Pizzafeet
We have always referred to toxic gender roles for women as misogyny or internalised misogyny, so I would argue that we should use the equivalent term, misandry instead of toxic masculinity.
My theory on the reason they pick examples that supports their agenda is because it's all a zero sum game to them. Claiming that fighting toxic masculinity will solve men's issues, requires little to no funding. They fear that funding of actual men's mental health or abuse services will reduce funding for women's organisations. The owners and CEO's of women's organisations rely on government funding to fill their pockets which is why Women's Aid tried protesting against funding men's services around 2-3 years ago.
Yes, essentially it makes it look like they're doing something when really they aren't.
Also, if men don't like the term, they should respect that instead of forcing it on them. Often times when a man is asking for support, there is a person lecturing him about toxic masculinity. They care more about people using the term and spreading their propaganda than to actually offer real help.
I was confused at first, but that is actually the woman in question, Tanya Lord.
It’s ridiculous but here’s what lawmakers had to say about female on male rape:
‘We did consider whether there was evidence that a woman could force a man to penetrate her against his will but, although we found a little anecdotal evidence, we did not discover sufficient to convince us that this was the equivalent of rape.’
This is after stating that rape is most serious and harmful of sexual offences.
I think there is an error in reporting. Firstly, a woman cannot be charged with rape unless she aids a man in committing it, not the case here. Secondly, if she was charged with rape, the bare minimum is a 4 year custodial sentence.
The more likely scenario is that she was charged with 'sexual activity without consent' which explains the more lenient sentencing.
Just realised that she was given a 4 year sentence, I got confused with the time she has to serve in prison.
The reason toxic masculinity is favoured as a term is to avoid acknowledging misandry.
Feminists commonly used to that discrimination against men is actually due to misogyny. For example, men are afraid to cry because it's seen as feminine. So since they believe men's issues root from misogyny, toxic masculinity is the perfect term for them.
This is problematic since some issues such as male suicide are thought to be due to toxic masculinity. Whereas real world data shows that men aren't afraid to seek help, therapy is both difficult to access (in the UK) and isn't really geared towards dealing with men.
"The startling statistic from the research showed that of those men who had taken their own lives and had actually sought help and were assessed for suicidal risk in 2017, 80% had been assessed by clinicians as having low or no risk of suicide; this is troubling and an issue that must be addressed. These men are talking but who was listening? This lack of understanding of male suicidality (stressors, transversal issues and life transitions) is key, especially when presented in indirect ways."
https://equi-law.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/APPG-MB-Male-Suicide-Report-9-22.pdf
A few more examples of real life feminist actions:
Women’s Aid protest against funding of male services as they see DV as a gendered problem.
Admitting that they’ve applied a ‘strategy of containment’ in regards to male victims of domestic abuse so that DV appears to be a gendered problem. The paper says this was done in order to obtain funding for their organisations.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/72839546.pdf
The women who reviewed and updated the sexual offences act in 2003 stated the following:
“We did consider whether there was evidence that a woman could force a man to penetrate her against his will but, although we found a little anecdotal evidence, we did not discover sufficient to convince us that this was the equivalent of rape.“
“Of all sexual offences, rape is the most serious, the most feared and the most debated.”
This seems to be a common experience for a lot of men sadly
Secondhand Lions is really good.