Lessons on Toxic Masculinity and Femininity, Healthy Masculine Energy, and More

Masculine and Feminine are part of every human being. We can’t deny one over the other. These are the energies, we all have it, and we get to integrate both of them. It’s a myth that Masculine is strong and Feminine is weak; only males have Masculine energy and Females have Feminine energy – these are the myths.

I was attending a healing retreat where I realized how much I hesitate to connect with certain kinds of men and women. It’s all at the unconscious level. This realization has embarked me on the deep study of Masculine and Feminine energies, how to integrate and embrace these.

Below are some resources I’ve found to be useful for getting started.

a) 7 Kinds Of Healthy Masculine Energy That Inspires True Love To Grow: A man who is confident in his masculinity won’t feel threatened by a woman who is more successful than him. He will want to support you in creating your dreams alongside you. A man who is constantly swayed by those around him isn’t grounded in his own truth.

b) What The Divine Masculine Is All About (And How To Balance It With The Divine Feminine): Divine masculine and divine feminine energy exist in all things—people included. Not to be confused with male versus female, divine feminine and masculine energies can be accessed by all of us, and part of the spiritual path is getting them into a state of balance.  Here’s an introduction to divine masculine energy, plus how to tap into yours.

c) Toxic masculinity is unsafe…for men: The belief that “real men” must be strong, tough and independent may be a detriment to their social needs later in life. A study co-authored by a Michigan State University sociologist found that men who endorse hegemonic ideals of masculinity — or “toxic masculinity” — can become socially isolated as they age, impacting their health, well-being, and overall happiness.

d) Gender Bias Sways How We Perceive Competence in Faces: Summary: A new study reports faces of people we believe to be more competent are also perceived to be more masculine. Faces that are seen as competent are also perceived as more masculine, according to research published in Psychological Science.

e) ‘Toxic Femininity’ Isn’t What You Think It Is: “I’m not claiming to be the origin point for the phrase. I think a lot of people who use the term arrived at it independently, as I did, because it seemed so self-evident that if toxic masculinity is a social force, well, toxic femininity must be too.”

f) Toxic Femininity Holds All of Us Back: There was the woman who became furious every time her boyfriend asked for her restaurant preferences because, as the man, he was supposed to be confident and have every date preplanned. There was the classmate of mine who found it off-putting when a man expressed any feelings other than career-focused drive and lust and ended up dating gruff clod after gruff clod.

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