Challenge #01975-E151: Toxic Culture Kills
We're all familiar with phrases like "toxic masculinity", "testosterone poisoning", and similar terms used for men whose mindset and behavior could charitably be described as "aggressively unpleasant"...
But what if all that were not just wordplay? What if "toxic masculinity" somehow actually was toxic? What if "testosterone poisoning" really was poisonous? To whom, whether it be the person themselves or those around them, I leave as a decision for the author. -- Anon Guest
The last victim of the Friendzone Killer was a really effective witch. Her dying breath laid her final curse on him, which just added potency to her words. May your toxic masculinity kill you and all those like you. But he didn't pay attention in the moment, just like he never paid attention to anything a woman said or did.
After he killed her and etched the words Frigid Bitch on her remains, he cleaned up, went home, and live-streamed his last antifeminist rant whilst wearing his traditional black horse mask. It was because he died during the stream that the case became famous. It was because of the way he died and the viral impact it left that it became a worldwide phenomenon.
As he spoke about the rights of men and the need for women to 'know their place', green and black smoke started issuing from the horse's mouth. He got up to the right for men everywhere to be protected from chronic blue balls and how no woman anywhere should refuse an offer for sex before he finally choked on his own fumes and expired in front of an audience of thousands. It was the FBI agent who found the body who cut off the stream.
The last video went viral. The Friendzone Killer was exposed as a regular, everyday white guy who posted a lot on Incel forums and regularly had flamewars with pick-up artists because their techniques never worked for him. Women who shared the residential complex with him universally described him as 'creepy'. He had a logbook of every woman's comings and goings, with descriptions instead of names. And the manifestos he posted were pure bile.
And then the men who tuned in to watch his last broadcast started getting sick. The worst of them fell first, sometimes suddenly, often whilst repeating some variation on what the Friendzone Killer had had to say in his many manifestos. The link became increasingly obvious when a right-wing newscaster insulted his female co-host on the air, and soon began exhaling the now-trademark smoke.
One by one, the misogynists of the world began to choke on their own words, and the autopsies would only reveal that the smoke was made up of a gaseous form of testosterone. And the CDC was baffled as to how it spread.
In the beginning, it wasn't concerning, because the victims were the loner types who didn't have much contact with societies beyond those which they made themselves. The Incels, the pick-up-artists, the mens' rights activists who didn't actually care what rights they actually needed but instead preferred the right to do whatever they wanted and get away with it. It was when the virus spread to the chronic abusers that alarm really started to spread. And by then, it was too late.
The entitled misogynists of the world were keeling over by the thousands. Women had to be promoted because they were immune, and those who felt anger at their promotion soon began producing their own toxic clouds.
Women began to draw the conclusion. The victims were suffering from toxic masculinity. Their hostility towards women of all stripes for daring to seek actual equality was literally killing them. And worse, the PSA's that went out only accelerated the suffering.
Teachers who made and enforced misogynistic dress codes began to suffer. Men who catcalled women on the street also got mild cases. Men who told sandwich jokes collapsed. Some said it was a feminist conspiracy. But it was only when women outnumbered men five to one in all fields that the re-education initiative finally started saving lives.
Young boys were told, No means no. They were told it was okay to feel more than anger about things. They were taught healthier ways to deal with their emotions. And most importantly, taught to respect all women as fellow human beings. They were taught the important skills. Sympathy. Empathy. Comfort. All the things that were previously relegated to women.
And with an equal footing established, humanity truly began to flourish.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / blamb]
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