ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
This qualitative study aims to investigate two aspects of toxic masculinity in the novel “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller. These two aspects are the detrimental effects of toxic masculinity on the male and female characters of the novel. By using Transactional Reader-response theory and content analysis, the two detrimental effects found to be present in the novel are internalised homophobia and the sexual objectification of women. In the classic case of internalised homophobia, one takes all the judgement, hatred, stereotypes, and hostility towards LGBT community and directs it to themselves. Meanwhile, sexually objectifying women is common in Greek society as found in this novel, where women are reduced to only their looks. The results of this study also showed that women in the novel can contribute to toxic masculinity, by both practicing it and teaching it to their sons.
Anwar, Z. (2019, August 4). Sexism has no place in a changing Malaysia. The Star Online.
Retrieved from https:// www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/sharing-the nation/2019/08/04/sexism-has-no-place-in-a-changing-Malaysia
Bakar, S. K. A. (2018, February 20). ‘Toxic Masculinity to Blame for Violence’, says WAO. FreeMalaysiaToday. Retrieved from https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/ nation/2018/02/20/toxic-masculinity- to-blame-for-violence-says-wao/.
Barnes-Smith, M. (2019, November 4). “Toxic Masculinity”. EqualiTeach. Retrieved from https://equaliteach.co.uk/toxic-masculinity/
Barr, S. (2019, January 17). What is toxic masculinity and how can it be addressed? Independent. Retrieved from https:// www.independent.co.uk/life-style/toxic- masculinity- definition-what-is-boys-men-gillette-ad-behaviour-attitude-girls-women a8729336.html.
Borillo, D. (2001). L’homophobie. Paris: PUF.
Bullock, A., Trombley, S., & Lawrie, A. (Eds.). (1999). The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (Third). New York: W.W. Norton.
Burgo, J. (2019, February 24). The Ways Gay Men Are More Masculine Than They Realize. PsychologyToday. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ us/blog/shame/201902/the-ways-gay-men-are-more-masculine-they-realize.
Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2019, March 8). As Long as We Associate Leadership with Masculinity, Women Will Be Overlooked. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/03/as-long-as-we-associate-leadership-with-masculinity-women- will-be-overlooked.
Cherry, D. N. (2018). Toxic Masculinity: An Exploration of the Root Causes of Sexual Assaults on College Campuses [Unpublished Master’s Thesis]. Ball State University. Cardinal Scholar. http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/123456789/201640.
Clarkson, J. (2006). 'Everyday Joe' versus 'Pissy, bitchy, queens': Gay masculinity on straightacting.com. The Journal of Men's Studies, 14(2), pp. 191-207. https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.1402.191
Coates, S. W. (2016). Can Babies Remember Trauma? Symbolic Forms of Representation in Traumatized Infants. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 64(4), pp. 751-776. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0003065116659443.
Connell, R. W. (2018). Masculinities. Vancouver, B.C.: Langara College.
Connell, R. W. (1983). Which Way is Up?: Essays on Sex, Class and Culture. London: Allen & Unwin.
Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639
Connell, R. W. (1987) Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Cook, M. (2019, November 4). The Deeper Causes of Toxic Masculinity. Mercatornet. Retrieved from https: //mercatornet.com/ the-deeper-causes-of-toxic- masculinity/ 24879/
Boise, S. (2019) Editorial: is masculinity toxic? Norma: International Journal for Masculinity Studies, 14(3), pp. 147-151, https://doi: 10.1080/18902138.2019.1654742
Douglass, R. (2017). More men should learn the difference between masculinity and toxic masculinity. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-difference- between-masculinity-and-toxic-masculinity_b_59842e3ce4b0f2c7d93f54ce
Easton, W. (2020). What Is Internalized Homophobia? PsychologyToday. Retrieved from
https:// www.psychologytoday.com/ us/blog/ queering-psychology/202002/ what-is internalized-homophobia
Fabello, M. A. (2016). Can Women Self-Objectify? Everyday Feminism. Retrieved from https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/02/can-women-self-objectify/
Fitzsimons, T. (2019, January 9). American Psychological Association Links ‘Masculinity Ideology’ To Homophobia, Misogyny. NBC News. Retrieved from https://links-masculinity-ideology-homophobia-misogyny-n956416
Flood, M. (2018, July 7). Toxic Masculinity: A Primer and Commentary. XYOnline. Retrieved from https://xyonline.net/content/toxic-masculinity-primer-and-commentary
Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, pp. 173–206. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
Garofalo, R., Wolf, R. C., Kessel, S., Palfrey, J., & DuRant, R. H. (1998). The Association between Health Risk Behaviors and Sexual Orientation among a School-based Sample of Adolescents. Pediatrics, 101(5), pp. 895-902. doi: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.101.5.895
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks. (Hoare, Q., and Smith, G. N., Trans.) New York, NY: International Publishers.
