Thread by @sometimesalight

I know many, many good men. But the Q behind "toxic masculinity" isn't whether good men outnumber bad. It's how we respond to pathological men. Do we excuse/overlook their behavior or hold them accountable? Our communal record suggests former, especially if they are powerful.

In last few years, US has been rocked by scandal after scandal, cover-up after cover-up--from sports to Hollywood to politics to the church--suggesting a pervasive cultural blindness toward pathological men.

IOW: When you are powerful, you can do what you want.

Or in these notorious words: "When you're a star, they let you do it."

Only, "they" here more accurately means all of us together.

So the point isn't whether men are toxic--the vast majority aren't! Most are good & kind. The point is that they exist in a society that tells them (both implicitly & explicitly) that they aren't responsible to confront & stop pathological men.

The persistence of predatory masculinity isn't rooted in men's individual failures but our communal failure that enables abuse thru silence. We call men to oppose it, not b/c most men aren't good, but precisely because they are!