User:Gracemuranaka/Socialist feminism

Article body Toxic Masculinity
Socialist feminists claim that toxic masculinity is not only damaging to men but also women and non-binary people. Toxic masculinity is the idea that men should behave in a specific way, most commonly these behaviors are strong and with hold emotion (Salam, Maya). For example, in Latinx culture toxic masculinity is referred to as "Machismo" (FEM Magazine). Machismo keeps men in their designated masculine roles while women are given the submissive role. Machismo enforces the idea that men are the superior gender and women are second class citizens. The pressure on men to adhere to gender roles and in particular a gender binary feeds to the crisis of male suicide, rape culture and the normalization of violence. Socialist feminist politics aims to say this normalized behavior is just another part of gender construction the patriarchy has just created to harm women.

Toxic masculinity can be observed in every day life such as "locker-room talk" (FEM Magazine). Locker-room talk is an excuse for men to spew comments about women that are most commonly sexual. Because these men are in a certain environment, this behavior is normalized. However, locker-room talk is extremely harmful especially because it enforces the gender hierarchy that socialist feminism aims to diminish. Another example in which exemplifies toxic masculinity is the phrase "boys will be boys". This term is usually used to justify an action of a male that is rude or inappropriate which in turn harms women because it makes exceptions for men to behavior however they please. These examples enforce the behaviors that are sexist and give a false idea to men that they are allowed to treat women however they want.

Toxic masculinity has become a more popular issue to discuss among feminists due to the increase of popular male influencers that promote the behaviors and mindsets of toxic masculinity. Males will go on social media platforms such as Tiktok, and share their harmful ideas about how women should be behaving. This has become a major issue among feminists today, and trends on Tiktok have been curated to combat toxic masculinity. For example the #97% trend was created for women to share their stores about sexual harassment. 97% of women will experience some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime, and therefore this trend shows that women suffer immensely at the hands of men.