Heilman, B., Barker, G., and Harrison, A. (2017). The Man Box: A Study of Being a Young Man in the U.S., U.K., and Mexico: Key Findings. Washington, DC and London: Promundo-US and Unilever. Retrieved from https://promundoglobal.org/resources/man-box-study- young-man-us-uk-mexico-key-findings/?lang=english#
Herek, G. M. (2004). Beyond “Homophobia”: Thinking About Sexual Prejudice and Stigma inthe Twenty-First Century. Sexuality Research & Social Policy Journal of NSRC, 1(2), pp. 6-24. doi: https:// doi.org/10.1525/ srsp.2004.1.2.6
Huhn, J. (2019, March 14). Fighting Toxic Masculinity…and Fighting the Confusion About What it Means. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@dateaha/https- medium-com- dateaha-toxic-masculinity-what-it-means-c6fdae2d935b
Jaffe, A. (2020, January 29). Men Will Be Men: The Troubling Origin of Toxic Masculinity. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all- about-addiction/202001/men-will-be-men-the-troubling-origin-toxic-masculinity
Kamal, H. A. (2016, January 2). What’s Wrong with Local Movies? New Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/01/120115/whats-wrong-local- movies
Kimmel, M. S. (Ed.) (1995). The politics of manhood: Profeminist men respond to the mythopoetic men's movement (and the mythopoetic leaders answer). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Kort, J. (2018, August 30). How Therapists Often Fail Their LGBTQ Clients. PsychologyToday. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-the-erotic- code/201808/how-therapists-often-fail-their-lgbtq-clients
Kupers, T. A. (2005). Toxic masculinity as a barrier to mental health treatment in Prison.Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61 (6), pp. 713-724. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20105
Leavell, J. (2018, January 11). When Toxic Masculinity Infects Our Queer Spaces, We All Lose. Vice. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ev55y4/when-toxic- masculinity-infects-our-queer-spaces-we-all-lose
Let Women Shine In Brave New Malaysia. (2018, June 2). The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2018/06/02/let-women-shine-in-brave- new-malaysia/
Marcotte, A. (2017, October 24). Toxic Masculinity is Killing Us in Many Ways. AlterNet. Retrieved from https://www.alternet.org/2017/10/toxic-masculinity-killing-us-many- ways/
McIntosh, J. [Pop Culture Detective]. (2016, August 1). Toxic masculinity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gha3kEECqUk
Meyer, I. (1995). Minority Stress and Mental Health in Gay Men. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36(1), pp. 38-56. doi: 10.2307/2137286
Meyer, I. H., & Dean, L. (1998). Internalized Homophobia, Intimacy, and Sexual Behavior among Gay and Bisexual Men. Sage Publications, Inc., Vol. 4, pp. 160-186. doi: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243818.n8
Morettini, F. M. (2016, October 27). Hegemonic masculinity: How the dominant man subjugates other men, women and society. Global Policy. Retrieved from https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/27/10/2016/hegemonic-masculinity how- dominant-man-subjugates-other-men-women-and-society
Om, J. (2018, August 20). Toxic masculinity: Helping men understand the impact of their behaviour. ABC Life. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/life/toxic-masculinity men- understanding-their-behaviour/9998310
O'Neil, J. M., Helms, B. J., Gable, R. K., David, L., & Wrightsman, L. S. (1986). Gender-role Conflict Scale: College Men's Fear of Femininity. Sex Roles, Volume 14, pp. 335–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287583
Pappas, S. (2019). APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys. Monitor on Psychology, 50(1), p. 34. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/ce- corner
Parker, B., & Ferguson, C. (2018, January 15). Why Some People in Non-violent Relationships Kill Their Partners. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/why- some-people-in-non-violent-relationships-kill-their-partners-89151
Peru, F. A. (2016, August 12). Marrying the Rapist and the Objectification of Women. Malay Mail. Retrieved from https:// www.malaymail.com/ news/ opinion/ 2016/ 08/12/ marrying-the-rapist-and-the-objectification-of-women/1181571
