Michelle and Maria continue their conversation from the last episode and spend more time addressing toxic workplace environments. While the last episode was more about toxic masculinity, today’s episode focuses on toxic femininity.
Maria mentions an article that defines toxic femininity, and then Michelle makes sure to outline what they mean when they use the phrase “toxic femininity”. To be clear once again, in exploring this term, REL Talk is not maligning all feminine traits; rather, toxic femininity is when specific, stereotypical feminine traits are used to demean or sabotage others. Today, our hosts explain this concept further, how it differs from toxic masculinity and feminism, and how is shows up and should be dealt with in the workplace.
The Finer Details of This Episode:
Quotes:
“But I could come up with a half a dozen examples of where other women stood in my way of progress, whether that was passive aggressively or straight out chopping me off at the knees in order to be successful themselves.”
“I get bullied and harassed by the other females in my organization more than I do anyone else.”
“Poor behavior is poor behavior. It does not matter who it comes from. You are still empowered to tell people that their behavior is unacceptable.”
“Whereas toxic masculinity absolutely has a detrimental impact on other men, it also has an equal impact--a negative impact--on women. In this case, women who display these traits tend to stick to intimidating other women”.
“If there’s only one seat for females, it means that every other female in that building has automatically become a competition… when there’s only one seat, the claws tend to come out, particularly for those women who have a slightly different moral compass.”
“If a man is assertive, he’s often referred to as an assertive man. If a woman demonstrates those same behaviors, we have historically been referred to as emotional or aggressive, and told we need to calm down.”
“The point of feminism is equality… it’s a movement to ensure that women are afforded the same opportunities as men in the workplace. And when you think about how we describe toxic femininity, it’s the exact opposite of that.”
“Equal treatment does not equal sameness. I recognize there are certain things that I may not be qualified to do. But equal treatment means that we all get the same opportunities based on the skills, the experience, and the positions that are open.”
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