Just as there is 'Toxic Masculinity', where the wrong things are emphasised as virtuous in a man other than his emotional well-being, there are also Toxic Femininity, which are sometimes disguised as feminists. I'm about to say something insolent:
Females can't be Feminists!
After accidentally watching a video by Anita Sarkensian on YouTube while looking for trope analysis videos, it came to my attention that there's a bias that females have when being 'feminists'.
Sure, you can defend yourself and other woman for their rights. You can also tell off creepy pop culture tropes like Stalking for Love and Abduction as Romance. However, blaming everything on men isn't the answer. After all, females also objectify both themselves and males sometimes in media.
You can talk about how women are demeaned and used as plot devices in tropes, but the same thing can also be said from the perspective of men in these female power fantasy video games she apparently thinks don't exist in our reality.
Men are objectified just as much as women are in media, it's just that they don't see anything against their objectification since it's a fact that males are normally more physically capable than females are.
Although Greek Mythology will show you just how men had abused their strength in the beginning, it is being blind when you don't factor in how men were perceived as existences that 'cannot live without women'. Eventually calling females their better half.
Men can become damsels-in-distress just as much as women, except those that DO become the target of the trope are usually saved by the power of friendship rather than the 'Feminist Hero'.
If I was to look at it in a masculinist perspective as a male, then perhaps I can look at men being damsels as offensive and say that combining males with this frickin' 'writing trope' makes them less manly.
But as to not make this a rant where I basically go on and on about Tropes Vs Genders, I'm just going to go back to my main point is that toxic gender norms only come from Hollywood milking certain tropes.
The Love Hate Relationship Trope in the 70s wasn't a healthy relationship dynamic for both parties, but they succeeded in accidentally normalising some abusive relationships that shouldn't be working out.
In more simplistic terms: Tropes aren't the problem unless they are problematic due to not conforming to modern gender norms. Like forcing every female to be housekeepers and showing no working women in your idealised story or straight up misogyny.
It's more the philosophy you put into your story rather than the fault of a trope. You can expect a misogynistic story to be sexist but you can't label a touching story about a hero protecting his family as anti-feminist just because the male protects girls.
As I've said before: Pop culture has basically conditioned males to think of themselves as the 'men of their households' and the protector of those they love. Strength and ability is considered masculinity rather than empathy and fragility.
Adolescent boys with such qualities are looked down on by their peers because such traits don't conform by the masculinity both genders agree on. Since most, but not all males, are born with a greater physical potential and never have to worry about going into labour to birth ab child, these kids are often mocked for their 'weakness'. Whether there is anything other than their physique or intelligence that can be looked highly upon is carelessly ignored.
Just look at some of the criticisms for Fantastic Beasts and you'll see that the fragility of its main character was actually frowned upon by some of the audience. They found the empathetic charms written into the main character to be unappealing compared to sauce action heroes that have dominated cinema.
You know, those guys who occasionally play off killing people as a joke and didn't exactly 'respect' women in the way feminists today like. Those are the guys adolescent youths are told to emulate and become more similar to... because they are 'cool'.
Isn't risking your life fun? Sacrifice is for the sake of a girl is wonderful, isn't it~? There's absolutely nothing toxic about teaching youths the importance of how the woman matter more than you~
Anyway, toxic media depends on the philosophy of the person who made it and the modern perception of gender norms. It has nothing to do with tropes and insisting the women are the only victims is like ignoring how actual flawed human males feel.
Not everyone can be body builders with handsome features and healthy body. Some people should just be accepted for who they are rather than believing men don't feel anything but badass things all the time. We too aren't exactly living the dream life...
Think about it like this: If women are sometimes overly treasured like they are precious objects that should be put in heavily secured safe-houses, then men are abused as disposable pawns that are supposed to literally be superhuman 24/7.
It's to the point that it's hard for people to believe that a women could harass a man...
Well, that's all I have to say about it. 👍