This man getting a haircut with an axe and a hammer is the dictionary definition of toxic masculinity
Toxic masculinity makes men do some… strange things. (Screen captures via Twitter)
In the least ambitious crossover in history, a man collaborated with toxic masculinity by deciding to get a haircut with an axe.
No, really.
‘Why?” asked a Twitter user, who posted a video of a bearded man in a barbershop getting the sides of his hair trimmed off with an axe and hammer combo from a barber. Also bearded.
If only there was an invention that could clip your hair without risking decapitation or loss of earlobes. Someone should get on that.
— Dragon Madera (@dragonmadera) October 17, 2019
The video, originally posted by a Portuguese Twitter account called ‘Why Men Live Less’ [pq os homens vivem menos], was reposted and went viral; prompting hundreds of users to scratch their heads and wonder… why?
It shows the man – his face stoney and silent – staring off as the barber shaves the sides of his hair with a pointed, razored-down axe. The barber hammers away centimetres from his client’s ear to give him that fresh fade look.
“Boys are weird”: Twitter is sufficiently unimpressed by man opting for an axe over a clipper kit.
While the 2017 video is in no way new, Twitter wondered if it was a hipster fascination with looking like a “lumbersexual” – the flannel shirts, beard, et cetera – that has now been driven to the extreme.
The practices actually dates back to the ’30s and ’40s, when axe salesman would demonstrate the quality of their wares by shaving a furry logger in front of a crowd of potential buyers.
“It may be both time consuming and dangerous compared to your traditional methods, but at least the result looks way worse,” asserted a user, noticing that it is nearly 80 years since then and we have hair salons now.
Another pondered: “If only someone could invent some form of electrical device to make this easier.”
“I don’t know if I’d trust someone with an electric axe,” replied a user.
For the surgery of his ear when it’s gone?— Waiting for the new Decade to start in 5 days (@angrymxvoid) October 17, 2019
Between multiple jokes about the barber butchering the client’s ear off, the video did see a number of users wondering if the men were suffering from “testosterone poisoning“.
“It’s manly”, a user pointed out, “it seems SOME men have way too much time on their hands, jeez.”
If you lose an ear, it’s free.
— WLHearns, MST, MBA (@WLHEARNS) October 17, 2019
Fragile masculinity
— BadToss (@BadToss) October 17, 2019
But some wondered whether the client simply just axed for that level of service.
Toxic masculinity makes men do strange things.
The American Psychological Association warned about toxic masculinity. Stock photo. (Creative Commons)
Some people might deride it as a mere concept, but toxic masculinity is a tangible ideology that is prevalent and underscores many power structures.
In fact, the American Psychological Association has recognised a form of toxic masculinity that has links to homophobia and misogyny.
The respected body has issued a first-of-its-kind report, “Guidelines for the Psychological Practice with Boys and Men”, exploring issues relating to masculinity for men and boys.
The report warns of the dangers of a “traditional masculinity ideology,” explaining: “Masculinity ideology is a set of descriptive, prescriptive, and proscriptive of cognitions about boys and men.
“Although there are differences in masculinity ideologies, there is a particular constellation of standards that have held sway over large segments of the population.”
A standard which includes, apparently, getting one’s hair cut with an axe.
