Profiting Off “Toxic Masculinity?”

You may — or may not — be surprised who’s raking in the bucks off of it

The irony was breathtaking.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t so ironic after all.

Here I was, looking at an article entitled, “What Is Toxic Masculinity?” The author, Maya Salam, is a veteran of The New York Times. According to her bio, she was previously “a Times gender reporter, writing the In Her Words newsletter, with the Gender Initiative.”

Not far below the headline was an ad for a video game. Prominent in the ad was an unflattering image of a woman’s mostly-exposed breasts.

Think about that: near the top of an article lecturing us on toxic masculinity is an ad profiting off of the perhaps the most odious symbol of that very same “toxic masculinity”!

Now I know Maya Salam has no control over which ads appear in her online articles. Very likely The Times doesn’t either. But this issue — this glaring contradiction — goes beyond the author as well as The Times.

Defining “toxic masculinity”

According to the journal-and-news website The Conversation:

“The term ‘toxic masculinity’ points to a particular version of masculinity that is…represented by…violence, dominance, emotional illiteracy, sexual entitlement, and hostility to femininity.”

The article unpacks a lot about the concept. I won’t begin to attempt as much in this post. I’ll simply say that as a guy, I know how dominant these traits can be. I myself am not physically violent or dominant — not by a long shot. But I’m all too aware of my own at-times “emotional illiteracy” as well as the thinking and behavior that can flow out of it.

As for “sexual entitlement…and hostility to femininity?” Consider these stats:

· 9 out of 10 rape victims are women. · Men are (at least by one estimate) 543% more likely to look at porn then women. · 88% of adult-film scenes depict physical aggression, while nearly 50% contain verbal aggression. Nearly all of the aggression is committed against women.

And pray tell, who are the purveyors of this vomit?

Ah, the hypocrisy!

Google prides itself on “actively promoting gender equality.”

Google also owns 90% of all search engine traffic. And 25 percent of that traffic is for pornography.

So, the very company that dominates the internet will lecture us on gender equality — while at the very same time contributing to the degradation of the very women it purports to stand up for!

Google’s censorship is well-documented — on both the left and right side of the political aisle. Please don’t tell me Google couldn’t block all if not most hard-core porn sites if it wanted to.

The problem goes way beyond Google. It’s everywhere.

I don’t look for porn. Ever. But I can hardly spend time on the internet without being bombarded by — pardon me saying it — boobs and butts!

My email provider is Yahoo. Yahoo is a cheerleader in the fight against “toxic masculinity.” Yet I cannot go to their homepage without getting greeted by headlines trumpeting the latest female celeb to pose nude or nearly nude. I’ve had to stop going there and start getting my emails off of Outlook.

Speaking of celebrities…

Having their cake and eating it too…

Why do these women — almost all of whom are staunch supporters of “gender equality” — delight in flaunting their bodies? Why are they seemingly in a contest to literally “out-strip” one another?

You and I both know the answer. It’s in the bucks, baby! As long as these celebs can pad their net worth by showing off their private parts, all the better for them. Who cares how many rapes will be inspired by their nude selfies?

Indeed, they have the best of both worlds. They can rail against toxic masculinity while profiting off of it!

The same can be said for Google and the other “cultural gatekeepers.”

Funny how self-righteousness goes out the window when it threatens the bottom line!

Do we want to be part of the problem — or an answer to it?

Men, what about us? What do we do when our innate sense of right and wrong clashes with our “red-blooded American male” hormones?

What do — or should — you do when your senses get titillated by the sexualized image in front of you?

To answer that, I’ll refer you to a billboard I saw several years ago. On it was a giant picture of a forlorn teenage girl, with the simple caption: “She’s Somebody’s Daughter.”

Start by reminding yourself there is a human life behind the titillating picture. She could be a sex trafficking victim (as a number of them are). Even if she isn’t, she’s much more likely to do drugs and/or contract an STD.

Do you really want to contribute to that?

Think also of the end result of all this — the broken marriages…the broken intimacy within a marriages…the broken families…the broken lives.

Oh, and did I mention the broken society as well?

I ask you again: do you want to contribute to that? Do you want to help make it profitable?

Again, I’m speaking mostly to men here. I’m aware that female porn addiction is growing. But it’s still predominately a male thing. I mean c’mon, who else do you really think Ariana Grande and Cardi B are seeking to arouse? (For that matter, who else do you think pushes these women to prostitute themselves?)

I write about this in my 2021 post inspired by that billboard. Check it out here. And then ask yourself the same question I quoted in that post:

“So if it’s not okay to watch pornography when it’s your little girl in the starring role, why’s it okay when it’s someone else’s?”

Perhaps if a critical mass of us stopped to think like this, it could dry up the flow of Google (and other)-sanctioned prostitution.

Perhaps we can then send the message loud and clear that “toxic masculinity” isn’t profitable.