The biggest problem that I have with it is how it ties this “toxicity” to masculinity. Toxic water and bad bacon are still water and bacon, but “toxic masculinity” isn’t masculinity at all, as you admit, Lookyloo. You are comparing tangible consumables with something that is an attitude, a mode of being. They are just water and bacon with bad things mixed inside. Toxic water and bad bacon are *still* water and bacon. Why not stick to the basics instead of inventing a new problematic term? Terms like “machismo” are older, have been in use for far longer and are quite competent at getting the point across.
I actually do have basic comprehension skills. I don’t think it means “all men are a certain way, etc”. (And the problem is with a society that largely enshrines the toxic variant and perpeturates it, and by extension seeks to provide cover for it by misinforming people about feminism and pitting them against it to preserve a shitty status and imperator That’s what the term means- not that “men are all necessarily this way and it’s *because* they’re men”- and if you resist its use because you misunderstand that, the problem isn’t with the term, it’s with your misunderstanding. By violence, by bigotry, by the idea that the only appropriate way to express manhood is through domination, which renders everyone a target for hegemonic abuse and renders every emotion other than raging ego to be ‘womanly’ and ‘weak.’ “Toxic masculinity” means there is a strain- a version of the ‘product’- that IS tainted. “Toxic masculinity” doesn’t *mean* “all masculinity is violent, bigoted, emotionally stunted, demeaning to ‘others,’ etc ” if you believe that it’s because you’ve gotten bad information from people who are stupid (or who are lying for the prupose of providing cover *for* toxic assholes). If you think “toxic masculinity” shouldn’t be a term because- uhh- “real masculinity isn’t toxic,” then you must get really confused when people say, for instance, “don’t eat that bacon, it’s gone bad.” “Bacon is good, so it can’t be bad!” Cue food poisoning. You can find Jake Bain on Instagram or on Twitter and Hunter Sigmund on Instagram. By being themselves at a time in life that is very challenging, the couple have done a lot to end stereotypes and increase acceptance. In the fall, Sigmund will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an honors student, while Bain will attend Indiana State, where he will also play football. But the students, faculty and administration at Burroughs have been ultra-supportive of Bain, who drew a protest from the Westboro Baptist Church homophobes after his coming out as a high school football star became national news. While having openly LGBT couples at proms is not rare, it also remains an issue in many parts of the country. It is nice to be able to go to prom with whoever you want and not have to worry about what other people might think.” Hunter Sigmund, left, and Jake Bain. “We have been the only openly gay couple at Burroughs since I’ve been here, but it isn’t a problem at all at our school. “This is the second year he and I have gone together, as well as to our homecoming dance the past two years, so this wasn’t the first time,” Bain, the school’s high school football captain, said. “It was my fourth school dance with Jake and I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend our last high school dance.”īain, 19, and Sigmund, 18, are the only openly gay couple at John Burroughs School, but their being at the dance was old news to the students there. “Prom this year was amazing,” Sigmund, a swimmer and water polo player told Outsports. Louis athletes made the most of it this weekend. For seniors Jake Bain and Hunter Sigmund, it was their final high school dance together.