Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Toxic Stereotypeinity
“A soldier should know the difference between words
And deeds, and keep that knowledge clear
In his brain. I believe your words, I trust in
Your friendship.”
-Danish Coast Guard to Beowulf
-Beowulf, trans. Burton Raffel, Glencoe Literature: British Literature
These few lines from
Beowulf reveal many of the values properly attributed to manliness: martial discipline, honorable language, honorable behavior, logic, clarity in speech, trust, personal and national loyalty, and friendship.
No man can live up to all that, but the point is that all men are supposed to try.
As the narrative develops, the reader understands that other manly virtues include protecting the weak, including women and children.
At this point we might want to consider that many women are in the military, and in combat have accomplished for real what John Wayne did only in the movies.
The matter of masculinity, of manly behavior, now inaccurately and unjustly chained to the pejorative adjective “toxic,” is much criticized just now.
I submit that there is no such thing as toxic masculinity.
I submit that this is a categorical imperative: since “toxic” means “poisonous” (and by extension any sort of evil), and since the attributes of manliness obtain as categories of good, “toxic masculinity” is an inherent contradiction, and, like the figure of a snake swallowing its tail until it disappears, cannot be.
There appears to be an ideological fashion in associating evil actions with masculinity. If the village idiot (One is not supposed to say “village idiot,” but how not? And there are so many of them now!). But as I say, if the village idiot drives along a street discharging a weapon because his mum hurt his feelings, some say that this is an example of toxic masculinity. The behavior is toxic, all right, but it is not manly; it is a failure to be manly.
If a man spends his days flaked out on the couch with video war games while his wife or momma goes to work and supports his sorry ***, that is not toxic masculinity; it is not masculinity at all.
If a man is crooked, lazy, lecherous, creepy, predatory, violent, and stupid he is not demonstrating anything but a complete lack of masculinity.
There are a great many men like that, and often The People (bless their hearts) elect to high office candidates like that, both men and women, who never made the first day of recruit training, made an ambulance run to a flaming wreck, did time with the fire department, patrolled the streets, built fence, herded cows, framed a house, or busted a sweat except on the golf course.
And I don’t get it. But we should still call things as they are, and not mock the manly virtues.
About that Gillette ad – I haven’t seen it, though I shaved with a good, American-made Gillette and the fetid water of the Vam Co Tay along the Cambodian border. I hope that’s okay with the Gillette people.
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