toxic femininity

English

Noun

toxic femininity (uncountable)

1. (feminism) The systemic pressure on women to conform to standards of beauty, femininity, modesty, etc., to the detriment of individual agency and well-being.
   • 2014, Mason J., quoted in Amos Mac & Rocco Kayiatos, "Mr. Transman San Francisco Mason J.", Original Plumbing, Winter 2014, page 33:

     Don’t get me wrong I know many rad Riot Grrris but for me the predominant kinderwhore uniform didn’t seem very different than the toxic femininity mass media was already pushing on me as a fat non white teen […]

   • 2019, Brenda R. Weber, Latter-day Screens: Gender, Sexuality, and Mediated Mormonism, page 232:

     The obsequious demands of toxic femininity require placing oneself in a diminished role in relation to a more powerful partner, who uses physical, sexual, financial, emotional, or psychological actions or threats of actions to gain or maintain power over another person.

   • 2024, Van Thanh Binh & Stephen Whitehead, Self-Love for Women: Overcoming Toxic Femininity and Suffering, unnumbered page:

     Rather, toxic femininity is a by-product of toxic masculinity – it is the poison which arises in women's bodies and minds when they experience not just the pain of lost love, but the hopelessness of trying to be perfect, not for themselves but for men who ultimately neither understand nor value them.

See also

• toxic masculinity
• misogyny