SOC219H5 Lecture : Lecture 10 - June 13
Toxic Masculinity and Call out Culture !
Doing Masculinity !
-Messerschmidt - this form of masculinity is encouraged !
-Hegemonic - independence, aggressiveness, control. Traits most men are suppose to strive
for but only a few act on this. Tied in to normative heterosexuality !
-Normative heterosexuality - heterosexuality is the norm, involves presumption that men have a
special urge towards sexual intercourse and that women are just objects that can be exploited.
Gender based violence is considered customary. These types of actions are enforced through
social scripts like “Boy’s will be boys” making us believe that male aggression is normal. !
-“Boys will be boys” - !
-The fragility of masculinity - when some men (very small amount) aren’t able to but want to
fulfill these masculine norms, they can’t make a lot of money, aren’t able to have sex with
women, their frustration carries out into violence and rage and that is their way of doing
masculinity. Can be symbolic or physical violence. Toxic masculinity sees the feminine as an
object. These men often see themselves having to be defenders of their own masculinity,
defenders of their women, having to defend the patriarchal order. !
Stalking Is Love: Media Representations of Mens Affection Towards Women !
Mens Liberation and Rights Activists !
1. early activist worked alongside feminist and saw both mens and women’s liberations as
mutely supporting. Argued that men were trapped in masculine mystique. By advocating
for women equal opportunities in the workplace in order to deviate the pressure on men to
be breadwinners !
#-Goals: release men from the narrowness of their role definition !
2. Men were actually the ones who were truly powerless, these activist moved away from mens
liberation and began their own mens movement, these mens rights activist saw feminism as a
plot. They saw men as being true victims of prostitution, abuse, etc. They generalized the
experience of one or few men to speak about the whole majority. Basically saying women are
victimizing men. Most men who support mens rights are not extremists. !
3. These groups have a desire to dominate women and that women exist to naturally satisfy
the needs of men. Hate ideology- all women are inferior. These extremist views only represent a
very small portion of mens rights activists, the ideology present in these movements have been
the basis for some of the more recent mass killings in Canada and the US. !
#Ex. Man(Mark Lapeine) went into school asked all men to leave room only leaving
women there and then he open fired and claimed he was fighting feminism. Killed 14 women.
Trend has continued over years. !
#Ex. 2014- Man named Elliot Rogers was a sexually frustrated guy from California, wrote
a manifesto prior to shooting 6 individuals, wrote manifesto before being shot himself, talked
about how he decided this mass shooting after not having a date for the hungers game premier
and also having a dream of him winning the lottery but not actually winning. Called this attack
the day of retribution and he said women were shallow for not wanting to date him, he couldn’t
achieve the ideal of not being financially stable. !
#Ex. Man who did the mass shooting in Toronto looked up to Elliot Rogers and was
influenced by him. Alec Manasian killed 10 people by running them over in a van in Toronto in
April 2018, Incel Rebellion(Involuntary incellibon - women don’t want to have sex with them,
this idea of women being vain and shallow caused this group), extremist in this group belie
violence against women is okay and accepted their hatred also extends to men who they feel
achieve hyper masculinity that society promotes for men. These attacks don’t just claim female
victims but male victims as well. !
#-Another mass shooting in Texas by Demetro Robortus - A girl rejected him and went
home to inform her parents she was afraid he’d kill her and 2 weeks later he did along with 9
