Reverie
1 min readNov 12, 2019

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Honestly? I don’t feel like what you described is toxic masculinity. Some of your traits may be maladaptive and connected to your childhood and expectations for how to express emotions etc. But what you’ve described doesn’t sound to me like “toxic masculinity”. Toxic masculinity is when societal masculine ideals are taken to extremes and cause harm to the men and the people around them. Most of your behaviour seems not to be fitting into that.

You can be a flawed human without your flaws having to be intrinsically tied to your gender, you know? Both men and women who have had traumatic childhoods find it hard to open up to people. We all sometimes are selfish or talk over people. That isn’t “toxic masculinity” or “toxic femininity” it’s just being human.

And to be honest it sounds like you’re trying to hard to fit yourself into a “problematic” box. Maybe because you feel guilty for being male? Or because you feel that you are only allowed to talk about yourself if you do so in a self deprecating way “acknowledging your privilege” or something?

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Reverie
Reverie

Written by Reverie

“The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds” — Cloud Atlas

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