The term “toxic masculinity” has become quite popular in the past couple months.
But you never hear the words “toxic feminity.” Maybe it’s time we did since there is definitive proof that woman not only spout pestilent misogyny, but actually do so more than men.
Anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label set out to see who is using vulgar language and attacking people online. They teamed up with Brandwatch to analyze nearly 19 million public tweets to “explore the current climate of misogyny and constructs of masculinity as expressed across social media.” Turns out their study centered around exposing all that is despicable about men backfired, and they actually found that women account for more misogyny than evil men.
Looking at English-language tweets posted between August 2012 and July 2016, the study found that women account for 52% of misogynistic insults online.
Well this doesn’t fit the narrative of “toxic masculinity.”
Women were more likely to unleash horrible insults, especially when the taunts pertain to appearance and sexual promiscuity such as “slut”, “hoe”, “bitch”, “whore,” and “ugly.”
We really need to reign in toxic feminity for the sake of bullied women everywhere.