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You’re actually a ‘bad’ man if you think it’s your duty to protect women

An English professor in the School of Justice, Community Services and General Studies at Canada’s Cambrian College has amassed quite the social media following for his discussions on “toxic masculinity.”

Neil Shyminsky has almost one million total followers, mainly for his “prescriptive” rather than “descriptive” videos on the topic on Instagram, Facebook, and most especially TikTok, according to Bay Today.

“I try to consistently express and reinforce in my videos, if I’m going to use data that says something is unequal, it’s sexist, or what have you, then I’m going to add something in here to say but it can and should be different,” Shyminsky said.

Shyminsky (pictured), who was “obsessed in his youth” with the popular Marvel Comics character Wolverine, (“There’s no greater empowerment fantasy than the little guy with claws who can’t be killed”) noted it “wasn’t until [he] reached university and took classes on feminism and gender studies” that he realized the Canadian superhero just “might be feeding [him] something a little toxic.”

Toxic masculinity is defined in the article as “qualities such as violence, dominance, emotional illiteracy, sexual entitlement, and hostility to femininity.”

In one of Shyminsky’s TikTok videos he says if you’re a man who believes it’s your duty to protect women then you require dangerous men to exist; as such, you’re not actually working toward a world in which such people do not exist.

In other words, such a man’s “self actualization is opposed to women’s liberation” — that “being a good man also requires you to be a bad one.”

Shyminsky further claims men who believe it their duty to protect women are the real danger: “You are one of the bad ones for some other woman’s good man,” he says.

MORE: Professor worries Marvel’s ‘Atlantis’ will use cultural appropriation, colonial racism

The professor also says research shows that those who believe in traditional gender roles and attitudes are also those who hold the most “hostile sexist attitudes.”

@professorneil #stitch with @rose.hackwoman ♬ original sound – Professor Neil

Given this … logic, it’s no surprise Shyminsky overlooks how Wolverine’s “toxic masculinity” literally saved the lives of his fellow X-Men countless times, perhaps most notably from the likes of the Hellfire Club (pictured) and the alien Brood.

Not to mention, the Canuck’s “toxicity” (he often uses terms like “frail” for women) just might have something to do with how he was relentlessly ridiculed for being an “animal” and (as Shyminsky noted) a “midget” his whole life. (Yes, in the comics Wolverine is quite tiny; choosing Hugh Jackman to portray him in the movies is probably the biggest departure from the character’s lore.)

Nevertheless, Wolverine often has been depicted as quite tender and respectful towards women, most especially to those for whom he cares (like Mariko Yashida).

Shyminsky also believes X-Men has been an outlet by which “white creators and audiences have […] had a space in which to enact racial fantasies of oppression,” and that there’s a “considerable difference” between “ideal” and “actual” readers of the title.

After all, “[w]hile the X-Men metaphor appears socially progressive in its inclusivity, the company and creators’ refusal to suggest that some identifications are closer to the mark than others implies an equivalence between all of the various readers’ oppressions,” he says.

Shyminsky recently was named a “Top 5 Nominee” for the Cheer Choice Awards which “honor positive creators on social media who are making an impact utilizing their platforms.”

According to his Linkedin page, Prof. Shyminsky was a PhD student in “Social and Political Thought” and is “currently working on an analysis of the X-Men’s often problematic political messaging.”

(h/t: Bleeding Fool)

MORE: Professor miffed that the ‘far right’ is using comic books to ‘spread its ideology’

IMAGES: Azira’s Aardvark|The Odd One/X; Neil Shyminsky/Facebook; Read All Comics

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