Will Feminists Send Todd Starnes To Jail For Being Too Manly? Probably!

Mommy's Good Boy Todd Starnes took a break from his heavy urine consuming schedule today to speak at the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit. 

During his speech, Starnes talked about how he was real sad about how the commies over at the "once-storied organization" Boy Scouts of America are admitting GIRLS now. Sure, they still ban atheists from joining, but GIRLS. Can you imagine?

This is part of what Starnes claims is a concerted effort on the part of the left to criminalize masculinity.

“Many of you have started hearing a phrase in the mainstream media," Starnes whined, "Something called 'toxic masculinity.' It’s not just a war on boys. It’s a war on men. And there are those in this country that want to feminize men. They want to criminalize masculinity,” Starnes said.

He then pointed out that no one was talking about "toxic masculinity" during recent disasters when men were helping out. Such hypocrisy!

“I saw men, grown men, wading into the flood waters, running into the bullets to save people. And I didn’t hear the mainstream media complaining about toxic masculinity then.”

This would indeed be incredibly hypocritical if "helping people out during a disaster" was a thing anyone was referring to when talking about "toxic masculinity."

This appears to be a case of someone hearing a term and getting mad about it without really understanding what it means. Toxic masculinity is not good for men, either. It refers to the expectation that men be violent, macho, homophobic, pick on men that are smaller than they are, not have emotions, etc. etc. In fact, the term was actually first coined by men's groups, who believed that these societal expectations for men were hurting them.

The grand irony is that it is toxic masculinity that makes me feel like giggling maniacally and has me thinking "Seriously this Stilwell Angel looking motherfucker is talking about how manly he is?" right now, and I shouldn't do that. I know that referring to him as "whining" is a jab at his masculinity as well, because "whining" is a characteristic we traditionally apply to women and children. Not manly, macho, stoic men.

Todd Starnes, frankly, is not at all what anyone thinks of when they think of manly, macho men. He's just not. He looks like a twerp, and I could probably take him in a fight. And the fact that, if I did, he would be perceived as less manly, is exactly why toxic masculinity is a problem, and exactly why it does not benefit men like Todd Starnes.

No one is trying to "criminalize" masculinity -- we are trying to push back against ideas and stereotypes about masculinity that are harmful to both men and women. That is a good thing. It means that Todd Starnes doesn't have to be a strong, silent type with a deep voice, a chiseled jaw line and 50+ notches on his belt to be considered "a real man."

Toxic masculinity -- it's bad for us, and it's bad for Todd Starnes. So maybe he might want to look into what things actually mean before going off the deep end and accusing us all of wanting to lock him up in order to properly contain his manliness.

[ RightWingWatch ]