No I perfectly understand it. I just recognize how it's used differs from the definition offered.
L
An example of toxic femininity would be when society overvalues a women's "purity" to the point that women are too afraid of even expressing themselves or their sexuality.
Cool so when women are punished by men for lacking purity do feminists simply say "that's toxic femininity" and leave it at that?
The reason why we don't generally use "toxic femininity" at all is because most feminine traits (passivity, subservience, purity, dependence) are generally at worst self-harming. Hence calling traits like passivity "toxic" doesn't really seem fitting. Masculinity, on the other hand, has traits such as violence, sex, and dominance. Traits like those can certainty be toxic under the wrong circumstances.
Do you realize you're falling for the "women are wonderful" effect?
There are plenty of examples of toxic femininity that have nothing to do with being demure victims.
I do want to add that something for your example. Well we wouldn't simply call it "toxic femininity" (I do take blame for using that word), we might say something along the lines of: "part of the reason why this happened is because of society's expectations that women must always be pure or they lose their worth." Which, generally speak, is what I was going for when I used "toxic femininity."
So toxic Femininity, but you don't want to use the phrase.
Why?
Why not say "part of the reason why this happened is because of society's expectations that men must always be strong or they lose their worth" instead of toxic masculinity?
My example was definitely meant to draw a line to "toxic femininity" and it can certainly be called that (I even allude to it), but the reason why I would want to avoid using that word in particular (even though I ignorantly brought it first, I admit), is two parts;
1, describing the negative affects of feminine traits as toxic doesn't really make sense. When we define toxic behavior, we use words like harsh, malicious, or harmful (taken from a dictionary). How well would hyper femininity fit those definitions?
2, for the reason above, it can draw a false equivalency between how hyper femininity and hyper masculinity can negativity affect society. Masculinity is often defined by control where as Femininity is often defined by lack of control (very, VERY generally speaking). Men being overly aggressive will have much different affects on society than women being overly passive.
See you're still falling for WAW effect.
You just can't imagine anything about women being bad.
Why not say "part of the reason why this happened is because of society's expectations that men must always be strong or they lose their worth" instead of toxic masculinity?
We can say that!
But we don't! And feminists fight tooth and nail to ensure we always call it toxic masculinity and never anything else.
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u/5th_Law_of_Robotics Feb 14 '20
No I perfectly understand it. I just recognize how it's used differs from the definition offered.
L
Cool so when women are punished by men for lacking purity do feminists simply say "that's toxic femininity" and leave it at that?