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Internalized misogyny, like traditional masculine ideology relies upon a narrow definition of acceptable gendered behavior, asserting that some members of a gender are “real” and others are not.
Both assume that women, and  perceived feminine traits are inferior . This includes the expression of emotion. "Hysteria, dramatic, crazy, bitch" are used to undermine expression and connect emotions to weakness.  Internalized misogyny includes statements like “I’m not like other girls” and “women are crazy,” but extends to self-censoring and restriction, such as  declining to apply for a STEM job because “that’s a man’s job.” (Wayne , 2019)

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Gender norms
Gender roles
Power vs weakness
Alpha
Hogemonic masculinity

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Defying Toxic Masculinity & Gender Norms  

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Defying Toxic Masculinity & Gender Norms  

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Created as a resistance to gender norms and toxic masculinity that tell men to “ man up” and be a specific type of masculine

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“By far the worst thing we do to males — by making them feel they have to be hard — is that we leave them with very fragile egos.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author

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Origin of the term: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1097184X20943254

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Hegemonic masculinity is defined as a practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of the common male population and women, and other marginalized ways of being a man.[1]
Cultural norms and definitions change in response to social, cultural, political, and economic pressures and vary across space. Idealized masculinity holds hegemonic power over other genders.  (Locke, M.A., 2013)

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How did toxic masculinity come to exist?

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What occurred in the past that laid the groundwork for the issue? 

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What occurred in the past that laid the groundwork for the issue? 

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How do I fit into this issue?
(Or don’t fit in)

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Visual artifact from history that may be relevant:

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Visual artifact from history that may be relevant:

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Critical interpretations, analyses and works written about this topic:

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Critical interpretations, analyses and works written about this topic:

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How have artists been dealing with this topic over time?

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How have artists been dealing with this topic over time?

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The idea of reinforced misogyny made me reflect on instances I acted or thought in misogynistic ways. I often find myself subconsciously de-feminizing myself so that I can be taken seriously. In addition I often feel the need to censor my emotions to avoid being seen as  'dramatic' or 'a bitch' when I speak up.
I see this often in politics. Men who are passionate are 'powerful' vs. women with the same passion are depicted as 'unstable' by the media.
Growing up with a patronizing, militaristic step father, I find myself having resentment towards men whose behaviors reflect or are categorized with “manly men” due to the associations I have with them.
Ex: step dad, political leaders

Additionally, aggression from men, unwanted advances, entitlement and sense of better ness than women is something that I have experienced first hand which was normalized as "boys being boys".

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The American Psychological Association released its first-ever guidelines for psychologists working with boys and men who are socialized to conform to “traditional masculinity ideology”
“traditional masculinity ideology,” - a set of behaviors and beliefs that include the following:

Suppressing emotions or masking distress

Maintaining an appearance of hardness

Violence as an indicator of power (think: “tough-guy” behavior)

In other words: Toxic masculinity is what can come of teaching boys that they can’t express emotion openly; that they have to be “tough all the time”; that anything other than that makes them “feminine” or weak. (No, it doesn’t mean that all men are inherently toxic.)
It’s these cultural lessons, according to the A.P.A., that have been linked to “aggression and violence,” leaving boys and men at “disproportionate risk for school discipline, academic challenges and health disparities,”
“Men are overrepresented in prisons, are more likely than women to commit violent crimes and are at greatest risk of being a victim of violent crime,” the A.P.A. wrote.

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mental health effects.

“If you have feelings of sadness or grief … and the message is you’re not supposed to have those feelings, then that’s going to make it hard for you to cope in a healthy way.”

This lack of expression is reinforced by the fact that men who don’t conform to masculine stereotypes are often socially excluded, said Tankut Atuk, a University Ph.D. candidate in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies.

According to Hirsch, opening up to their true emotions and vulnerabilities is one of the most powerful ways males can pursue healthier forms of masculinity.

“When men, particularly men in roles of power, are able to open up and talk more personally and share a broader range of emotions, that really provides good role modeling for other men to see,” he said.

