"A lot of men hear this message from mainstream society that there's something wrong with them, there's something 'toxic' about them. When there aren't positive messages about masculinity it's very easy to understand why they'd then be attracted to extreme figures on the right. I saw it in my own sons."
Photo: Pixabay
Misuse and overuse of the term 'toxic masculinity' sends a message to men that masculinity is itself sort of pathological, says academic researcher Richard Reeves.
As such, he understands how many boys and men who feel stigmatised by society become attracted to anti-feminist reactionaries from the "online manosphere".
To find some real solutions, we have a cultural responsibility to get real about the identity struggles of modern males, he tells Jesse Mulligan.
Richard Reeves is a senior fellow in Economic Studies and the Director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative. His latest book is Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It.
English academic and writer Richard Reeves Photo: Brookings
Although there's growing awareness of the cultural issues facing boys and men, reactionary people from both fringes of the political spectrum have tended to dominate the conversation, Reeves says.
When people told him it too was risky for a self-described "pretty liberal slash egalitarian" scholar to wade in on gender politics, he knew it was the right thing to do.
"So many unreasonable people have dominated this debate. We need more reasonable people who are interested in the data, who are interested in solutions, who are… occasionally, dare I say it, a little bit dull.
"We don't need more polemics, we don't need a culture war around this. What we need is stuff that actually helps real people in the real world."
Photo: supplied
With the loss of traditionally male jobs, we need public policy to encourage men into industries that have traditionally been female-dominated, Reeves says.
'We do have to take very seriously the barriers men face going into those professions just we did the barriers for women going into male-dominated professions.'
Men are woefully underrepresented in teaching, nursing, and care work, Reeves says, and his son still faces a lot of stigma as an early education teacher.
'If we want kids to learn that looking after young children is a female role we're doing that very well by ensuring that only females do that job."
We can all be compassionate about male vulnerability and help men flourish without neglecting women's rights, he says.
"If we want a better politics then we need a better conversation about boys and men.'
