Is Masculinity Toxic? by Andrew Smiler

Author:Andrew Smiler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2019-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

BThis dejected German football fan is fighting back the tears after the defeat of Germany by Italy at the FIFA World Cup in 2006.

AThese paired portrait photographs by Nicolai Howalt show teenage boxers before and after their first fight. In each case, the young boxer presents his calm, determined pre-game face (left) and his bruised and swollen after-fight face (right). The boxers have channelled their anger in order to be brutal, but their vulnerability is evident in their faces after the bout.

In Western nations, anger is the emotion that men are most clearly allowed and encouraged to express.

Commentator Don Long (1987) described men’s anger as their ‘emotional funnel system’ because anxiety, disappointment, jealousy and a range of other negative feelings are often channelled into anger. Research reveals that men who strongly adhere to masculine norms of invulnerability, inexpressiveness and non-femininity tend to report being more lonely; they are also more conflicted about being emotionally intimate with others and have lower quality relation-ships. Many of these men claim that it is better to be angry or aggressive than to express other feelings.

Emotional funnel system The idea that some men funnel a broad range of ‘negative’ emotions, such as sadness, anxiety and jealousy, into anger.

Because men in Western English-speaking cultures are taught not to express their feelings, they are implicitly encouraged not to pay attention to them. Why pay attention to something you are not going to address? And for men who neither express their feelings nor pay attention to them, there is little purpose in asking for sympathy and there may be a lot of uncertainty about how to respond when others express sympathy. Indeed, many men do not know how to reply when someone discloses their feelings. Collectively, the manbox decreases men’s ability to feel empathy for themselves or others.

Among Spanish-speaking people, cultural ideals such as personalismo and simpatía explicitly promote interpersonal relationships and emotional intimacy. In many Pacific Rim nations, emotional display rules are primarily related to the desire to maintain group harmony and avoid undue attention; gender is a secondary factor.

Capitalism also facilitates acquiring power and status.

The industrial workplace and corporate culture work (mostly) together to reinforce hegemonic masculinity. The 1950s-era workplace persists in much of corporate culture today. For many employees, increases in sales and objects produced are the key to continued employment, advancement and greater financial compensation. The ‘next man up’ philosophy endures, thus devaluing workplace relationships; everyone understands that they are replaceable and an employee’s feelings about their boss, coworkers or subordinates are viewed as irrelevant to corporate functioning or profits.

However, as Western nations have shifted from industrial production to service- and knowledge-oriented economies over the past few decades, good job performance has begun to include ‘soft skills’ that emphasize creating good relationships with customers and coworkers of all genders. Today, being a good employee is more complex than simply demonstrating competence in one’s job; it is about understanding and pre-empting a client’s needs or wants, making a positive impression and ensuring a client is happy.

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