#MasculinitySoFragile

About

#MasculinitySoFragile is a hashtag used to mock men who fit stereotypes and engage in behaviors associated with a type of Western machismo often referred to as “toxic masculinity,” arguing that they a sign of fragility and insecurity.

Origin

Starting on December 2nd, 2013, Twitter user @puppydogexpress posted several tweets with the hashtag #MascunilinitySoFragile, featuring jokes referring to the word masculinity as if it were a frail human being (shown below).

The hashtag was seldom used for nearly two years. On June 16th, 2015, BuzzFeed^[1] published a listicle featuring tweets mocking the target demographic for products and advertisements featuring stereotypically macho packaging, brand names and slogans (shown below).

Spread

On September 23rd, BuzzFeed^[5] published another compilation of tweets mocking products displaying overtly macho themes (shown below).

That day, Twitter users began using the hashtag #MasculinitySoFragile in tweets mocking American machismo culture (shown below). Meanwhile, several news sites published articles about the hashtag, including Digital Trends, Bustle, AskMen, The Mary Sue, Mic and Thought Catalog. According to the Twiter analytics site Topsy, the hashtag was mentioned over 80,800 times in the first 24 hours.

Meanwhile, other Twitter users began hijacking the hashtag with sarcastic tweets mocking social justice issues. Additionally, critics of feminism began posting similar tweets with the hashtag #FeminismSoFragile (shown below).

Meanwhile, a thread about the hashtag was submitted to the /pol/^[6] (politics) board on 4chan, where many accused the tweets of being a type of flamebait. Also on September 23rd, Redditor frozen-silver submitted a post titled “Some irony from the #MasculinitySoFragile” to /r/TumblrInAction,^[4] featuring a screenshot of a #MasculinitySoFragile tweet juxtaposed next to tweets defending the use of trigger warnings (shown below).