LogFAQs > #888710491

adjl posted...

But it's not an attack on masculinity as a whole. Adjectives narrow concepts down to be more specific. Talking about "red apples" narrows down the subject/object to "apples that are red," not "all apples are red. Similarly, "toxic masculinity" narrows down the subject to the elements of masculinity that are toxic, and does not mean "all masculinity is toxic." The latter interpretation can only be generated with fairly specific context.

But, when a concept represents a subset of a larger whole an adjective can inform the entire subset. e.g. "despite their impressive stature, the Gauls were no match for the stout Romans". In this case the adjective, stout, does not describe all members of the superset, people, but does describe a quality of the average Roman projected on to that group as a whole. You are correct though in that requires context, but that is kind of my point. There is no reason to even allow for the negative, erroneous definition unless the negative reaction is by design.