I came across this wonderful response to the phrase ‘man up’ thanks to Wisconsin senator Steve Nass, who is all manner of bent over a course at UW-Madison: “Unpacking Masculinity At UW-Madison” and seeks to address the ways “media, hook up culture, alcohol, violence, pop culture” create expectations of masculinity.
Sen. Nass was terribly alarmed, and fired off an email:
Sen. Steve Nass, a frequent UW System critic, sent an email to his fellow lawmakers on Wednesday entitled “UW-Madison Declares War on Men and their Masculinity — Not a Joke.” The email accuses UW-Madison of being part of a national liberal effort to rid male students of their “toxic masculinity.”
“Our friends at UW-Madison, not happy enough with labeling ‘whiteness’ as a societal problem, now are attacking another social ill …, Men and their masculinity,” the email says.
“The supposedly underfunded and overworked administrators at our flagship campus have scrapped (sic) together enough dollars to offer a six-week program open only to ‘men-identified students,” the email goes on. “In short, the highly paid leaders at UW-Madison now believe that Wisconsin mothers and fathers have done a poor job of raising their boys by trying to instill in them the values and characteristics necessary in becoming a Man.”
The email concludes by encouraging legislators to reform the UW System in the next state budget.
What Sen. Nass misses entirely is that a lot of young men are seeking paths through all the baggage hanging from the concept of masculinity so that they can be themselves, in happiness, in pride, and in security. Why that would be awful, when toxic masculinity is right there, after all, it’s worked for thousands of years, right?
I visited the course site, and it all looks good to me, I wish such courses were all over the place.
Via Associated Press and Raw Story.
Old white man with power refuses to accept the reality of toxic masculinity, white privilege, and suppression of minorities and women. As usual, reality has a liberal bias.
wait
so there’s a women’s studies class and all the men are like “y no men study”
now there’s a men’s studies class and they’re saying “it’s a war on masculinity”?
which do you fucking want?? jfc
Siobhan
A mandatory “know your place” class for all minorities and women.
What they really want is for their to be no women’s studies class as well as no men’s studies class.
You know. The status quo. Just leave things as they are. We (the white bros) are doing fine so what’s the problem?
Before someone else does it:
*there
This illustrates a problem I’ve seen a few times around the phrase “toxic masculinity”… We understand that “toxic” is a qualifier, referring to the way particular ideas around certain forms of masculinity are expressed and experienced within particular social and cultural contexts. (At least, I assume “we” do -- that’s what I understand, anyway). They don’t. They hear “toxic masculinity” and assume that we’re saying that masculinity itself is inherently, necessarily, and exclusively toxic. In our Venn diagram of masculinity, the circle labelled “toxic” is inside the circle labelled “masculinity” (we can argue about their relative sizes later), but they think we’re saying that the two circles are identical.
I don’t know that there’s any solution for that. I’m certainly not suggesting that we should abandon the phrase, but that does seem to be at least part of the reason why many people react badly to it. Mind you, them being arseholes often has a lot to do with it too…
The Guante piece is excellent.
@Dunc #6:
Yes. All this.
(Good luck getting some of the people I know to even listen past the words “Venn diagram” however…)
Dunc
That’s because their circle of “masculinity” and our circle of “toxic masculinity” fully overlap. They don’t accept any form of masculinity that is non-toxic, that is gentle and decent as valid forms of masculinity.
Dunc:
When it comes to someone like Ness, or a majority of MRA people among others, the problem isn’t that they don’t understand toxic masculinity -- they understand it very well, and embrace it. They want to keep toxic masculinity.
It’s a good sign that some young men are looking for ways to dump the traditional, misogynistic, toxic concept of masculinity, while keeping the good and important aspects of homosociality. That’s not an easy thing to do, given the importance of homosocial approval among men.
The more these types of courses can grow, the better. Peer pressure is brutal when you’re young, and if men want to avoid the whole toxic skin attached to ‘masculinity’, and want to redefine it, they need support, and it’s vital for that support to come mostly from other men.
I loved #3. :)
3 was good. 10 was killer.
I agree with Caine@#9 -- they like toxic. Toxic works for them, and they’re going to try to make damn sure the toxic they’re teaching their kids works for their kids. The fact they see spreading the idea of non-toxic masculinity as a threat is at least a bit encouraging.
A lot of us old men are, too.
YOB:
Absolutely. I do think that when we’re older though, it’s a bit easier to shed things like peer pressure, which is brutal when you’re young.