Gender Stereotypes and Toxic Masculinity: Phenomenological Study of Pamulang University Students

Abstract

In Indonesia, which is still considered a conservative country, feminism as a gender-based emancipatory movement has become an understanding that tends to be covered by the glitter of patriarchism. Resistance to feminist thought is quite massive because the majority of people consider it to be a Western epistemology that is not in harmony with Eastern cultural values. One of the main causes of gender inequality is society's lack of understanding of the differences in definitions between sex and gender. The majority still view these two terms as merely linguistic synonyms, even though conceptually they have significant differences. In an intimate academic environment with a tradition of thinking, the phenomenon of toxic masculinity is quite widely recognized by students. Like several students at Pamulang University, South Tangerang who feel they are victims of systemic toxic masculinity. In the initial research observations, the results of interviews showed that the phenomena of gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity experienced by Pamulang University students included several things, namely regarding individual aspects such as role, character, physique and sexual orientation.