Toxic Masculinity has been part of society for years. Recently, Dr. Colleen Clemens of Kutztown University spoke with The Washington Free Beacon about what it is. This came after the shooting of the church in Texas. Clemens tweeted this:
In the article, Rachel Frommer was actually very respectful about Clemens’ views, but because the publication was from a right-leaning news source, it was picked up by The Daily Wire, which lead to trolls going after her. Since The Dailey Wire‘s article was released, Clemens has been receiving death threats as well as people telling her to go kill herself.
For those of you wondering what exactly toxic masculinity is, it’s the harmful idea that makes men believe that they must be emotionless and portray only anger and aggression. It’s when a man acts as though they are entitled to do and say what they want. It is the idea that a man should never be allowed to show any emotion, such as sadness, unless they want to be perceived as weak.
The response to Clemens’ tweet highlights what toxic masculinity is. Continuously, she has been called a “man hater” by multiple users. I would like to take the time clear up that feminism is not about hating men or oppressing them. It’s about putting everyone on equal footing and eradicating bigoted behavior. Such as the kind that has been directed at Clemens.
Many of Clemens’ colleagues, friends, and students have begun to rally around her. Those with Twitter accounts went on and reported the tweets that have threatened violence against her. Others went on and came to her defense to those that have been calling her a man hater and FemiNazi.
One of her students, Gregory White, had this to say “I think that she is experiencing the effects of exactly what she said is killing everyone: toxic masculinity. But, she is doing it so that others don’t have to, and to show her students the reality of the issue. I think what she is doing is emblematic of exactly what needs to be done to combat oppression, hatred and those two things’ overarching root in toxic masculinity.” White is attending Kutztown University as a double major in History and Anthropology holds three minors in English Literature, Political Science, and Women’s and Gender studies.
Whether or not you agree with being a feminist, you cannot deny that the reaction of the public towards Clemens is unacceptable. Telling someone to kill themselves or saying you’re going to shoot them is not what a good person does.