That said I believe masculinity and femininity are social constructs regardless, but no point in getting into that with people who can't even understand the very basics of toxic masculinity.
Masculinity and femininity are social constructs in many ways, but they are informed by biological differences. There are hormonal differences between men and women that affect mood, behavior, and development. I think that's well-established. At the same time, society has built its own versions of the "ideal" man and the "ideal" woman—and these are structures built by the reigning hegemony. They have as much resemblance to biological differences as a cheeseburger has to a cow. There aren't much left of true differences once you start pinning billboard models against soldiers posting social media photos of their armed three year olds and promised fealty to the king.
Regardless of any social ideation on what constitutes masculine or feminine, surely—
surely—American society, of all of them, would want to nurture independence and self-reliance, and the ability to think individually and not be constrained by the expectations of others.
Even lacking that, the American male ideal promotes acting on what one believes is right and taking charge of situations as a leader. And yet, here we are. With tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of real, actual, ostensibly fully functioning people in what is proposed to be the real world, scathing mad at a product commercial for advocating that men act and not sit on the sidelines when they get a feeling that something must be done.
It's all so fucking stupid.
