There may be only one thing on which feminism agrees with the manosphere: a metaphor. Gender can get toxic. For the manosphere, the blue pill of feminism is the poison and the red pill, a liberating antidote. For feminism, the manosphere is toxic masculinity at its most poisonous. Swallowing that red pill is lethal indeed.

“Toxic masculinity” is the go-to term for destructive forms of manhood, epitomized by the manosphere. We first met the concept back in Chapter 4, when commentators used it to explain mask-ulinity. Toxic masculinity refers to conventional ideologies of manhood that pressure men to do whatever it takes to stay ‘strong,’ not ‘weak.’ Maskulinity was a textbook demonstration of its public health costs, and Chapter 16 showed this to be the tip of an iceberg.

So aggrieved masculinity is a public health problem. Isn't this exactly what the concept of toxic masculinity is for—to help us name and grapple with forms of manliness that do real harm? Yes, is my answer, but it doesn't hold up well to the nature and magnitude of the present challenge.

In light of what we learned in the last chapter, this one circles back to a key detail: What kind of public health problem is aggrieved masculinity? Is toxicity a fitting metaphor, control of a hazardous substance the right parallel for response? We know that metaphors are consequential devices to live by, so the question is worth considering.

This chapter answers no; a poison control frame cannot tackle the transnational movement of manly grievance today. Toxicity is poorly suited to a pandemic of feeling because it concentrates on the noxious substance—in this case, ideological content—rather than how it gets passed around. A frame of viral mitigation better captures the current problem and retunes focus accordingly: from stopping individual ingestion to slowing communal transmission, from abstinence to harm reduction.

In developing this frame, something else becomes clear. “Viral masculinity” is more than a metaphor.

Don't fault the drug for the addiction: what causes individual ingestion?

Toxic masculinity is a powerful tool for exposing harmful gender ideology. I want to be clear that I am not piling on to the usual critiques, which dub the concept ‘anti-male’ or ‘anti-masculinity’, a broadside to all men or manhood. These are frankly ill-founded.