Richard Hogan: Stop using the term ‘toxic masculinity’, it's not fair on men

It really wasn’t helpful to class all masculinity as a sickness, writes Richard Hogan

Richard Hogan: I work with teenage boys and girls both clinically and as a teacher. It struck me, over the years, that boys really struggled with positive male identity. All this talk of toxic male behaviour, and subjugating patriarchy made them view themselves as something oppressive and malevolent.

It hasn’t always been easy, being a man. The behaviour of a few bad men, over the years, meant we were all tarred with the one brush. 

I never liked the term ‘toxic masculinity’ because men are masculine, and women are feminine, of course, women can be masculine as men can be feminine. But, classifying masculinity as some sort of pathology was lazy and did a disservice to those of us, the majority, who are proud of being men and don’t harbour misogynistic views.