Ok, ok, yes, guns are a problem. A big one. Especially and most obviously the types of guns intended as weapons of war, like the AR-15. But there’s more to it, and it needs to be said.
Bleach is good because it makes your socks and t-shirts bright. Vinegar is good because I can’t make a decent Italian dressing without it. But if I pour them both into the same bowl, the result is toxic chlorine gas, which can be deadly. Same goes for AR-15s or any other type of deadly weapon. The gun itself is only half the equation.
The other half—the part America continues to ignore—is our culture of toxic masculinity.
No, I’m not talking about the gun-nuts’ asinine refrain of “guns don’t kill people…” Of course we already knew that. Yet even with 310,000,000 weapons in circulation in the United States (a country of just 320,000,000 citizens), it never seems to be a woman or girl pulling the AR’s trigger in these gruesome mass murder tragedies. I am talking about a culture in America in which “gun nut” is an actual thing. You don’t see too many Australian or Japanese Facebook profile pics of male members posing proudly with their arsenal of deadly weapons. Because why the fuck would anyone in their right mind do that?
Cuz ‘Murica, that’s why.
Toxic masculinity, the broad cultural anomaly that essentially defines “men” as inherently superior, impervious and invulnerable is the root problem of many, many things in our country, and gun violence is just a part of it. “Real men,” for instance, don’t cry at movies—that’s for women and “fags,” amirite? God, it’s all so foolish, juvenile, and horribly destructive. Young male children are taught to suppress real emotion, celebrate their genetic superiority in terms of size and strength, and are rewarded for aggressive, base behavior. Let’s see—deny feelings such as loneliness, sadness or frustration and instead, compensate by aggressively broadcasting your “power.” Sound like a recipe for anything good? That’s how young boys are raised up in the US. Are we really shocked when the addition of a few hundred million guns creates a deadly reaction?
Please don’t mistake my politics. I think the NRA and too many right wing politicians have twisted the 2nd amendment into a terroristic call to arms, and we should be trying to get guns off the streets, not add more to classrooms. I feel that this sentiment should be the default setting for anyone remotely sane. But toxic masculinity’s horrid effect infects much more than our national discussion about gun violence.
Toxic masculinity is why bullies, homophobes, misogynists, domestic abusers and all-around fuckheads exist. Toxic masculinity is every loudmouth asshole you’ve ever encountered in a bar or at a sporting event, yelling “FUCK THE FUCKING REDSOX!” while spilling his beer on your seven-year-old without so much as a “sorry, bruh.” Toxic masculinity is why out of 54 current republican senators only five of them are women even though women make up the majority of our population.
And toxic masculinity is why we have a blowhard, con man, narcissistic sociopath who has bragged about accosting women, routinely bullies anyone and everyone, and has set a regressive anti-gay agenda in the Oval Office instead of an immanently more qualified woman. And, yeah, he’s armed. And somehow that’s the definition of what 35% of our toxically masculine citizens (and also a great deal of women who inexplicably buy into the culture) define as “making America great again.”
Let’s all agree this is a huge problem in America. I dare say, an even bigger problem than the guns.