Elle Beau ❇︎
1 min readDec 20, 2021

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All of these things you've described are manifestations of patriarchy simply done by women. None of them fit the precise definition of toxic femininity that I've laid out. They are all bad behavior, to be sure. You'll get no disagreement from me on that, but this is all dominance hierarchy behavior - which is what patriarchy really is. Referring to this stuff as toxic femininity when it has nothing to do with actual feminine traits means that the term is now essentially useless.

Men raping women is toxic masculinity because it's a control-oriented behavior that comes out of that unhealthy masculine norm as part of patriarchy. Women falsely reporting rape, particularly in the case of a white woman falsely accusing a Black man, is yet another control oriented behavior as a function of the dominance hierarchy. But control isn't a feminine trait - ergo, it's not toxic femininity. In many ways, it's closer to toxic masculinity perpetrated by someone who happens to be a woman.

In a patriarchy, masculine norms are seen as more valuable, more appropriate, more desirable for everyone - not just for men, so it's no surprise when sometimes women try to play the dominance hierarchy game by those rules, although it doesn't make them any more acceptable or any less heinous, particularly when it threatens the life of someone else.

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Elle Beau ❇︎
Elle Beau ❇︎

Written by Elle Beau ❇︎

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint. I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between.

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