Fox News radio host Todd Starnes told listeners at the Values Voter Summit (VVS) that mainstream media discussions about “toxic masculinity” are parts of a “war on men” that aims to “criminalize masculinity.”
In his address to VVS, which is hosted by the anti-LGBT Religious Right group Family Research Council, Starnes complained about the Boy Scouts of America’s recent decision to allow young women to participate in the organization.
Starnes said that Mark Hancock, who runs the Christianity based scouting organization Trail Life USA, told him that the Boy Scouts’ decision was “nothing less than a war on boys.” Starnes elaborated on Hancock’s remarks to him, claiming that “the mainstream media” spread the notion of “toxic masculinity.”
“It’s not just a war on boys. It’s a war on men. And there are those in this country that want to feminize men. They want to criminalize masculinity,” Starnes said.
Starnes then pointed to relief efforts following the United States’ recent series of hurricanes, wildfires, and the Las Vegas shooting, to argue mainstream media has been inconsistent in its supposed war on masculinity.
“I saw men, grown men, wadding into the flood waters, running into the bullets to save people,” Starnes said, receiving applause from the crowd. “And I didn’t hear the mainstream media complaining about toxic masculinity then.”
