ABSTRACT
The military teaches Bottom Line Up Front. The adjective “toxic” applied in a phrase to the noun “masculinity” makes the noun itself, what characterizes men and what we feel defines us, the poisonous thing. The Marine Corps is certainly the most “masculine” of the services, with the fewest women and the least integration of women into combat roles. Problems arise, therefore, when the protector role is taken to extremes, or when the world changes so that it's no longer so necessary, say in a world where strength in wrestling no longer carries such weight. Literature offers even more extreme examples, usually from non-Western or not completely modernized societies, of protection turning rancid. Men should know that it's simply not true that all women need the protection of men. Testosterone is a rushing river: it can't be dammed.
