Media’s role in normalising toxic masculinity

Laxmi Murthy & Usha Raman

From homilies such as “boys don’t cry” and exhortations like “act like a man” to pervasive associations of qualities such as bravery, patriotism and strength with manhood, social and cultural norms have naturalised and even valorised the performance of aggressive and overbearing masculinities across spheres, the most visible being politics and the media. Such performances, normalised through repetition and circulation through a variety of professional, public and private networks, have serious implications for gender relations, apart from severely limiting the possibility of cooperative, empathetic dialogue. The media – news, entertainment, and social networks – are among the primary sites of reinforcement of such performances, vitiating an already polarised and embattled public sphere.

The media today – particularly television – are characterised by an atmosphere of aggression and competitive intimidation. We see men (and women) shouting to get ahead in the race for attention and Television Rating Points (TRPs). The aggression emanating from the newsrooms is reflected on the streets and even in homes, pushing out and silencing non-aggressive, collaborative/cooperative ways of being and interacting. Social sanctions in support of ‘aggression’ for the ‘right cause’, with men in leadership positions also encouraging such aggression, overtly or tacitly; the limited female presence in the political sphere; the impunity and reverence enjoyed by individuals and groups indulging in violence such as lynching, and so on, signal the fact that such hostile and violent behaviour is not only tolerated but widely accepted.

As one team member working on this project noted, “Indian democracy’s shift towards majoritarianism is a distinctly masculine project. It is predicated on a patriarchal articulation of the state’s strength; the suppression of dissent; and the violent othering of those who are marginalised. Such attitudes are reflected and propagated in the country’s weakening institutions, and the mainstream news media is no exception.” New technologies have facilitated easy circulation of aggressive content on social media. The high level of aggression on social media normalises toxic masculinity, encouraging many men to drop their inhibitions and ‘perform’ their masculinities. Visible and vocal women – journalists, human rights defenders, artists and celebrities – are routinely targeted with sexist, casteist and racist abuse, often accompanied by threats of violence, especially sexual violence.

Far from being silenced and intimidated, many women and members of religious and sexual minorities are fighting back, negotiating tricky terrain between taking action against misogyny and sexism online and upholding the right to freedom of expression in the digital space. While such movements do find allies among men in media and elsewhere, much more needs to be done to change not only our behaviours but our attitudes towards each other. This is an issue that goes beyond gender parity to changing the terms of engagement – and the very frameworks that define what it means to engage: with each other, within our professions, and within society at large.

This is a conversation that is many decades old, as old as the struggle against patriarchy, now brought into fresh relief by the convergence of other oppressive ideologies, including hyper-nationalism, ethnocentrism, racism and casteism, all of which link in essential ways with masculinities. Tied to each of these -isms, masculinity becomes a hegemonic and eventually toxic force that serves to entrench existing hierarchies and modes of being. Can there not be positive expressions of the qualities we associate with being good, human, strong, courageous, and/or competent, that do not require aggression, domination and othering? Can there not be an affective language that draws from humanism? What we seek to offer is not a critique of those who identify as men, but rather of the hegemonic, and ultimately toxic, associations of masculinity with aggression, dominance, misogyny and, finally, violence. Such assertions have the effect of oppressing all those on the other side of this power equation, irrespective of gender

These issues are undeniably linked to a broader crisis in the media. The capitulation of much of the mainstream media to political and business interests is near complete, with only a few television channels and a handful of newspaper groups and digital news outlets holding on to some measure of independence. While the current political dispensation thrives on the stoking of insecurities – based on identities of different kinds – the insistence from business interests on serving the financial bottom line has created a media environm