The topic came up when an attendee shared a story about how Kidman was told by a male fan that he enjoyed the show. Streep chimed in, saying that she was glad he found something to like, even though he wasn’t a woman. She added that the label of toxic masculinity is detrimental to everyone, because it’s the individuals involved that are toxic, not an entire gender. That sort of generalization, she says, hurts men and women alike. What she thinks we all need is a little more communication.
“Sometimes, I think we’re hurt. We hurt our boys by calling something toxic masculinity. I do. And I don’t find [that] putting those two words together … because women can be pretty fucking toxic,” Streep said. “It’s toxic people. We have our good angles and we have our bad ones. I think the labels are less helpful than what we’re trying to get to, which is a communication, direct, between human beings. We’re all on the boat together. We’ve got to make it work.”
The idea of toxic masculinity isn’t only relegated to women’s studies classes and online harassment. The specific kind of toxicity Streep is talking about involves a kind of hyper-gendered behavior. It’s not saying outright that men are evil or inherently violent. The danger today involves people misinterpreting the term and assuming that it covers things such as violence and misogyny.
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