Exploring Indonesian’s TikTok Trend#EndToxicMasculinity

Mind Entrance- Suryo Djagad

Lately, the world of TikTok is in an uproar with a new trend called #EndToxic Masculinity. What is Toxic Masculinity? Toxic Masculinity is a 'narrow' description of manliness. Virility itself is defined as violence, sex, aggressiveness. This is the idea of ​​a culture of virility where strength is everything while emotion is weakness. Our society forms what is masculinity in which men are required to be macho, assertive, not whiny, have a leadership spirit, and must always be good at various things (FactNews, Medium).

Then, what is the beginning of the #EndToxicMasculinity trend in Indonesia? Check out the full story and comments of the creators below!

1. Beginning the #EndToxicMasculinity Trend

In Indonesia, this trend was first made by a creator named Michelle (@notmichmo on Tiktok). According to the Mind Entrace team interview with Michelle, she said his insight of the trend came from creators from abroad. Unfortunately, this trend from abroad is seen as a mockery of Toxic Masculinity. Then, because of his friend's orders, Michelle made a reaction to one of the videos in this trend and finally changed it to something positive by inviting a man to show his feminine side in the video, using a sound titled "Petition for Indo Boys to do This" and hashtag # EndToxicMasculinity.

2. Support and other Creator Reactions

"I didn't expect this to go viral," Michelle told the Mind Entrance team. According to her, many factors that made this trend viral were one of the awareness of the Indonesian people to no longer make a "narrow" description of virility. There are also many creators with a large number of followers who helped to viral this trend including Mandy (@mandrug on tiktok), Shaka (@shakapradipa on Tiktok), and Romi (@imorcantique on Tiktok)

The Mind Entrance team also interviewed Romi Pratam (@imorcantique on TikTok) as one of the creators who popularized this trend. According to him, this trend is a very cool trend. "I'm very happy that there are many people who care about the importance of removing Toxic Masculinity in Indonesia, a lot of people has been struggling about this," Romi said.

3. Creators' messages to people who are still glorifying toxic masculinity

The following is a message from Michelle and Romi about people who still consider masculinity merely a perspective with a short description in Indonesia: