Love 1
Christy Love
Dr. Watts
English Comp I
10/17/2019
What Real Men Do
In today’s society, there is a fairly new term used to describe the negative effects of a
masculine driven environment; toxic masculinity. According to an article by Alia E. Dastagir in
USA Today, “The APA defines the traditional masculinity as a particular constellation of
standards that have held sway over large segments of the population, including: anti-feminity
achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and
violence,”(Dastagir). It may hurt others and the men themselves that engage in this type of
behavior. It is also a term that is misused to try and persuade people to feel the way they do
about masculinity. It seems that with gender equality movement, the positive and negative sides
of being a “masculine man” is under scrutiny. Is being a masculine man such a bad thing?
Exploring the positive and negative sides of masculinity, and the application of the toxic
masculinity concept, changes the idea of what it means to be a “real man” and how men should
act.
“Toxic Leadership and the Masculinity Contest Culture: How “Win or Die” cultures
Breed Abusive Leadership” (Matos, O’Neill, Lei), an article published in the Journal of Social
Issue, set out to show that people were more likely to be unhappy in their workplace, have
trouble at home, and were more likely to seek other employment when working under a “toxic”
leader. Masculinity contest culture consists of ideas such as win or die, dog-eat-dog, put work
first, show no weakness, and always show strength and stamina. These ideals lead to holding
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people accountable for things they cannot control, success is perceived as strength and failure is
considered weakness, and the competition to do be the best no matter who you must step on to
get there. There also tends to be verbal abuse and degrading treatment in masculinity contest
culture.
In every study, both men and women were asked the same types of questions about their
workplace, their leadership, and if they felt happy in their workplace. Men react differently than
women, as it affects them on a different social level. The theory that men felt more meaning in
their jobs than women in certain circumstances was explained as when men will feel more
meaningful about their job if they are meeting the norm of fitting in and conforming to what their
leaders or coworkers believe. They have the same views and see nothing wrong with the
leadership.
