# Toxic Masculinity Toxic Masculinity is a neologism describing norms of male behavior tied to dominance, misogyny, homophobia and violence. Coined in men's movement circles in the 1980s and 1990s, the phrase broke into mainstream internet discourse around 2016 to 2018 through podcasts, YouTube video essays, op-eds and Virgin vs. Chad reaction images that turned the academic term into a culture-war meme. ## Origin According to The Advocate, the term toxic masculinity was likely coined by psychologist Shepherd Bliss during the Mythopoetic men's movement of the 1980s and 1990s, where it described a strain of masculinity born from repressing 'deep masculinity'[1]. The earliest documented appearance in academic research is Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson's 2004 reference work Men and Masculinities: A Social, Cultural and Historical Encyclopedia[1]. The phrase crossed into online feminist writing on January 4th, 2013, when an entry titled 'Toxic masculinity' went up on the Geek Feminism Wiki framing it as 'one of the ways in which Patriarchy is harmful to men'[3]. From there, it sat relatively quietly until podcasters and video essayists picked it up a few years later. - **Platform:** Academic / Men's movement writing (origin), YouTube and Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (term attributed to psychologist Shepherd Bliss) - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview Toxic Masculinity labels the parts of normative Western male behavior tied to dominance, misogyny, homophobia and violence[1]. Unlike most meme formats, it is a term that got memed rather than an image, which means its online life plays out mostly as argument, video essay and reaction image rather than a single template. Online, the phrase works in two opposite registers. Progressive creators use it earnestly in video essays and op-eds that pick apart male role models in pop culture, like Jonathan McIntosh's Pop Culture Detective dissection of Biff from Back to the Future[6]. Critics on the right, including Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson and evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad, treat the phrase itself as the joke, arguing it pathologizes ordinary male traits[4]. The friction between those two readings is what keeps the term alive as meme fuel. In image macro form, the clearest expression is the Virgin vs. Chad edit submitted to r/justneckbeardthings in February 2018, which pits a scrawny 'Virgin Toxic Masculinity' panel against a 'Chad Real Man'[3]. Urban Dictionary entries range from sincere definitions about forced masculinity to sarcastic ones claiming the phrase is a plot 'devised by women to get men to be simps,' showing how contested the vocabulary stayed[5]. ## How It Spread The term spent 2016 getting pulled into podcast and YouTube discourse. On June 26th, 2016, the Podcast Page YouTube channel uploaded a clip of Joe Rogan dismissing toxic masculinity on The Joe Rogan Experience[7]. A little over a month later, on August 1st, 2016, Pop Culture Detective's Jonathan McIntosh posted the video essay 'What Is Toxic Masculinity?' which used Biff from Back to the Future as his case study[6]. Those two videos set the template for how both sides would argue about the phrase online. The real pile-on came in late 2017 and 2018. On November 12th, 2017, Urban Dictionary user SparklyNinja submitted an entry defining it as 'a social science term that describes narrow repressive type of ideas about the male gender role'[5]. A week later, grooming brand Harry's ran an International Men's Day Twitter ad against toxic masculinity[3]. On February 8th, 2018, Redditor EndlessTrashposter dropped the 'Virgin Toxic Masculinity vs. Chad Real Man' image on r/justneckbeardthings, giving the debate a native image macro[3]. March and April 2018 pushed it into mainstream media. On March 7th, Tucker Carlson interviewed Jordan Peterson about the term on Fox News, and the next day Psychology Today ran Gad Saad's essay 'Is Toxic Masculinity a Valid Concept?' accusing users of 'seeking to pathologize masculinity'[4]. On April 27th, Polygon published an interview with God of War director Cory Barlog explaining why Kratos had to change, which drew a mocking tweet from YouTuber OneyNG the next day[2]. The Spectator followed on May 5th, 2018 with the op-ed 'Toxic Masculinity Is a Toxic Phrase'[3]. ## How to Use The term typically shows up in two meme modes. The first is the earnest video essay or thread diagnosing male characters, politicians or behaviors as examples of toxic masculinity, often tying them to broader pop culture patterns like God of War's early Kratos[2]. The second is the ironic callback used by critics and shitposters, where any complaint about male behavior is labelled 'toxic masculinity' as a punchline, as in the sarcastic Urban Dictionary entries and the Virgin vs. Chad image[5]. Common conventions include pairing the phrase with a stock male archetype image, a screenshot of a 'woke' headline, or a clip of a commentator saying it with a straight face. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Toxic Masculinity? Toxic Masculinity is a term for the strain of normative male behavior in Western society associated with dominance, misogyny, homophobia and violence[1]. ### Where did Toxic Masculinity come from? The Advocate traces the phrase to psychologist Shepherd Bliss and the Mythopoetic men's movement in the 1980s and 1990s, with its earliest documented academic use in Kimmel and Aronson's 2004 encyclopedia Men and Masculinities[1]. ### What does Toxic Masculinity mean? Users typically mean the specific male behaviors tied to repression, aggression and dominance rather than masculinity itself, though critics like Gad Saad argue the phrase pathologizes ordinary male traits[4]. ### How do you use Toxic Masculinity? Online it is used two ways: earnestly, in video essays diagnosing characters like Biff from Back to the Future or God of War's Kratos[6][2], and sarcastically, in Virgin vs. Chad images and shitposts mocking the term itself[3]. ### Is Toxic Masculinity still popular? The 2016 to 2018 wave of podcast segments, op-eds and reaction images made it a classic culture war phrase, and it is still a go-to label in debates about male role models in pop culture like God of War[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.advocate.com/women/2017/12/11/what-toxic-masculinity]() 2. [https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2018/4/27/17287292/god-of-war-ps4-sony-toxic-masculinity]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/toxic-masculinity]() 4. [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201803/is-toxic-masculinity-valid-concept]() 5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Toxic%20Masculinity]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gha3kEECqUk]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87QP9XSszL0]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/toxic-masculinity Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library