volatile, often explosive sex between the two. Folklore everywhere perpetuates this stereotype and we find it all around us — from media to things that our friends say. Western society often bemoans supposedly effeminate behavior, charging it with accusations of senselessness and a lack of reason. I’d like to challenge this notion.
I’ll even go as far as to say that the whole idea was borne out of a deflection away from the male expressions of emotion to perpetuate a myth: the myth of the overly emotional woman. A myth which simply isn’t true.
This assumption (and, let’s call it what it is, sexism) is flat out wrong. It is sexism because it’s not based in fact, but rather, the opposite lies spread to shift focus and blame. It is the male sex which is much more likely to display an erratic lack of composure and traits which are anything but sober and stoic.
In almost every measurable category, men display a propensity toward the discharge of emotion that isn’t matched by our feminine counterparts — this is…
