Lee's take on Toxic Masculinity

 It's 2022 and we live in a world where, when somebody acts masculine, men get scrutinised for being toxic. Men get blamed for a lot of issues, but I for one will not stand for blatant disrespect and cancelling of men voicing their opinion. I call bullshit on not being able to defend ones right to freedom of speech or somebody not agreeing to a mainstream opinion. Allthough it is very hard to stand for something that differs from the way you are supposed to act, think or speak I will always protect the right to fight for what you believe. That being said I do not condone misogyny or bigotry in any way shape or form.

When I was still just a kid I used to watch war movies and cop-shows with my grandfather.
Burly men solving problems with their fists and getting the woman by being arrogant and just plain badass! I loved it and so did my grandfather. Times have changed and a lot of those shows wouldn't fly in todays society. If you compare the old badasses of film like John Wayne and Sean Connery to the newer ones you will see a massive difference, a woman talking back? Smack her in the mouth! Do I condone that kind of stuff now? Absolutely not, but back in the day nobody batted an eye. So what changed?

"That's toxic!"

I feel that with the advancing of technology more and more people got a voice in this world. For example with the click of a mouse you can watch the opinion on climate change of a 15 year old girl from Stockholm Sweden or the take on toxic masculinity of a 30 year old straight white male from Flanders Belgium.
I do applaud that, but with great power comes great responsibility and that is what some people don't really get, with the advancement of technology came cyberbullying and many unpopular opinions spread around the world.
A lot of vile things get posted on the internet and we as a people got lost along the way.
Back in the day before the internet we lived in simpler times and the only way to voice your opinion to several people at once is to go scream them from the top of a tower and you would be depicted as the town's fool. So why do we listen to stranger's opinions now? I do not know the answer but I guess it is to fit in somewhere?

Woke up!

"Being Woke" is the new hot thing– being used as praise by themselves, but more commonly as an insult by level-headed people.
Whenever a man disagrees with a certain topic he will get told that his opinion doesn't matter, well I for one think that in order to have a debate you need different opinions, but in this day and age you will get tanked before even being able to explain your concern.
We try, believe me, we try, but we just get bombarded.

• When a man online says it's weird for a guy to dress up as a woman he gets cancelled.
• When a man jokingly tells his teammate at basketball that he throws like a girl he gets put on the bench.
• When a man tells his co-worker something is gay (in reference to something girly) he gets a call from HR.

Where have we as a society devolved to where we can't have opinions or joke about stuff anymore? Why does everything need to be taken serious all the time?

Do we have a problem?

Short answer "no."
Longer answer "Maybe because of the influence people have these days."
Young men are easily influenced by older "wiser", but mostly succesful men.
Take Andrew Tate, that flamboyant masculine influencer, for example. I had never heard of him before last month. He was saying some pretty controversial (for this generation) stuff. I will not say I agreed with all of what he said, but some stuff was bang on. All of a sudden I hear that all of his presence was erased from social media. He got cancelled.
Do I agree with that? Not in the slightest, but that is what I mean with the wokeness taking over.

Tate was a rolemodel for a lot of these young men and that is a little bit of a problem. He was a bandwagon and a lot of these young men just followed him like cult-members even after he said so many dumbass things like "How women are like dogs and that he doesn't think they should be allowed to drive, monogamy is unnatural,."  He swayed away from helping men find their path in life and lead them to a path of misogyny and anti-women. He had a big following as well. This promoted toxic masculinity.

I urge young men to find a strong respectful male rolemodel in their private lives and not to find a money-hungry influencer that does crazy speeches for fame and bling. 

Toxic Masculinity VS. Healthy Masculinity

Toxic masculinity pressures men into behaving a certain way. It promotes homophobia, misogyny, violence, aggression and sexism.
I find that toxic men have like a caveman mentality of "Me is strongest, Me is best!"

While on the other hand I do promote healthy masculinity. 
Healthy Masculinity means to care about your loved ones and being prepared to protect them at all costs, it means to be strong in other ways than just physical.
Healthy Masculine men address disrespect and value honour! They listen and validate when needed.
They encourage other men to speak up.
If you want to be a manly man, break the stigma and be a healthy masculinity type man!

In conclusion: Everything can be toxic and it is up to you to just use your noggin'! Go out there and be a proud man and spread joy and wisdom, not hate and stupidity. Stick up for what you believe in, but do it respectfully. 

Protect the people who can't do it themselves, be a sheepdog in a world of sheep and wolves!

- Lee Stormy