Michael Rohrbaugh explores the ways masculinity forces men to act a certain way — even when it's not who they want to be.
When I used to hang out with a group of gay men, they all said I dressed/acted wrong and didn't listen to the right artists. I was a gay dude being pressured to act in a way that I didn't want.
"Order beer, not wine," the film's voiceover begins. "And beef, not chicken. Never lite beer, though. And no tofu. Can't get more gay than tofu."
Are all the men in this guy's life 80's high school movie villains or something? Sure, straight guys occasionally tease each other with accusations of being gay (or in my case, tease me with accusations of being in love with them, always in jest of course) but for the most part, I've never seen one give a shit if you like tofu or chicken.
"Steer clear of the arts, unless you live on the coasts," the voiceover says. "That means no theater, dancing, painting, poetry or prose. Too much reading is also risky, because it makes you look soft and bookish."
This must explain why most of the accomplished playwrights, poets, composers, chefs, authors, painters, etc. are straight men, right?
So, you take the most extreme example of douchebaggery and paint it as, "Hurr, this is how all men are expected to act!" This would be like taking Regina George from Mean Girls and saying "This is how girls are expected to act. Femininity is toxic." I bet you the vast majority of men would look at guys that act like this and say, "What a bunch of fucking insecure tools."
Maybe I've just been super lucky or something, but the vast majority of straight men I've encountered haven't been meathead pricks who are afraid of catching "the gay" from me. Even very masculine men like those in the military or frat boys have been really courteous to me (I actually had a frat guy try to set me up with one of his brothers one time).
This whole things feels like it was made by a guy who was mad that the cute jock on the football team rebuffed his advances and so blamed his "toxic masculinity" on it.