[greenhexagon]

Curious how different our experiences of "culture" can be.

I'm an American in my 40s. I've never seen "glorification of scams" in any mainstream culture and can't really think of any subculture where that would be the case... maybe used car sales, crypto or drug dealers or something?

I've also never seen any sort of "hyper-masculization" shown in a positive light in mainstream culture. I've always been pressured by society to present as less masculine and it's common to see masculinity referred to as as "toxic" and equated with negative traits or externalities. In fact, it's an entirely one-sided debate at this point. Suggesting any positive aspect of masculinity is considered sexist, misogynistic and unacceptable among the people who's opinions carry power in society. Negative aspects of masculinity are of course strongly encouraged, reinforced and amplified.

[the_gastropod]

> I'm an American in my 40s. I've never seen "glorification of scams" in any mainstream culture

Some very popular movies that come to mind (Some of these may not be intended to be glorifying scams, but to many unsophisticated viewers, they absolutely are):

- The Social Network

- The Wolf of Wall Street

- Uncut Gems

- The Godfather

- Scarface

- Ocean's Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen)

- Emily the Criminal

- I Care a Lot

- Nine Queens

- Punch-Drunk Love

> I've also never seen any sort of "hyper-masculization" shown in a positive light in mainstream culture

More movies!

- The Godfather (again)

- Pulp Fiction

- Fight Club

- American History X

- Gangster Squad

- Django Unchained

- Expendables

- Every Fast and Furious movie

- (Nearly?) Every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie

> it's common to see masculinity referred to as as "toxic" and equated with negative traits or externalities

I think this is (usually?) a misunderstanding. People refer to toxic masculinity, a set of problematic behaviors some men exhibit as part of attempting to appear "manly" that includes traits such as: homophobia, glorifying unhealthy habits (e.g., drinking like a man, don't cry like a woman, mental health issues depicted as "weakness", etc.) They're not referring to masculinity, itself, as being toxic.

[jwells89]

> People refer to toxic masculinity, a set of problematic behaviors some men exhibit as part of attempting to appear "manly" that includes traits such as: homophobia, glorifying unhealthy habits (e.g., drinking like a man, don't cry like a woman, mental health issues depicted as "weakness", etc.) They're not referring to masculinity, itself, as being toxic.

Yes, toxic masculinity ≠ masculinity. Broadly speaking, toxic masculinity has to do with behaviors that are deleterious to the one behaving that way, others, or both. Nobody is going to claim for example that a man’s efforts to be a warm, supportive father who strives to be his family’s rock (a pretty traditional male archetype) are toxic.