Have you ever heard of how the domino effect works?
It implies that any event, especially a bad one will trigger another similar event and that’s how the chain goes.
Often toxic masculinity is blamed for the misogynist, aggressive, and emotional absence kind of behaviors. Though, this is not completely wrong. But some cases might state that men have turned this way after encountering fake feminism.
Fake feminism or pseudo-feminism is basically misusing the rights and idea of equality to fulfill personal agendas. For example – Fake molestation cases are on the rise just to exploit the other party and domestic violence against men is not easy to digest. Years and years of patriarchy are responsible for crime and violence against women. And maybe that’s how the outrage is so extensive that fake feminism came into existence. Domino effect?.
This is a never-ending loop. And hence, it is essential to understand the need of breaking this vicious circle.
Maybe fake feminism is a push to toxic masculinity. How?
I’ve often seen men disgusted over the term feminism. But they do stand against crime or violence against women. Then how is this whole idea working? Let us take an example.
Let’s suppose I’m on a social media site. Someone makes a fake id using my name and starts trolling everybody. People start blaming me for it but actually, it’s the person using that fake account who should be blamed. Though people might like me as a person they are still believing that I’m behind all this trolling as someone is using my name.
Metaphorically, I’m Feminism in this situation and the hacker is fake feminism.
This example concludes how fake feminism is pushing men away from the real idea of feminism. And that’s how a man who supports equal rights for women but flinches his face whenever the term “feminism” is mentioned, is termed as toxic or their behavior as toxic masculinity.
Exploiting men physically, mentally, and emotionally makes them reconsider the idea of dominance over women
When we talk about every action having an equal and opposite reaction, sometimes ethics, values, and a sense of stability are compromised. Being dominant is not at all justified. But it should not be gender specific. If men’s dominance over women is not okay. Then we must not be okay with tables being turned. Men are victims of domestic violence too. They are mentally and emotionally tortured too. This shakes their belief system and can turn them into a toxic personalities who hurts others before they try to hurt them. Again, we are not justifying toxic masculinity, but we are against fake feminism equally and stating how it might be pushing toxic masculinity to grow.
Not taking responsibility for mistakes and blaming everything on men, even responsibility
An independent feminist is not supposed to be perfect but simply her true self who is trying and making her life. Fake feminism displays men as a gender who’ll always make mistakes, and who’ll always be at fault. And we all know how frustrating it is to be blamed when you are not even at fault. This results in avoidant, selfish, and emotionally unavailable behavior, which are ultimately traits we mention under toxic masculinity.
When feminism fights for equal rights, it also means that the share of responsibility should also be divided. But fake feminism is always there to seek rights but not responsibilities. This, by default, might push men towards categorizing that women are not there to take responsibility. Again how smoothly our conversation turned toward toxic masculinity
Fake Cases
I can’t put more emphasis on how important this section is.
There is a story about a little boy. He used to prank everybody and lie to them that he saw a lion. People paid attention first but started ignoring him as they knew he was lying. One fine day, the boy actually saw a lion entering his town. But this time he told everybody, and none believed him.
Metaphorically, here the little boy telling a lie indicated fake cases, and telling the truth indicated genuine cases.
The Delhi High Court has expressed worry that there is an “alarming increase” of false cases of rape being registered “only to arm-twist the accused and make them succumb to the demands of the complainant” in 2021. Fake feminism takes advantage of the rights made for the welfare of women and hence, exploits men to fulfill their personal agendas. An innocent person who was pushed behind bars just because a lady filed a fake FIR against him won’t be able to believe the system ever again.
Though to eliminate or reduce this issue, policymaking, and government interference can improve something. But just to register, Such fake cases can not only harm innocent people and their families but also give rise to an ideology that stands against providing women so many rights. And that’s another trait of toxic masculinity.
Conclusion –
It’s sad how the fight to establish equality is turning into taking advantage and making it an excuse to exploit the other gender. Toxic masculinity is not justified. Fake feminism is not justified. Anything that is harming any other person intentionally, irrespective of gender is simply not justified. We expect men to change, they are changing. The page is gradually turning. But we are here to support them in doing that and not to take advantage when they are down.