Professor In Exile Deconstructs “Toxic Masculinity”

It turns out it’s just the latest shibboleth from the Left. “This term, toxic masculinity, is being wielded indiscriminately, and with force,” Heather E. Heying writes in Quillette. “We are not talking imprecision now, we are talking thoroughgoing inaccuracy.”

“Most men are not toxic. Their maleness does not make them toxic, any more than one’s ‘whiteness’ makes one racist.” Heying is a self-proclaimed “professor-in-exile” at Evergreen State College, which has driven other progressives off-campus with its speech policies.

“Assume for the moment that we could agree on terms: Is maleness more highly correlated with toxic masculinity than is femaleness?” Heying, an evolutionary biologist, writes. “Yes.”

“Ipso facto—the term is about maleness, so men will display more of it than will women. The logical leap is then concluding that all men are toxic. The very communities where ‘toxic masculinity’ is being discussed most are the communities where the men are, in my experience, compassionate, egalitarian, and not at all toxic.”

“Calling good men toxic does everyone a deep disservice. Everyone except those who seek empowerment through victim narratives.”

Related Topics