Taking a Fresh Hatchet to The Man-Box
As you might know from reading older entries I am a huge non-fan of this thing we call the man-box. Well, recently I found a podcast and NY Times article that bring this issue to the foreground again.
Aymann Ismail comes out of Arab culture: one of the most stereotypically fecund sources of toxic masculinity. Honor killings, srlsly? If you needed a reminder that the man-box is deeply rooted in misogyny, there you have it. His podcast will show some of the personal aspects of what it's like to journey out of that milieu. Highly recommended.
This distressing NY Times Magazine article tells how the author's cousin was suddenly motivated to kill. A violation of a narrow idea of what being a man means brought hormonal rage dangerously to life in a lightning-quick moment. I found this hard to read in one sitting; I needed breaks.
I do believe that the most recent presidential election result and, not to be redundant, the decline of our civil society, is mainly due to basic American racism. But that said, I think the vast majority of the remainder is due to toxic masculinity. Abating or eliminating both of these would certainly result in a return to progress.
Some older material if you just can't get enough:
http://www.acalltomen.org/news/2017/7/21/what-is-the-man-box
https://medium.com/@remakingmanhood/the-history-of-the-man-box-e6eed6d895c4
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/quot-wit101618.php
https://kottke.org/18/06/todays-masculinity-is-stifling
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/imagining-a-better-boyhood/562232/
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/573877/male-socialization/