Ending Sexism: Against Toxic Masculinity and How Gender Equality is not only about Women
Feminism and gender equality mostly dominated by message to strengthen the role of women. There also slogan (that I think not right) like, “future is female”, “behind every successful man, there stands a woman”, like the existence of men is not enough. I don’t think that’s the exact one, but then how men and women are equal, fair, and proportional.
From the men side, men often identified as dominant, assertive, macho, unemotional, not whiny, and other men stereotypes attached that in my opinion makes an equality struggle is a biased act, unconsciously it’s a form of male attenuation as well🙂
The way them act, the character, even behavior as well which is considered to be ‘womanly’ should also be a regular thing for men to do, like activities, gestures, interests, or being sensitive, sad, crying, etc. Maybe it sounds normal and not a big thing because it seems to be in our blood; moreover, the dominant patriarchal culture applied in our country. Yet this is detrimental to both men and women. Especially the one that I discussed is men. Then the view is formed that the victims of abuse are only women, how this gender stereotype makes the suicide rate higher for men than women, how toxic masculinity is killing men, etc.
So, instead of just supporting the equality from women’s side (which is already good), we also need to support men’s side. This topic has been a long time problem and has been cultured. Some people may not realize that some standard has been accidentally made and be part of sexism.
Some of the brands have supported the idea of toxic masculinity. ABC with the campaign which involves men to contribute in kitchen, then Gillette with the change of tagline from “The Best Man can Get” into “The Best Men can Be” which getting positive response from society. Which means the toxic masculinity can be more voices as well as how women are voicing her voice.
References:
https://www.goodmen.id/toxic-masculinity-hal-kecil-yang-bisa-merusak-hidup-pria/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190313-why-more-men-kill-themselves-than-women
https://www.salon.com/test2/2015/06/12/toxic_masculinity_is_killing_men_the_roots_of_male_trauma_partner/
https://biz.kompas.com/read/2018/10/29/195734628/kecap-abc-dukung-kesetaraan-gender-dimulai-dari-dapur
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/gillette-ad-controversy/580666/
