Reverie
2 min readMay 26, 2020

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I feel like toxic femininity comes in a few other forms, and often shows up in mothers and how they treat their kids and especially their daughters. Consider: most child abuse is by mothers, and the most common form of child abuse is emotional abuse. In the most extreme patriarchal cultures, like extremist Islam, extremist Hinduism etc the only real power a woman has is when she is a mother, and so abuse of a mother to her children is kind of "acting out" the only kind of power they feel they have, albeit in a super warped way. FGM is perpetrated overwhelmingly by women on other women. Usually mothers, aunts and grandmothers, against their daughters. Similarly the "passivity" of patriarchal femininity leads to "passive aggression" being a major form of abuse against intimate partners and children. I speak from experience and also from years of feminist activism. Toxic femininity is definitely real but it's not usually what people first think of when they hear the phrase.

A few of your statistics are off though, men are raped at a higher rate than 1 in 59, I have several male friends in my circle who have told me about their experience being raped, most of them when they were children or young teens. Yes, men are usually the perpetrators too. The rate of men being raped is vastly underreported due to toxic masculinity telling men that if they have been raped it makes them less of a man. :( I also think that the justice system is biased against male victims of DV and sexual assault, because they assume that the man must have been the aggressor, or must have been stronger, or must have "wanted it". This is not the fault of feminism, but again toxic perceptions of masculinity that depict men as always the stronger party, always the aggressor etc. It's inconceivable to many that a man could be raped or physically abused by a woman. But it does happen. Not as severe life threatening injuries usually because of the strength difference but that doesn't make it OK. Even my dad was physically abused by my mother and he is a taller, stronger (but very gentle) man.

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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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