Sean Plunket: Toxic masculinity isn’t the problem – toxic feminism is
…a dark and disturbing aspect of New Zealand society that most of us have been aware of but too cowed by a prevailing climate of political correctness to openly discuss or address, toxic feminism.
You know what I’m talking about, those endless columns written by clearly biased journalists that use phrases like “mansplaining” and “stale pale male” to mock anyone who might challenge their misandry and moral superiority.
If a woman dares question the high priestesses of this hateful cabal, they are pitied for being subjugated by the utterly fictitious “tyrannical patriarchy”.
If you try engaging with the toxic feminists, they will inevitably retreat to their social media silos screaming “bully” or “misogynist” or launch an online petition and campaign to have you fired and ostracised. Their latest wacky idea is to do away with jury trials in our criminal justice system.
The toxic feminists can’t tolerate any criticism because their particular brand of outrage and hatred simply doesn’t stand up to any rational scrutiny.
What will help? Well why not look for a screening of Amanda Millar’s movie “Celia” about the late Celia Lashlie or check out the work of New Zealander of the year Mike King.
Men and women might also consider calling out instances of casual toxic feminism at work or school or university to reinforce the truth that the empress’s cloak of virtue is non-existent. We can also talk and listen to each other without throwing insults and epithets around like confetti or buying into the polarising hate speech that toxic feminism encourages.
To an extent Plunket is right. Some feminists have extreme ideas about switching power balances from male to female, and want to discredit and shut down males who speak, especially those critical of radical feminist ideas.
But Plunket does the debate a disservice. He won’t help discussion and understanding by referring to ‘toxic feminism’, which could be seen to imply that feminism is toxic. He should have qualified it by describing it as ‘some feminists are toxic’ or ‘toxic radical feminism’ (but even some radical feminism can be justified activism).
Most feminism is fair and reasonable. I agree to large extent with the aims of a lot of feminists. There are extreme feminists, but they are a small minority.
Plunket is also wrong to infer that toxic masculinity isn’t a problem. There is some toxic masculinity (not all masculinity) that remains a major problem. That shouldn’t be dismissed by shifting the blame to an equal and opposite reaction.
He has just thrown more toxins into the debate, adding to the ‘them versus us’ war of words.
Plunket would do better by promoting positives of feminism and positives of masculinity.
