Blog 2: Challenging toxic narrative

By Vasia Nagarajah

Introduction to masculinity’s complexity

We often hear people talking about being a “real man” or the notion of manhood. These discussions often emerge since many people believe that being a man means that you must behave a certain way and they all have a restricted meaning to it. However, this idea of masculinity has been a negative influence in many people’s lives and has been a detrimental influence on many which can be seen through movements lead by men. Documentaries such as “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” and “Inside Incel” is a reminder to us all about the negative impact these beliefs about masculinity have affected people’s thoughts. Masculinity often leads to racism through power dynamics, sexism via gender roles and the objectification of women, homophobia through feminism and vulnerability, and finally, violence arising through suppression of emotions.

Unmasking the racism

Within the harmful ideologies of masculinity, racism is one of them. In “Charlottesvilles: Race and Terror”, this narrative is captured through white supremacist who believe that they are superior to anyone. They enforce racial hierarchies and are convinced that they are better than people of color and try to assert dominance over marginalized communities by violent act. The documentary shows us how toxic masculinity and racism is a combination that leads to harmful ideologies.

Intertwine masculinity to sexism

In both works, we can observe how sexism is intertwined with toxic masculinity. The ideology of incels were explored in the “Inside Incel” documentary and from what we observe, we can understand that they blame women for their lack of sexual fulfilment. Even in Kimmel’s essay, he talked about how the fear of femininity makes some men want to take control over women and have dominance. White supremacist ideologies from the Charlottesville documentary are not only racist but they are also sexist. Moreover, Will James talked about how toxic masculinity can be seen in educational settings. That toxicity being involved in a very important learning environment can have negative consequences on young men and will play a big role in promoting gender inequality. This can bring gender discrimination into classrooms and stay deeply ingrained into the child’s mind and, eventually into society. The internalized misogyny led to people acting on the sexist thoughts.

Violence and homophobia as a masculine trait

Through the documentaries “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” and “Inside Incel” we get to see extreme forms of masculinity. In his essay “Masculinity as Homophobia”, Michael Kimmel talked about how homophobia is the main aspect of cultural manhood. Throughout the essay, Kimmel talks about how traditional masculinity is all about being scared of being perceived as feminine or homosexual. They fear about not being tough, men seeing each other be emotional or that they might get emasculated by other men. This fear that they have blocks them from expressing the way they want to, and they often express it with aggressiveness. For instance, in Kimmel’s essay he said, “Violence is often the single most evident marker of manhood”. Being willing to fight is seen as masculine and violence is a very important part of “manhood”. In Charlottesville, we see how fear driven white supremacist resort to violence to show “dominance”. They even talked about the people who died by the violence as if they were nothing and as if fighting is their only way to show power. They believe that the society is belittling white men and to show that they decide to act out and show their “dominance” through violent act. Similarly, we can also observe in the other documentary, “Inside Incel”, that those involuntary celibate men think they can only show their anger of rejection through violence, which is why they went on to commit one of the largest mass killings in Canada. One major negative effect about masculinity is its link to violence.

Rethinking masculinity

To conclude, rethinking masculinity helps us examine the extreme behaviours of men that the society named masculinity. Kimmel’s essay, both documentaries and Will James insights gives us a better understanding behind the violence, racism, sexism, and homophobia that men express within the framework of masculinity. To end these harmful ideologies, educators like Will James should continue advocating for a different approach in the educational environment that would be helpful for the younger generation to grow up without the toxicity and encourage emotional intelligence.