Why modern feminism encourages toxic masculinity…among girls.

A conversation between a boy and a girl about toxic masculinity, and how it expresses itself in modern-day feminism.

In high school, I hated shopping.

I hated makeup for a long time; I didn’t really wear it for a while, or only wore eyeliner, and scoffed at makeup “trends.” I viewed it as a waste of time and money, an invalid form of expression, silly and frivolous and not for serious, real people like me.

In other words, I had internalized the toxicity that lies underneath a Western approach toward feminism.

Toxic masculinity usually expresses itself through anger and belligerence: a male is hurt or upset but knows it is not “manly” to feel these emotions and thus masks them with anger, lashing out because their emotions are bottled up and creating a toxic atmosphere of emotional denial, repression, and ultimately, dysfunction. Often, if a guy doesn’t get what he wants from a girl (usually a sexual favor), he can get petty very quickly, with his knee-jerk reaction being to call her a “bitch” or “slut,” shoving her gender in her face.

Q: Is there a female equivalent—toxic femininity?

That’s more difficult to pinpoint, because society glorifies “masculine”characteristics, so there are more signs of girls displaying behavior that is toxic in that they are trying to behave…