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Ahmad Qais Munhazim, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota on how war can affect expectations for male behavior and amplify toxic masculinity. Growing up in war-torn Afghanistan, Munhazim witnessed how war pushed young boys to prefer more masculine roles, even when playing games with friends.

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Military Propaganda reinforced the idyllic white-middle-class male as "soldier, bread-winner, superior":

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Military Propaganda reinforced the idyllic white-middle-class male as "soldier, bread-winner, superior":

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US military created an unproblematic image of the military, and also solidified and
reified the existing masculine power dynamics. Rules against race, sexuality and body types prevented minorities from receiving benefits.. The imagery put out by the US government solidified the power of the hegemonic, white, middle-class male. Propaganda, comic books, ads, and pamphlets depicting the "military masculinity" carried into other spheres (over a century of this media) which created and solidified the narrative of the ideal masculinity and male authority. (Locke, 2003)

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Capitalism Fuels Toxic Masculinity By Building Social Hierarchies

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while the brbershop is a place of comfort for some black men, for Shimoyama, a queer-black man, it was a place where he felt he needed to “re-enter the closet” in order to fit into the type of masculinity in that space. He creates mythological spaces in his works where he could fit in. An

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Trump — brought the ideation of fragile masculinity to the surface, however these ideas have been the root of the US government since the US land was stolen from the first peoples.
—need for the world to believe that they are manly men
-Language:
- During the Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy was by called a “pantywaist" by Paul Ntze when he hesitated to set off nuclear war.
- Suggested that the desire to solve a conflict through nonmilitary measures would mean you were less than fully manly.

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Shaw is a young artist from the UK who challenges the 'macho attitude' he and many other boys have been brought up in, especially surrounding sports. Corbin wants to bring light to the implications that hyper-masculine, heteronormative environments have on men's mental health.  Shaw believes that the pressure to be an unachievable standard of 'man' deprives them of social support and conditions them to be scared of their emotions.

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SUBVERTING MASCULINITY: ORKIDEH TORABI’S “NEW PAINTINGS”

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SUBVERTING MASCULINITY: ORKIDEH TORABI’S “NEW PAINTINGS”

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she strips the male oppressors of their power by undermining the culture of machismo, and mocks the fragility of masculinity in societies where women are seemingly absent. From the way she depicts her subjects – poses them, dresses them, obstructs their looks – Torabi emasculates them and assumes their power.
the aim of this collection is to mock the complex and fragile masculinity of patriarchal societies
caricatures of typical male archetypes

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As the genre traditionally relies heavily on heterosexual norms, Frank Ocean recieved backlash not only from viewers, but from other artists such as Lil Wayne after he openly came out as a queer-man. He is working to challenge a culture that has been built on hyper-masculinity.

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Christopher Breaux, better known by his stage name, Frank Ocean, is coming off a month of success after releasing his fourth single of the year, "Provider," on August 24. The track opens with the line, "Memo finna start acting out if I don't see him soon," potentially referring to Ocean's rumored boyfriend , Memo Guzman. While the interpretation of this lyric is based off mere speculation, openly referencing his sexuality in his music is nothing new to Ocean.

Ocean came out to the public via a letter posted to Tumblr in the summer of 2012, detailing the time he spent with his first love, a man, when he was just 19 years old. His newly-revealed sexual orientation sent shockwaves across the world of hip hop, as the genre traditionally relies heavily on heterosexual norms, and emphasizes a culture of hyper-masculinity. This is best exemplified in Lil Wayne's song, "Turn On the Lights." In the song, Lil Wayne raps: "Tell her I skate/ I ain't got no worries/ No Frank Ocean, I'm straight." With this lyric, Lil Wayne seeks legitimacy simply because of his heterosexual preferences, thus undermining Frank Ocean as an artist on the basis of his sexuality. Micro-aggressions such as these have been a trend in hip-hop for decades.

