America Doesn't Have A Gun Problem, We Have A Toxic Masculinity Problem
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America Doesn't Have A Gun Problem, We Have A Toxic Masculinity Problem

The boys are not alright--not in America, at least.

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America Doesn't Have A Gun Problem, We Have A Toxic Masculinity Problem
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Every time there is a mass shooting in America, the aftermath is to be expected. Everyone will be shocked or outraged. The media will be on a blitz for weeks afterwards, regurgitating quotes from law enforcement or even the shooter’s peers, who will say one of two things: there were no signs the shooter was capable of committing such a crime, or there were far, far too many signs, but no one acted accordingly. Eventually, once the lives of the shooter, their family, friends, and peers are dissected through the media, the story dies down and the entire situation becomes just an unfortunate blip in the timeline of the United States.

After every incident of mass shootings or other forms of mass violence, there is a huge push for mental health services, among other proposals. People are always so quick to place blame on inferior threat assessment or mental health services--like, if only the shooter was provided with a therapist or counselor, or medication, they wouldn’t have done what they did. If they could’ve properly processed their emotions or issues, they wouldn’t have decided to shoot anyone.

And that could very well be the case for some. Receiving treatment for mental health or illness can be drastically life-changing. Maybe if Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who shot and killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in March, would have started talking to a counselor when he was younger he might have developed better social and coping skills--ones that would not have lead him to enter his former high school with a gun that fateful day.

But, then again, maybe not. Simply talking to a therapist, taking antidepressants or receiving regular check-ups from Social Services isn’t an absolute solution for everybody, and it certainly isn’t an absolute solution to gun violence in America. Simply placing the blame on the school system or family ignores the real problem: that this country has not dealt with the culture of toxic masculinity.

It’s true that both men and women commit atrocities such as mass shootings--just last month, a 38-year-old woman named Nasim Najafi Aghdam opened fire at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, injuring three. But it’s an undeniable fact that the perpetrators of specifically mass shootings are almost overwhelmingly male. In a study conducted by the FBI from 2003 to 2013, they found that only six out of 160 active shooter incidents were headed by women--the rest were conducted by men.

But why? It’s not because men are inherently more violent or aggressive than women, or more biologically prone to committing crimes. It’s because American culture, ever since the very beginning, has shaped the identity of masculinity in such a toxic way that men are constantly failed by the system. They are failed because American culture promotes masculinity correlating with violence and guns; because our society does not teach men how to properly address and deal with emotions or threats.

Popular culture such as movies, social media or television paints the “ideal man” as someone invincible, ruthless and tough, without emotions. Disregarding mental health is a recipe for disaster for anyone of any gender, so it’s not surprising how some lash out violently.

Dr. Herbert Hirsch, Political Science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, says the psychology behind masculinity and violence can be traced all the way back to America’s origin.

“The Anglo-European invaders who came to these shores found a heterogeneity of cultures and saw that through the racist lens of non-civilization,” Hirsch said at a VCU Political Science gun politics discussion on April 18. “Deciding it was their white man’s burden to rectify that, and to bring European civilization through the use of violence, the gun became the American tool of civilizing the indigenous people.”

Hirsch says that this romanticization of violence, and guns especially, has been handed down through American mythology for so long that it became ingrained in our culture. He says that people are born into this violence, as they grow to romanticise it through the process of political socialization, where they develop political beliefs and ideologies influenced by the government, educational system, families and peer groups.

Thus, it’s no wonder why Americans, men especially, seem to be predisposed to violence not seen in other cultures--when in reality, it’s not men that are biologically predisposed, it’s the toxic culture surrounding masculinity that can drive men to commit heinous acts such as shootings.

“The boys are not alright in America. We’re not. We’re not at all,” said VCU Political Science adjunct professor Charlie Schmidt at the same discussion in April. Schmidt also serves as a public policy associate to the American Civil Liberties Union’s chapter in Virginia and has previously owned his own law practice.

He says that men’s psychology is largely ignored in the United States, which yields great consequences. “We don’t talk about it properly, we don’t research it properly, we don’t deal with it properly,” Schmidt said of how men or younger boys react to threats.

“It’s not the rhetoric of mental health, or games, or the ‘alt-right,’ or some terrorist cell--there’s violence there. And we’re not studying how violence connects to men in this country,” Schmidt said. “We’re not going to have a really good answer for good gun policy until we do,”

Schmidt says that the toxic masculinity that men are socialized in causes them to react more violently in threatening situations. “We [men] react with violence,” he said. “It’s ingrained in our culture, in movies in propaganda--of being wronged and getting to some point of being right. And that spills over into everything.”

Schmidt says that women, teens and children are more likely to react to various pressures or threats by committing suicide, while men have a higher tendency to die by the hands of another person, such as police. “They [men] go out with a bang for a reason,” he said. “And we just aren’t addressing that.”

Dr. Hirsch says that the socialization can be traced back to one’s male role model, like their father, and movies. “The way you saw your father as the ‘macho male’ is through individualized violence,” he said. “You can trace it easily--the myth of the 'lone ranger,' or the ‘John Wayne,’ throughout the whole culture.” The way men react, he said, is a unique feature of the patriarchal society in America.

“What do you do to try and change from this individualized violence and toxic nationalism to some kind of human protection or human rights?” Hirsch asked. “I think I know the answer, but do I think it’s going to happen? No, I don’t, because it necessitates a change in the entire socialization process.”

While Dr. Hirsch, and many others, aren’t counting on male socialization to change anytime soon, he feels optimistic about gun politics in America. The political and social turmoil, he says, is an indication that change is about to be made. “All change that has taken place, moving towards justice and equality in the United States, has been the result of grassroots political movements and putting pressure on the decision-makers to bring about those changes,” he said. “Nothing in politics is inevitable.”

“That’s why I am hopeful about the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and the movement they have started--because it reminds me of the late 60s and the kind of movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War,” he said.

Dr. Hirsch describes it best: while there is still no determined solution to gun violence, the discussion and analyzation of its root causes leaves a sense of optimism to be observed. A sense that suggests, amidst all of the protests, walk-outs and debates, that America’s gun control problem will eventually be solved, and gun violence will be a thing of the past.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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