The Four Color Media Monitor

Bay Today reported about a Canadian professor in Sudbury who's read comics in his youth, but now seems to think even characters like Wolverine are nothing more than vessels for "toxic masculinity":

Cambrian College professor Neil Shyminsky, a self-described “littlest kid in class” became obsessed in his youth with Wolverine, a reluctant hero in the X-men comic book series.

But it wasn’t until he went to university he decided that, perhaps, the mighty X-man he looked up to was not quite the role model he thought.

“There's no greater empowerment fantasy than the little guy with claws who can't be killed,” said Shyminsky with a laugh. “It wasn't until I reached university and took classes on feminism and gender studies that I realized that, in fact, might be feeding me something a little toxic.”

How exactly? Wolverine was far from violent towards innocent and defenseless women, gave coaching to ladies like Storm and Shadowcat, and he cared for a Japanese woman named Mariko Yashida, who wound up in an abusive marriage to a scummy husband in Japan, pushed into the marriage by her yakuza overlord father. I currently own a reprint paperback of the 4-part Wolverine miniseries from 1982 where this story was told, one of the earliest Marvel published back in the day, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Frank Miller. I'm not sure what Mr. Shyminsky means if we're talking about Logan. The article continues, sans any objective view or queries:

It’s that idea of toxic masculinity that drove Shyminsky to begin studying and researching masculinity, and in particular, through the lens of comic books and graphic novels. Now, after taking these ideas to social media, the professor has almost one million followers across three platforms, with the most followers on TikTok: 400,000.

A Cambrian faculty member at the School of Justice, Community Services and General Studies, you can read some of his academic publications here, which include topics such as “Mutation, Racialization, Decimation: The X-Men as White Men,” and “Unmasking ‘Gay’ Sidekicks: Queer Anxiety and the Narrative Straightening of the Superhero.”

But it’s the idea of toxic masculinity that has gained Shyminsky the most traction with his followers.

‘Toxic masculinity’ is a relatively new phrase. While the concept has become controversial, with some believing it has connotations that reject all masculinity, the definition includes a masculinity that hurts others, including the man himself.

The term highlights a specific form of masculinity and a specific set of social expectations that could be seen as unhealthy or dangerous. For example, the idea that one should “man up” rather than show weakness.

And what does that mean? That when violent crime is around, you should show weakness and cowardice in the face of it? What are they thinking? This is certainly not promising so far, and that he makes use of a social media site that looks to have its circulation shut down in the USA because of its ties with China's communists speaks volumes.

According to an article in The Conversation, Queensland University professor Michael Flood states toxic masculinity is represented by qualities such as violence, dominance, emotional illiteracy, sexual entitlement, and hostility to femininity.

The limited studies available have shown that stereotypical masculine norms are bad for women, but especially, bad for men and boys.

As it so happens, yes of course violence is bad, but it's the aggressive and hostile type related to barbarism, racism, misogny and savagery that is, and the article is ambiguous on that part. Is acting in self-defense and to defend innocent women and children against violence wrong? Of course not. And yes, dominance is also bad, as is sexual entitlement of the kind Neil Gaiman wallowed in, along with hostility to femininity. But, does it literally make any sense that heterosexual men would be hostile to femininity? A big problem here is that Shyminsky most likely ignores the serious problem that sprung up in the past decade with transsexual ideology, which is hostile to femininity. And it's unlikely he has any worries about the Islamic religion's hostility to femininity either, unless we're referring to one of the examples cited below, yet at the same time, what's cites indicates he only considers allegedly right-wing figures a concern:

But rather than explore masculinity in all its forms, including the toxic kind, some have moved further into what they say are traditional gender roles, leading to the rise of what’s called “the Manosphere, said Flood, in another piece for The Conversation. With leaders like Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson and, primarily, Joe Rogan. According to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the "manosphere" refers to a wide variety of men’s groups operating on the internet and offline. Many describe themselves as fighting against progressive (or "woke") ideas about gender equality. Manosphere influencers often assert the unfounded idea that men are naturally dominant. They can even distort biology and evolution to argue that restrictive gender norms are natural.

A play on the pro-abortion motto, “my body, my choice,” the use of the slogan "your body, my choice," (popularized in part by podcaster, Nick Fuentes) jumped 4,600 per cent in 24 hours in the days following the Nov. 5, 2024, American presidential election, though some of that was due to people speaking out against it.

One of those was Neil Shyminsky.

[...] What began as a chance to discuss graphic novels and comics in an academic framework has turned from education to activism, he told Sudbury.com.

And regrettably, of the left-wing kind. From what I can tell, the men cited above are the kind of people who've been perceived on the surface as "right-wing", even though Tate is far from it. In fact, speaking of Islam, it's actually surprising Shyminsky would bring up Tate, because something tells me Mr. Shyminsky's not clearly aware Tate is an Islamic convert who's made abominable comments praising Hamas. Even Ben Shapiro says right-wingers should stay away from Tate, and it's clear he's far from being a conservative in any way by serious western standards. Even Rogan, unfortunately, has been lenient on antisemitism, which dampens the impact of any complaints he might have about what's wrong with leftism. Or does he? And Fuentes isn't an admirable figure either, but a most shameful one. As for Peterson, I'm sure he has flaws, but so far, he hasn't proven as poor an example as the others have, and has spoken in Israel's defense. Let's just say that those who have weak positions on Islamofascism and antisemitism/misogyny do not represent serious conservative values, and there are right-wingers who've made clear why they should be avoided. So I guess it's just a question of, what beef does Mr. Shyminsky have with Peterson, who's a Canadian citizen himself? Jealousy, perhaps? And how come he and the newspaper didn't mention Gaiman? He makes a far better example for citation of toxic masculinity.

It's a shame Mr. Shyminsky appears to be the kind of woke advocate who's rejected the best comics from childhood, for the sake of a confusing, distorted position on characters like Wolverine, whose support for ladies like Mariko and at least a few X-Women goes unmentioned here. It won't be shocking if he's also rejected Superman, and even Lois Lane, as though Siegel and Shuster's hard work was worthless to begin with. On which note, there was an early story in the Golden Age where the Big Blue Boy Scout came to the rescue of a woman who's husband committed spousal abuse. Those kind of history examples go bewilderingly unmentioned here, in what amounts to little more than a contrived diatribe against "toxic masculinity" wherein the whole meaning of masculinity is distorted for the sake of the woke agenda. And all ignores how being selfless and caring for the innocent is something both men and women can support and promote, yet this article fails to make a clear case on anything like that. Maybe the worst part of the puff piece though, is that somebody going out of his way to complain absurdly about masculinity may not have much respect for femininity either.

Labels: golden calf of LGBT, history, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, violence, X-Men