By Anisah Islam, BA Global Liberal Arts
A new type of content has emerged on the popular app TikTok; content that has been branded as being quite unusual and controversial by many. There has been a rampant spread of videos created by certain men who regard themselves as ‘alpha males’, voicing their distaste of women who have agency in their lives in the guise of a podcast.
These men have repeatedly asserted in their videos that women are objects, used for their sexual gratification, and if they are anything but submissive then they are not worthy and, in their terms, ‘belong to the streets.’
This has raised the issue of toxic masculinity: men feel the need to conform to rigid gender norms. They have generated the strange assumption that all women were created solely to tend to the needs of their husbands and children.
Many of these men have also created a list of requirements that makes a ‘good woman’, but once inspected further there is a clear contradiction in each condition. A ‘good woman’ must have no sexual history but also has to be experienced in that realm, she must bring something to the table but not have an opposing opinion, and she must have children but ensure her figure remains the same as before.
All these comments make it hard to believe that they are coming from men in the 21st Century.
Yet, it is apparent that these men have an inherent desire to treat women like how they were treated throughout history; lesser beings who are not capable of anything other than fulfilling their wishes. One particular podcast named ‘Fresh and Fit’ has made some debatable comments to women they invite onto the podcast including, ‘women don’t derive the same pleasure from career and earning money as men do since they are not built for it.’
“the one thing these men fear more than anything else is feminism”
These statements are then backed up with false evidence such as ‘as women have gotten more rights, and privileges, and accesses from feminism, their happiness overall has been going down.’ This clearly establishes that the one thing these men fear more than anything else is feminism.
Feminism has been altered by these men into something that women use as a weapon to bring men down. However, it is common knowledge that the basic concept of feminism is to advocate equal rights for females.
Feminism allows women to have the freedom of choice in every aspect of their lives. So, a woman can become a housewife and a mother – but it must be out of her own free will. Not because a man on a podcast is telling her to.
These podcasts have justifiably received backlash from the rest of the community through the form of satire by both men and women, highlighting the truth behind these ‘alpha males’, which is the fact that they feel threatened by women.
This is an issue referred to as fragile masculinity, where men believe they are falling short of cultural standards of manhood and in this case, they resort to belittling women to regain their manliness.
These men cannot accept the fact that women are finally able to understand their worth and choose not to put up with anyone or anything that will prevent them from attaining their own individual happiness.
Photo Caption: Person Holding Black Android Smartphone (Credit: cottonbro)