Dusty Wentworth

We fear what we don’t understand. And when we act out of fear, we rarely act with reason. We lash out, label, and judge. That’s what we’re doing to masculinity. In the past decade, the phrase toxic masculinity has wormed its way out of academic journals and into the mouths of the mainstream—too often used by those who neither understand its origins nor grasp the damage they cause in misusing it. It is a phrase that has come to mean any display of traditional male traits, and it is casually weaponised against men who dare to show strength, leadership, competitiveness, or conviction. If masculinity were a religion or race, this treatment would be called prejudice. But because it is masculinity, it is applauded. And yet, buried beneath the surface of this careless condemnation lies something worth examining: the misunderstood concept of hegemonic masculinity. What They Think It Means To the untrained ear, hegemonic masculinity sounds like a threat—an iron-fisted patriarch impo...