There is a Wikipedia page on toxic masculinity, but not one on toxic femininity (it redirects to "Internalised sexism"). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internalized_sexism#%22Toxic...
I much the same way that “unusually large microbe” does not imply that microbes are generally unusually large.
The “‘toxic masculinity’ means masculinity is uniformly toxic” thing is a reading so tendentious as to be incompatible with good faith.
I agree it was never intended to, but the reality is different. It should be dumped and a new term used.
That's funny, really. I always only ever encounter it used by people who smear any and all masculinity as "toxic".
Do you have a link to a place "toxic masculinity" is used to describe a minority subset of the male population?
Sounds like you've managed to get yourself living in quite the bubble/echo chamber. Go explore the world dude.
If there wasn't at least a little bit of complicity in it being interpreted as a general diss on masculinity, the term would never have caught on, or a different term would have been chosen in the first place. In the face of repeated misunderstandings, people using the term would pick a new one. They haven't done that. Why? It seems to me that they are quite happy to be "misunderstood" 95% of the time.
The gender swapped equivalent seems to be "internalised misogyny". Do you think I could get away with calling it "toxic femininity" instead? Nobody would let that pass. Do you think I could get away with calling any obviously bad behaviour associated with femininity, "toxic femininity", at all? I don't think I could.
It's widely considered by men to be an insulting term, and if people who use it don't want to insult people, they should pick another one. They don't though, which is telling.
Anyone who actually knows what adjectives are and how they work believes this.
Or people familiar enough with the substance of the discussion to know it includes discussion of what healthy masculinity is. Here's an easy-to-digest example:
https://ifunny.co/picture/if-you-ever-find-yourself-confused...
> Do you think I could get away with calling it "toxic femininity" instead? Nobody would let that pass.
Oh, yes. Nobody would dare talk use the phrase toxic femininity. /s
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/women-vs-women-toxic-femini...
https://thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2020/07/15-example...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sex-sexuality-and-ro...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/drnancydoyle/2021/07/13/we-need...
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanschocket2/toxic-femininity-exam...
https://www.yesweekly.com/opinion/toxic-femininity-the-under...
If you really think that femininity doesn't come under the microscope, then one can only assume you have no substantial familiarity with feminism.
I think people certainly use the phrase "toxic femininity", but such examples are from the long-tail.
In institutions, it is no-where near as discussed as much as "toxic masculinity", and probably discussing it would be be frowned upon.
You can see mentions of "toxic masculinity" amongst United Nations literature, for example, which can't be said for "toxic femininity". For example, the expectation of being the breadwinner of the family is said to be one of the things that is "rooted in a patriarchal culture, creat[ing] toxic masculinity". [1]
What isn't said, is that the expectation to become a competent man who is tries to support his family can also be a positive example of masculinity (and indeed is desirable to women), in addition to being the traditional one.
If this expectation is cast only being a "toxic" one, then that is a confusing message for young men, and leaves them without what was one of the traditional motivation for going to college, and improving yourself, so that you can get a good job and better shoulder responsibility when you want to start a family.
[1] https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/2/compilation-b...
Of course this does not mean that these traits are somehow exclusive to or owned by Masculinity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity
Much of that sounds positive to me. I think the toxicity primarily comes from people caring primarily about appearance. For example by trying to avoid being seen as weak or by trying to appear strong relative to other people by making them appear to be weak.