Provence, M. M., Rochlen, A. B., Chester, M. R., & Smith, E. R. (2014). “just one of the guys”: A Qualitative Study of Gay Men’s Experiences in Mixed Sexual Orientation Men’s Groups. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 15(4), pp. 427–436. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035026
Rahim, M. H. A., Ping, L. M., Yin, J. S. K., & Phil, E. T. L. (2015). The Appeal of Violent Content in Entertainment Media to Malaysian Audiences: An Inquiry into the Influence of Meaning-making. Geografia Online, Malaysian Journal of Society and Space,11(9), pp. 86-98. ISSN 2180-2491
Rudestam, K. E., & Newton, R. R. (2015). Surviving your dissertation: A comprehensive guide to content and process. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Salter, M. (2019, February 27). The problem with a fight against toxic masculinity. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/toxic- masculinity-history/583411/
Salter, M. (2019, February 27). The problem with a fight against toxic masculinity. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.speechwire.com/files/9316-7%20- %20Discussion%20Artifact%20-%20CURRENT%20EVENTS.pdf
Samuels, A. (2016, June 6). Father of student convicted of rape: Steep price for '20 minutes of action'. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2016/06/06/father-of-student-convicted-of- rape-steep-price-for-20-minutes-of-action/37418253/
Saunders, D. (2017, October 29). Why good men need to reclaim masculinity from the toxic cliche of power and aggression. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-29/what-makes-a-good-man/9091960
Sears, J. T., & Williams, W. L. (1997). Overcoming Heterosexism and Homophobia: Strategies that Work. New York, NY: Columbia University Press
Shumka, L., Strega, S., & Hallgrimsdottir, H. K. (2017). “I Wanted to Feel Like a Man Again”:Hegemonic Masculinity in Relation to the Purchase of Street-Level Sex. Frontiers in Sociology, Volume 2. doi:10.3389/fsoc.2017.00015
Staples, L. (2019, September 26). Making Homophobic Characters Gay Panders to a Pervasive Myth. Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/arts- entertainment/tv/features/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-mac-gayhomophobicrob- mcelhenney-season-14-a9121271.html
Štrukelj, E., Gregório, D. M., & Giger, J.-C. (2019). The Association Between Internalised Homophobia and Internalization of Traditional Gender Roles. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 16(5), p. S1. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.03.034
Thepsourithone, J. (2017). It’s a Man’s World: An Investigation of Masculinity and Internalised Homophobia Amongst Homosexual Men [Unpublished Master’s Thesis]. Western Sydney University. Western Sydney University Research Direct Library. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:45568
Toxic Masculinity and the Hyper-Sexualization of Women. (2017, September 16). AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre. Retrieved from https://amssasc.ca/toxic-masculinity-and- the-hyper-sexualization-of-women/
Toxic Masculinity Officially ‘Harmful’ (2019, January 20). The Star Online. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/01/20/toxic-masculinity-officially- harmful
Tyson, L. (2006). Reader-response criticism. (Lois, T., Ed.), in Critical Theory Today (pp.169 - 204). New York: Routledge.
Watching Violence (2017, June 18). The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/06/18/watching-violence
Wilson, B. J., Smith, S. L., Potter, W. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Colvin, C. M., & Donnerstein, E. (2006). Violence in Children's Television Programming: Assessing the Risks. Journal of Communication, 52(1), pp. 5-35. doi: https:// doi.org/10.1111/ j.1460- 2466.2002.tb02531.x
Wright, C. (2018, October 5). What is toxic masculinity anyway? The Cultch. Retrieved from https://thecultch.com/what-is-toxic-masculinity-anyway/
Xu, W., Zheng, L., Xu, Y., & Zheng, Y. (2017). Internalized Homophobia, Mental Health, Sexual Behaviors, and Outness of Gay/Bisexual Men from Southwest China. International Journal for Equity in Health, 16(36), pp. 1-10. doi: 10.1186/s12939-017-05301
Nesamany, S. S., Ani, S. B. C., & Azlan, R. B. (2024). An Investigation into the Harmful Impacts of Toxic Masculinity Depicted in Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles.” International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 13(3), 3371–3383.
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode