SAMPLE ESSAY: TOXIC MASCULINITY

Written by Nigel Savage

“Toxic masculinity is what can come of teaching boys that they can’t express emotion openly; that they have to be “tough all the time”; that anything other than that makes them “feminine” or weak(Salma)”. This quote from the New York Times gives a good definition of toxic masculinity. I’ve dealt with toxic masculinity my whole life and I think that it’s a serious problem, especially for young boys. Many young boys feel pressured to act more “manly” which can often lead them to act more aggressively and be unhappy in life. The cultural analysis of Padva in Educating the Simpsons, #MasculinitySoFragile, and the essay Working Class Buffoons show how toxic masculinity is taught and its damaging effects.

To begin, In the essay Working Class Buffoons, Butsch discusses how the media teaches boys that to be a “real man” they have to be hyper masculine and reject femininity. Teaching this to young boys is very damaging because they feel pressured to act hyper masculine regardless of how they really feel. One of the ways the media teaches young boys to act this is through television. ““Reaching the vast majority of the population for well over half a century and seeping into everyday conversation, sitcoms have made a significant contribution to our culture's attitude towards the man who makes a living with his hands. It is an attitude based on presumption, repeated again and again by these sitcoms that this man is dumb, immature, irresponsible, lacking common sense, often frustrated, and sometimes angry. It is an attitude of public disrespect toward him everywhere else in the public realm.(Butsch)” This quote front the essay shows how in almost all popular sitcoms the father is always shown to be angry, dumb, frustrated. As a result of watching these sitcoms young boys are taught that as men the only emotions you can show are anger and frustration. This leads to toxic masculinity because boys are taught and expected to only show one emotion, anger which is harmful. “Throughout the decades, the few working-class men were portrayed as buffoons. They are dumb, immature, and lacking in common sense. This is the husband in almost every sitcom depicting a blue-collar man of the house - The Honeymooners, The Flintstones, All in the Family, The Simpsons, and The King of Queens being the most famous examples. (Butsch)” This quote gives a lot of famous examples of sitcoms where the father only shows those few emotions. This really gives an idea of how many sitcoms are teaching toxic masculinity.

In Educating the Simpsons, Pavda gives a cultural analysis of the groundbreaking “Homer Phobia” Simpson episode. In his analysis, Pavda claims that the episode celebrates queer counter-culture through its use of camp. Camp can be defined as, “ Affected, theatrically exaggerated, effeminate; homosexual(oxford dictionary).” Camp can also be defined as, “ the love of the exaggerated, the “off”, of things-being-what-they-are-not . . .The androgyne is certainly one of the great images of Camp sensibility . . . What is the most beautiful in virile men is something feminine; what is the most beautiful in feminine women in something masculine(p.56).” What this means is that camp is an exaggerated style used by the LGBTQIA community that is usually feminine. By using camp the Simpsons show an acceptance of the LGBTQIA community and femininity. While this episode shows queer counter-culture it also shows a lot of toxic masculinity. This is seen from Homer when he finds out that the workers at the steel mill are queer. As Palida explains it, “ Homer is not only surprised by the muscular men’s queerness. He is also astonished by their proud cultural identity: their dress (and undress), language (“Hot Stuff, comin’ through!” ), behavior (dancing and having fun), and mood (happy), which contradicts his images of gays as a low-life, dubious and miserable people (Padva)”. Also, “ Homer feels threatened by the spectacular: “This is a nightmare! You’re all sick!” He pathologizes gayness as devotion from the “natural” order, Camp, as a queer counter-culture political praxis uses it’s innovative and inspirational deviancy to contest the oppressive social order. (Padva)” These quotes from Padva’s essay show how Homer’s natural reaction to queerness and male femininity is to reject it and be horrified by it. This is a perfect example of toxic masculinity because it shows how Homer, a man, is taught by society to reject anything that is remotely feminine so when he sees queerness up close he reacts negatively to it. Another example of toxic masculinity in this episode is seen when Homer thinks that Bart is gay. “ After Bart points a giant phallic and colorful plastic pistol at him, Homer’s worry becomes stronger. He suspects that his wife is ignoring John’s malicious homosexualtion of Bart, and he makes foolish attempts to save his son from gayness. For instance, he forces Bart to look at a huge sexist advertising billboard, showing two female models in bathing suits smoking cigarettes; after a long look at the models, Bart only (homo) erotically wishes for “anything slim (Pavda)”. This shows toxic masculinity because Homer thinks his son might be gay and immediately tries to turn his son into a “real man”. To do this Homer promotes objectifying women and violence showing that his definition of being a man and masculinity are negative.

Similarly, to “Educating the Simpsons” #MasculinitySoFragile also shows the negative effects of toxic masculinity. In this essay, Sarah Weiser and Kate Miltner explain the culture of masculinity and its effects on our society. One of the main points that the essay explains is that one of the negative effects of toxic masculinity is misogyny. Misogyny is the dislike, contempt, or prejudice against women. “The hashtag was to illustrate the precariousness of “toxic masculinity,” a (heterosexual) masculinity that is threatened by anything associated with femininity (whether that is pink yogurt or emotions). Certain groups of men conflated this attack on the construct of masculinity with an attack on maleness and responded, rather ironically, in a macho and violent manner (Weiser & Miltner)”. This quote from the essay shows that femininity is viewed as a threat to masculinity. As a result of this women who are directly related to femininity are also seen as a threat to men which causes men to lash out against women. “Arthur Chu, The Daily Beast’s columnist on all things geek and nerd, has blamed this state of affairs on a culture that teaches geeky young men that “women, like money and status, are just part of the reward we get for doing well,” and that popular misogyny is part of the(unwarranted) response when these men ``get good grades, they get a decent job, and that wife they were promised in the package deal doesn’t arrive” (Arthur Chu 2014)”. This is another quote from the article that shows that men objectify women as a result of toxic masculinity. Objectification is the process of degrading something to the status of an object. In our society boys and men are taught to treat women like objects and that respecting women makes you soft or a sissy. This is a form of misogyny because men are degrading women. “We are in a new era of the gender wars, an era that is marked by alarming amounts of vitriol and violence directed toward women in online spaces. these forms of violence are not about gender, but are also often racist, with women of color as particular targets. The scope and reach of this aggression has garnered attention not only from feminist scholars but in popular discourse, where it has been widely critiqued(Weiser & Miltner).” This quote from the essay shows how toxic masculinity is resulting in more violence against women. Violence against women is also misogyny because they are purposely trying to hurt women.

To conclude, toxic masculinity is a serious problem in society that is made worse by the fact that it is taught by our society. In the essays #MasculinitySoFragile, Working Class Buffons, and using Padva’s analysis of queer counter in Educating the Simpsons culture we can see the negative effects of toxic masculinity. These include misogyny, complete rejection of femininity, violence, and the objectification of women. The best way to end the cycle of toxic masculinity is to teach boys to embrace their femininity instead of trying to destroy it.

Works Cited

Padva, Gilad. Educating The Simpsons. Taylor and Francis, 11 Oct. 2008.

Salam, Maya. “What Is Toxic Masculinity?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/toxic-masculinity.html.

Weiser, Sarah. “#MasculinitySoFragile” 22 Dec. 2015.

Yousman, Bill, et al. Gender, Race, and Class in Media: a Critical Reader. SAGE Publications, Inc, 2021.