Historically, hip-hop has been known to be a genre created and adopted by black people in the U.S. to express their frustration towards racial oppression in American society. Artist and scholar Nayo Sasaki-Picou , "[t]his aggressive attitude towards American society has been codified as being a 'natural' attitude of all black males in society. Consequently, a main performative and evolving characteristic of black masculinity through rap music becomes the display of aggressiveness and resistance in society." Sasaki-Picou continues by paraphrasing author and professor, David Murray: "one of the most straightforward ways of asserting this masculinity is through displaying hyper-sexual behavior towards women." In other words, the language of resistance to oppression in hip-hop music has been characterized as an overwhelmingly masculine and heterosexual one, ergo excluding women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Ocean, however, challenges this tone, not only with his coming out, but also with the way he composes his music.

Ocean challenges stereotypes of genre just as he challenges stereotypes of sexuality. His music is layered with unpredictable twists, picking up as soon as you think a song is over, and masterfully executing the non-gendered love ballad. But most importantly, Ocean is a storyteller . In his music, he tells of pouring his emotions out to a taxi driver he's never met before, of his time at University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, and of that summer he spent with his first love as a gay man when he was 19. Ocean acts both symbolically, as being a black queer man in hip-hop culture, and substantively, by weaving his experience as a black queer man into his music. His display of courage in sharing his story, in the face of a genre that shames him for it, carved out a space in rap music for other black queer people to do the same.

Ocean's influence does not, however, go without criticism. As Sasaki-Picou points out, the music videos for some of Ocean's most famous songs, including "Pyramids," "Novacane," and "Swim Good," portray women as "objects of his conquest." Despite his eagerness to escape the stereotypes and assumptions surrounding rap artists, Ocean still has a history of using females as social capital, which perpetuates the problem of contemporary rap music showcasing extremely sexist and homophobic rhetoric. While Ocean may have opened doors for black queer artists and listeners in hip-hop, his coming out does not negate the fact that he temporarily gave in to the attitude he attempts to undermine.

The contradictions in Ocean's image highlight the core issue in hip-hop: one cannot be taken seriously as a contemporary hip-hop artist without proving their masculinity. This, however, is not entirely the fault of hip-hop artists, but is also a reflection of our preferences as consumers. The music industry is a business, meaning the product is a manifestation of consumer wants and needs. Hyper-masculinity in rap music implies that we, as consumers, show favoritism towards a rhetoric that treats women as objects and upholds the gender binary. But hip-hop's problematic tone is not to be solved by pointing fingers. It is the responsibility of both consumers and producers of rap music to ensure its embodiment of moral values.

Alex is a senior political science major from Avon, Indiana. He is most interested in issues of social justice within pop culture, and he loves running, traveling, and drinking a good cup of coffee on his front porch.

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Frank Ocean: Challenging Hip-Hop's Hyper-Masculinity - The Prindle Post

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Christopher Breaux, better known by his stage name, Frank Ocean, is coming off a month of success after releasing his fourth single of the year, "Provider," on August 24. The track opens with the line, "Memo finna start acting out if I don't see him soon," potentially referring to Ocean's rumored boyfriend , Memo Guzman.

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The Good Men Project defines it this way:
Toxic masculinity is a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness; where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured, while supposedly “feminine” traits — which can range from emotional vulnerability to simply not being hypersexual — are the means by which your status as “man” can be taken away.--- constructs that enforce problematic notions of masculinity
It is crucial, however, that students understand some key ideas:
• Talking about toxic masculinity is not about vilifying boys, men or any of the particular qualities society has deemed “masculine.” Rather, it is an opportunity to begin to reconstruct a more positive model of masculinity that makes room for the many different ways to
e a boy or man and allows all individuals to feel secure in their masculine identity.

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Self- Sustaining system : Cultural ideals of manliness 

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Self- Sustaining system : Cultural ideals of manliness 

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The social construct of what a 'man' should be (alpha, strong, aggressive, heterosexual) is an ongoing issue that encompases many cultures, and stretches back throughout many periods of history. This has created and continues to create social, racial, and gender inequlities and oppurtunities.

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Behaviors perpetuated by toxic masculinity include not only devaluation of women, their bodies and opinions, but also condemning feminine traits within other men. Violence, homophobia, sexual assault and exclusion occur as a result.