Toxic masculinity. It’s an amorphous concept, often scorned as overly intellectual, criticized by the right as a war on traditional masculinity and by some on the left as ignoring the role of individual choice in determining behaviors. It generally manifests itself in performative male aggression, the desire to project physical strength, sexual dominance, and no signs of vulnerability. And discounting the significance of toxic masculinity is dangerous, because while it might seem strictly conceptual, it can have concrete consequences. In fact, toxic masculinity contributes to the spread of Covid-19.

A 2016 paper by the Los Alamos National Laboratory revealed that men are less likely than women to engage in protective behaviors like hand washing and mask wearing. In 2020, three studies published by the Cambridge University Press conducted similar studies with similar results. “Masculine toughness is consistently related to higher negative feelings . . .about mask wearing,” observed the author of one study. 

The science simply corroborates a cultural phenomenon. Many, especially on the right, imply that mask wearing is a sign of weakness and femininity, and in response, fewer men wear masks. For instance, on October 5th, 2020, when the then Democratic presidential nominee Joseph Biden posted a video of himself wearing a mask on Twitter, Fox News host Toni Lauren responded that he should “carry a purse with that.” And the previous August, former Navy Seal Robert O’Neill tweeted a maskless selfie of himself on an airplane with the caption “I’m not a p***y.” The message is clear: masks indicate fear, and men aren’t allowed to be afraid. 

Semantics also subtly promote toxically masculine attitudes regarding the pandemic. In our culture, the language of war is consistently used in referring to sickness and health – consider the prevalence of phrases like “lost the battle with cancer” – and this pattern holds true with Covid as well. In April 2020, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Covid-19 an “invisible mugger” to “wrestle to the floor.” This kind of language implies that acknowledging the severity of the pandemic and taking steps to protect yourself and others, like wearing masks and getting vaccinated, is making concessions to an enemy or avoiding a masculine direct confrontation. 

In the U.S., our prioritization of individual freedom over the common good works in tandem with toxic masculinity to stymie efforts to stop the pandemic. American values, unlike those of many other Western democracies, focus on negative freedoms, or “freedoms from,” instead of positive freedoms, or “freedoms to.” This creates the illusion of a constant struggle with a government that encroaches on individual liberty. In the case of the pandemic, the desire to be free from the government trumps the desire to be free to stay alive (and protect others). Toxic masculinity joined forces with toxic American individualism in October 2020, when a group of fourteen domestic terrorists attempted to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, in response to her strict approach to the pandemic. Predictably, the suspects justified their plot with the quintessentially American language of freedom, insisting they were fighting for liberty, and misogyny was a clear factor in the attack; the leader of the group called Whitmer a “tyrant b***h” who “loves the power she has now.” 

We all know toxic masculinity kills directly. But the way it fuels the spread of Covid-19 reveals how it kills indirectly as well. Our inability to expand the definition of masculinity, allow men to feel freely and openly, and dismantle the gender binary is an insidious evil. It’s time we recognize it for the threat that it is.