I'm 73. I was a teen in the 1967 to 1971 era. A college student attempted to seduce me when I was about 15. I shudder to think now of all the trouble he could have gotten himself into if I hadn't been well trained in setting limitations. Statutory rape for starters and possibly paying child support instead of finishing his degree.
He's the only example of a toxic male that I have directly experienced myself. Sure, I've met guys who had some underlying attitudes about roles and expectations, but not to the point that it interfered with me being able to be myself. Sometimes a little assertiveness has been needed on my part, but I've never experienced anything that rose to the level of toxic.
I know the predators are there. I just haven't met them at anti-war protests or later as a public-school teacher or later yet as an in-home care provider. I haven't met any truly toxic men in my current life as a committee warrior in a HOA, either. Toxic people, sure. But not specifically toxic due to being male.
Most guys at this HOA seem to be aware that they don't want to be mansplainers or condescendingly superior assholes due to their gender, (Many are condescendingly superior assholes due to being Formerly Important People, but that's a different phenomenon). When I watched Mad Men, I was really shocked and I thought, "My god, my mother grew up with that as the norm. No wonder she was an alcoholic."
Of course, Mad Men assholery and toxic maleness are on a continuum, though it seems logical to me that a lot of one being present will enable some of the other. Both could be norm in social milieus that I have never experienced.
I'm 73. I was a teen in the 1967 to 1971 era. A college student attempted to seduce me when I was about 15. I shudder to think now of all the trouble he could have gotten himself into if I hadn't been well trained in setting limitations. Statutory rape for starters and possibly paying child support instead of finishing his degree.
He's the only example of a toxic male that I have directly experienced myself. Sure, I've met guys who had some underlying attitudes about roles and expectations, but not to the point that it interfered with me being able to be myself. Sometimes a little assertiveness has been needed on my part, but I've never experienced anything that rose to the level of toxic.
I know the predators are there. I just haven't met them at anti-war protests or later as a public-school teacher or later yet as an in-home care provider. I haven't met any truly toxic men in my current life as a committee warrior in a HOA, either. Toxic people, sure. But not specifically toxic due to being male.
Most guys at this HOA seem to be aware that they don't want to be mansplainers or condescendingly superior assholes due to their gender, (Many are condescendingly superior assholes due to being Formerly Important People, but that's a different phenomenon). When I watched Mad Men, I was really shocked and I thought, "My god, my mother grew up with that as the norm. No wonder she was an alcoholic."
Of course, Mad Men assholery and toxic maleness are on a continuum, though it seems logical to me that a lot of one being present will enable some of the other. Both could be norm in social milieus that I have never experienced.