Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Masculinity can easily be demonized as “toxic” for its side effects: aggression, anger & sexuality. It used to be overlooked when males exploited their advantages by bullying, dominance, and predatory attitude towards women. In small doses, these traits are actually extremely important in a functioning society, both for men in the male dominance hierarchy, and for women because it ensures stability, but the line between acceptable and toxic is a blurry one, and unusually subjective. If you're a female on the losing end of every competition because the male has the advantage and will not give up, crying foul is a desperation tactic. Feminists also find alliance with low-status men, who combined usually represent more than half the population, a powerful tipping point in a democracy.

The corrosive side-effect of attacking masculinity is that all things masculine come under fire. Chivalry and gallantry are impossible in a culture where every act is suspect, so the once-common courtesies of holding the door open for a woman, or defending or helping anonymous women in any way, is discouraged. Unfortunately, this rejection of special consideration has removed the lubricant that smoothed over the difference between the sexes, so male-female friction has developed, and is heating up. There is even the tactic of claiming there's no difference between the sexes, and that masculinity is purely a social construct, foreshadowing the very real chance that toxic masculinity, meaning all masculinity, will be considered a mental illness in the near future.