Description
Whether it’s the overt sexism of the 70s or the ‘lad culture’ of the 90s, the notion of men behaving badly is nothing new. But today we’re seeing a rising tide of what’s been labelled ‘toxic masculinity.’
This alarming behavioural trend is linked to some people’s idea of “manliness” and perpetuates attitudes of male domination, homophobia and aggression, particularly amongst young adults and teenagers. But what are the cultural pressures on men to behave in a certain way and how much is social media to blame for this toxic behaviour?
Panel chair Iman Amrani is joined by Dr Mark McGlashan, co-editor of Toxic Masculinity: Men, Meaning, and Digital Media, Rachel Louise Snyder, author of the award-winning No Visible Bruises, and Osman Yousefzada, author The Go-Between. They will discuss how and why it’s become so openly prevalent in Western society, the impact it has had on people’s lives and what can be done to support victims and stop the promotion of toxic attitudes online.
About the Academic
Dr Mark McGlashan
Mark McGlashan is Senior Lecturer in English Language in the Birmingham Institute of Media and English, Birmingham City University. Mark’s research interests predominantly centre on the synthesis and application of methods from Corpus Linguistics and (Critical) Discourse Studies to study a wide range of social issues, and his recent work has focussed on relationships between language and abuse. This work includes examination of children’s online disclosures of abuse, improving linguistic safeguarding solutions in industry as Academic Supervisor on an Innovate UK funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Senso.cloud, and collaboration with the MANTRaP (Misogyny and The Red Pill) project team to investigate abusive language used within the ‘manosphere’. Mark is co-editor (with Professor John Mercer) of Toxic Masculinity: men, meaning and digital media (Routledge, 2023).
About the Authors
Rachel Louise Snyder
Rachel Louise Snyder is an American journalist, writer, and professor. She covers domestic violence and previously worked as a foreign correspondent for the public radio program Marketplace, and also contributed to All Things Considered and This American Life. A story she reported for This American Life won an Overseas Press Award, along with Ira Glass and Sarah Koenig. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Slate. She has lived in London, Cambodia, and Washington, DC and is originally from Chicago.
Osman Yousefzada
Osman Yousefzada was born in Birmingham to migrant parents who were illiterate both in English and their mother tongue. An artist and writer who studied at SOAS and Central Saint Martins, he has an MPhil from Cambridge University. He is a Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at Birmingham School of Art, a researcher at Royal College of Art and a visiting fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University. His visual art practice – of sculpture, moving image and textile installation – has been showcased in international programmes at the Whitechapel Gallery, MCA Sydney, Dhaka Art Summit, Ikon, V&A and more. He has made clothes for Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwen Stefani, Emma Watson and many more. His practice is de-colonial and crosses borders, concerning itself with the rights of anonymous worker, disposable consumerism and undocumented histories. Yousefzada is concerned with injustice through his lived experiences intersecting class, race and gender roles.
About the Chair
Iman Amrani
Iman Amrani is an ward-winning freelance journalist, producer and presenter. She has worked mostly on contemporary political and social documentaries or videos, as well as writing profiles and features. Iman has previously worked with The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Vogue Portugal, The Independent, The New Statesman, Square Mile, Raconteur (business supplement distributed in The Times), Huffington Post and Copa90.
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