Why Colleges Should Stop Teaching “Toxic Masculinity”

Teaching men that masculinity is inherently poisonous is cruel and counterproductive.

Photo by ajay_suresh, taken in Morningside Heights, NYC on April 16, 2022. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

On college campuses across the globe, young men are subjected to lectures, workshops, and extracurricular activities that teach them their masculinity—an element at the very core of their identity—is dangerous, poisonous, and even toxic.

For the last decade, I’ve covered men’s issues and advocacy. I began around the time I started school at Barnard College of Columbia University, a feminist institution I chose because they graciously awarded me a full-ride scholarship.

There, I took over ten women’s studies classes, primarily at Columbia University. I also took about six women’s studies classes at the local university while I was in high-school. This allowed me to sit in the back of the class and focus on building my journalism career, as I wasn’t gaining any practical skills from my coursework.

That said, I was working 50-60 hours a week, and the women’s studies classes were laughably easy. This meant I could work during class while pretending to take notes on my laptop. It worked. I earned straight A’s and was even hired by my classmates’ parents for tutoring because I was often the “top” student in class.

No disrespect to my professors, but they never taught me anything new that I hadn’t already learned during my feminist phase from ages 14-18, when I was genuinely identified as a feminist. Even the convoluted academic articles professors assigned to me I had already read in my free time—so what was the point of rereading them for class? (Of course I did anyways, but only because I loved school so much).

But to recap, what did I learn?

My professors taught me that men are “oppressors.” They suffer from “cisheteronormativity.” They “reinforce the patriarchy by their very existence,” according to an old notebook I have. Men’s “toxic masculinity” causes everything from dating problems to the destruction of women’s self-esteem.

But men can’t win. Nothing will change the minds of women who already loathe men.

I’ve written hundreds of articles on the denigration of men and masculinity in society for websites like USA TODAY, The Daily Caller, and Liberty Affair. These articles have been cited in legal documents, government investigations, over 20 books, and more.

Yet every week, another news article highlights this reality. Just earlier this month, I covered the MARS and the NU Men programs at Northwestern, designed for men to “unlearn masculinity,” where students can anonymously report their “toxic” male classmates for perceived sexism.

Toni Airaksinen in Butler Library at Columbia University / Taken For The US Department of Education Asked to Profile Me As A Champion For School Choice

How Feminism’s War on Men Backfires

Male students accused of sexual misconduct are investigated by self-appointed campus “police” in the Title IX office, institutions designed to support female victims rather than ensure due process for the accused. I call these kangaroo courts, and their structure doesn’t just impact falsely accused men—it disproportionately affects POC and men with Asperger’s, as I uncovered in a previous investigation.

I started college full-time at age 14 and took women’s studies classes until my senior year at Barnard College, graduating in 2018. I’ve learned something most feminists don’t realize: calling men “toxic” only backfires. It creates defensiveness among men while feminists claim the moral high ground—causing men to retreat from women.

When I first started writing about “toxic masculinity” back in 2015, it was a trendy term not yet formally defined in scholarly literature. Instead, it was more of a grassroots concept that had been used since the 1980s and 1990s, first popularized by early men’s advocacy movements—not feminist ones, as some might assume.

For example, the 1994 book Man Enough: Fathers, Sons, and the Search for Masculinity highlighted one of the earliest references to toxic masculinity in literature.

“Without a father in residence, [men] may go through life striving towards an ideal of exaggerated, even toxic, masculinity,” wrote author Frank Pittman on the impact of fatherlessness on young men.

But while the term was initially used by men seeking to raise awareness of male-specific struggles, it has since been co-opted by the feminist establishment. Calling men “toxic” has become a strategy to justify scapegoating, blaming, and denigrating men as a whole.

Oppression is Not Straightforward

Women are treated more leniently in nearly all aspects of the legal system—from custody preference to lower bail amounts to lighter sentences for crimes. One study found that men receive sentences that are, on average, 63% longer than those given to women for the same crimes.

Men are also more likely to be murdered. Men account for 90% of workplace deaths. Police often side with women in domestic disputes, reinforcing the notion that women could never be the aggressors and failing male victims of abuse.

Men account for 90% of workplace deaths. Their suicide rate is four times higher than that of women. They are also more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia—conditions that can lead to unemployment, despair, and, in some cases, criminalization due to impulsive actions during manic episodes.

Academically, men have been falling behind for decades now.

Women now make up 58% of university students and graduate at higher rates in most degree fields. But even if we might agree that college is overrated, boys’ test scores in K-12 education are plummeting at a faster rate than girls’, a trend that worsened with the COVID-19 lockdowns and the rise of excessive screen time.

This isn’t to say that men are more oppressed. That’s not the argument. Women suffer abuse, harassment, rape, workplace discrimination, and exploitation all too often. But these struggles are well-known. We shouldn’t be debating who has it worse, yet countless forums on Reddit show that’s exactly what people are doing.

Is Neutralizing Masculinity the End Goal?

And if masculinity is really toxic, then what’s the remedy?

“This PC gender politics thing—the way gender is being taught in the universities—in a very anti-male way, it’s all about neutralization of maleness,” Camille Paglia once said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Indeed, this does seem like the neutralization of maleness, as Paglia claims. It seems feminists want a society where men are either rich providers who will take care of their needs or a society where “toxic men” should abandon gender roles and chivalry.

To say the least, “neutralizing maleness” is a way to undercut what makes men essentially men. And let’s not talk about the chromosome debate.

In the college classroom, toxic masculinity is presented as an undeniable reality affecting all men and harming all women. These lessons dominate Women’s Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology courses, reinforcing the patriarchal framework that views men as predators and women as perpetual victims.

When this is taught, no counterarguments are provided. The notion that toxic masculinity is a theory rather than an absolute truth is never acknowledged.

Teaching men that the core of their identity is inherently flawed isn’t productive. Over the years, many men have written to me, saying the term makes them angry, defensive, and uncomfortable—as it lumps all men together with the worst offenders.

Furthermore, this narrative damages gender relations. One man described the concept of toxic masculinity as “the mental castration of men,” suggesting it was an attempt to create “males submissive to Marxist-feminist doctrine.” Another told me he felt resentful of being stereotyped this way.

Not only does this rhetoric harm men—it also harms women.

The feminist bureaucrats lurking in the Ivory Tower may have good intentions, but good intentions don’t always lead to good policies or outcomes. Teaching men that their identity is inherently poisonous is a cruel and counterproductive way for academic feminists and armchair activists to “level the playing field.”

Feminism isn’t working with men. Donald Trump’s recent re-election proves it.

This opinion piece was brought to you by Toni Airaksinen, Senior Editor of Liberty Affair and a journalist based in Delray Beach, Florida. Follow her on Substack , on X/Twitter @ Toni_Airaksinen and Instagram @Toni_Airaksinen. Buy her a coffee if you enjoyed this piece.