Why Masculinity is Destructive

The extent to which the construct of gender is socialised into us means that seldom do we question it conceptually. Some people may subvert various aspects of what scholars call ‘hegemonic masculinity’ – the culturally exalted form of masculinity. Most men cannot live up to this hegemonic masculinity in its entirety, but men generally tend to strive to act out this masculinity in-so-far as they possibly can.

In gender theory, the binaries of masculinity and femininity share differing qualities, where the masculine qualities are automatically considered by society to have more value over the feminine. These qualities are not just bodily, they are ideological. Some masculine qualities include: quantitative methods of analysis in research, hard sciences and militarism. Some feminine qualities include: caring, qualitative research methods, art and literature.

Understanding these binaries on an ideological level, we can see how belief in the superiority of these masculine binaries is entrenched in our society – from the way governments are run, to the way in which capitalism affects our daily lives.

Capitalism can be considered as being as masculinist project. It seeks to produce a quantitative outcome – money; it seeks to commodify various aspects of our daily lives and create problems to which it can sell us solutions in order to obtain ever greater gains in capital.

In order for this to take place, various ideological shifts are required. It is not my intention to speak of cultures in a monolithic way or to assume that all cultures are static, but the aim of capitalism to make money requires an artificial adaptation of culture in order for capitalists to achieve their goals. This is diametrically in opposition to a qualitative, grassroots change that seeks to change society for the good of all peoples. In short, the masculine capitalist valuing of quantitative outcomes attempts to influence people culturally in order to achieve an outcome solely for its favour - the creation of capital.

One way in which we can see this happening is the commodification of human relationships. The media incessantly promotes the concept of a hegemonic man as being toned in physique – which will require a gym membership and various supplements while needing to smell and dress in a certain way – requiring ever more purchases. The capitalists then promote the idea of safe-sex in order to sell condoms. This is not because they are concerned about the health of society, but because they wish to encourage hyper-sexuality in order to sell more. It goes without saying that women and men have been sexualised to an insane degree in our societies. Condoms, for example, are simply one purchase that has been encouraged by other mechanisms further up the chain – the promotion of various goods to encourage sexual desirability in order to encourage more sexual partners – and at the bottom of the chain, to sell more condoms. At every part of this chain, the capitalist wins – and we loose. It is in no way beneficial for the masculine project of capitalism to encourage critical thinking, to challenge culture, to encourage development of personality in order to build emotional relationships. It is completely within their benefit to reduce relationships to rigid, transactionary fleeting moments rather than encouraging meaning and the development of bonds between people.

One might argue that men whom are unable to obtain this hegemonic masculine desirability and thus have adequate sexual partners may resort towards prostitution – thus further entrenching the objectification of men and women.

There are other ways in the masculine project of capitalism is destructive. Aside from the damage to meaningful human relationships, there is great damage to our health through consumption of various food items, alcohol & other intoxicants, obesity rates that come from an increase in income and this not only affects our health negatively, but also facilitates the creation and propagation of ‘healthy living’ industries (‘superfoods’, whole foods etc.) and medicinal ‘cures’ for problems caused by the food industry. All of these industries are heavily interrelated and rely on the social engineering of humans into consumers and commodities. All of these rely on a quantitative economy (a masculine economy), rather than a caring economy concerned with social justice (a feminine economy).

The most blatant form of destructive masculinity is the way in which war, violence and militarisation are normalised and seen as acceptable means for states to resolve conflicts - and also revealing the way in which overcoming masculinity must be a collective effort - an instigator of war will not defend themselves with words (a feminine response) but with physical retaliation - it is thus within the interest of a state to promote masculinity and militarism to achieve its ends.

Below is a short YouTube video outlining how ‘bro culture’ encourages the sexualisation of women via mechanisms such as the media and social reinforcement:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKmn2OY7AMI