The Gun Issue Is A Masculinity Issue

I feel like I'm going into this already having lost some of you.

Are events like these about gun control or mental health? Answer: Sure. But there's still more.

What some of us fail to see are the millions of connections that tell us what is wrong with our world. These are not separate issues. The same reason our schools become war zones for angsty, white teenage terrorists is the same reason why Pence wants to electrocute your kids. It is also why we have to rise up on social media with hashtags like #MeToo and #TimesUp. Our boys need help. There, I said it.

Maybe you hate the word feminism. You've been lied to at some point. Feminism isn't radical. It isn't crazy. It's simple. Equity. It's the assertion that women, actually, that ALL people are deserving of respect, authority, and compensation that is directly correlated with how much effort they put into life, regardless of gender, sex, or race. How many more times will we have to blog about this? 

If you're a boy and you don't think feminism affects you, you're sorely mistaken. The same societal structures that tell women to shut up and sit pretty are the ones that put equally oppressive expectations on men. We expect them to enjoy anger and aggression. We teach them to think of women as less than and weak. We tell our boys to be strong, no crying. We ask them to bottle up their sadness, their happiness, and then we sit back and wonder why they explode. It's no wonder most violent crime, domestic violence, and sexual assault is perpetrated by men. It's not that women aren't capable of it and it's not that men aren't victims of those crimes. It's that we purposefully raise men to become monsters. 

Let's pause a moment for the #NotAllMen imbeciles. Go ahead... Hi, what's up, how are you? I'm not going to get into the use of guns as recreational. That's a different blog post. I'm just saying, pleading for you to understand, that this need of ours, this hunger, why we kick and scream and cry for our guns that might as well come out of vending machines for quarters at this point is deeply rooted and embedded in toxic hypermasculinity. Professor Google defines hypermasculinity as a psychological term for exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality. Are you starting to see the connection?

We are constantly asking dudes to measure up to the strongest, most stoic, least compassionate amongst them. For those who will never be that, their self-esteem tanks and they turn to the women in the room to make them feel manly, forcing themselves into our DMs, our pants, and our Walmarts to buy the closest "Marco Rubio" and wreak havoc, all to prove themselves manly. That's how we're dealing with our inner demons, our abusers, and our bullies in 2018? I don't think so.

Enough is enough.

If you don't think we need to invest government money into mental health, not just when there's a white active shooter, but always, please unfollow me. If you don't think it should be just as hard to get a gun as a license and car inspection, please unfriend me. If you don't see the connection between raising boys with emotional capacity and agency, do us both a favor and BLOCK me. I'm over it.