Toxic Masculinity and Cultural Change
Channel: BioBalance Healthcast
Date: 2016-12-16

Gender identity is a focus of concern and study in America today. The questions being asked are:  are we born that way? Is gender a culturally determined thing? Can gender identity be changed? Is gender identity synonymous with sexual identity?

Recent studies trying to quantify a concept called Toxic Masculinity have been analyzed and the results were published by Sarah Kaplan in the Washington Post. (She referenced a recent issue of  the Journal of Counseling Psychology)

These studies have looked at 11 norms (cultural) that have been historically called masculine norms. The researchers wanted to know if these norms of expected behavior were causative for mental disorders or issues in men.

The norms were:
 1.desire to win
 2. need for emotional control,
 3. risk taking
 4. violence
 5. dominance
 6. sexual promiscuity or playboy behavior
 7. self-reliance
 8. primacy of work
 9. power over  women
 10. disdain for homosexuality
 11. pursuit of status