Masculinity Is Fragile
Masculinity is not toxic.
It’s fucking fragile.
It’s thin, fine, and quick to shard.
When we call it toxic, we give it power, and strength it doesn’t deserve.
It’s not poison, it’s a scared animal in fight or flight. Live or die.
It’s scary because it’s threatened, not because it was born with killer instinct.
Fragile masculinity starts wars.
It drugs, overpowers, rapes.
It rules the world, it controls our bodies at the state and federal level.
Men aren’t natural leaders. Neither are women. None of us exit the womb ready to lead over anyone.
There is a loud, intrusive thought that men are meant to be strong leaders who take care of us, and I think about it often.
How exhausting that must be. An unrealistic expectation placed upon you just because you were born without a vagina.
(note: gender isn’t defined by genitals, but for the purpose of this piece, I’m using binary terms.)
That has to be really hard for you to process. I bet you’d have big feelings about it all, if you’d give yourself the space and grace to understand how unfair that is for you, and for me.
Men have always been expected to go to war, to kill for their countries. Die for nothing but honor and pride, whatever that means.
Many modern men lack the self awareness to look beyond their own misunderstood machismo.
What is it that makes them think that they are the leaders, by birthright?
It isn’t because they are ‘lions amongst sheep’ or ‘kings’.
Fragile masculinity thinks it can be the president because it’s famous…it can overthrow the government and act like a nazi because it has more money than anyone else.
It thinks it can take whatever it wants because it looks handsome and it decided that we were asking for it.
Fragile masculinity has no place in a sane and functional world.
Fragile masculinity shoots up schools, fucks little girls, and trafficks women for money because it decided our bodies don’t belong to us.
That we exist for its pleasure only.
It makes us carry unwanted children, sometimes daughters who get stuck in the same cycle of dominant and submissive. Testosterone and trad-wives.
It kneels on chests, suffocates, shoots kids for carrying candy, and then its celebrated for its bravery.
It weaponizes incompetence to avoid doing the fucking dishes.
I need to make it clear that I don’t hate men. I love men, and expect more from them. So much more.
Fragile masculinity has been told that it is the problem.
Instead of listening and understanding, it doubles down and further proves the point that it is so easily broken.
It doesn’t know what it means to be a man. It doesn’t even know how to clean its own asshole.
Strong and positive masculinity uplifts women.
It aids and abets abortion.
It respects pronouns and makes sure you cum every time.
It recognizes the problems in a patriarchal society and understands how it hurts all of us.
It protects us only when we consent to being protected.
It recognizes its internalized misogyny and calls out its bros being bros.
It keeps its fucking hands to itself.
Being a man isn’t a problem.
Being the top contributor in your own downfall is a problem and it’s unfortunate.
Having a bulging, swollen ego will only get you so far.
In reality, femininity and masculinity mean nothing because they are so subjective.
Men bully each other for being too feminine, not masculine enough.
They’re insecure about acting what? Like women? Like what they perceive as being woman-like?
Because society has deemed women weak? Submissive, docile?
Women created the wifi that you use to conveniently call us sluts and fat bitches on the internet.
Women created the electric refrigerator that holds the ham that we use to make your stupid fucking sandwiches.
Women created men.
And we all need to be reminded of that.
Men especially.
Without us there is no them.
And much like the soviet Night Witch snipers who were so deeply feared by the nazis, that any German airman who downed one was automatically given an iron cross medal,
We are not weak, less than, nor are we to be fucked with.