Dr. Phil asked Tomassi about past statements, "What do you mean when you say media celebrates masculinity as equally acting feminine?"
"That’s the only time that the mainstream media will ever celebrate masculinity is when you see The Rock in a tutu," Tomassi responded. "Whenever you see men behaving conventionally feminine, that’s when the media decides to celebrate them. But yet when a guy is acting in a conventionally masculine way, we do not celebrate that, they find some way to demonize that."
Former wrestling personality Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has risen in recent years as one of Hollywood's action and comedy film stars in titles such as Jumanji and Black Adam. (Flannery Underwood for Men’s Health)
INGRAHAM: WHERE HAVE ALL THE MEN GONE?
Dr. Phil introduced Tomassi as the "godfather of the Manosphere," the Manosphere being a decentralized online community of men over two decades who, as Tomassi described, "compare notes" about how to improve in physical training, financial success and social skills.
Tomassi noted, "We have a generation of what we call ‘lost boys’ right now who don’t have a father figure, they don’t have any guidance-whether its masculinity or much else for that matter."
The author added further that men are "sedated" by society via escapism through alcohol, pornography, and video games because their lives are so miserable.
Dr. Phil asked about the suicide rate of men compared to women being 3.5-5 times larger.
Author Rollo Tomassi wrote "The Rational Male" and speaks on issues for men trying to assert their identities in a society that some say demonizes masculinity itself.
LEFT'S ‘TOXIC MASCULINITY’ LABEL TO BLAME FOR MALE CRISIS?
Tomassi responded that "deaths of despair" have become more common because society has so few mechanisms or institutions that are looking out for the welfare of men as a distinct group.
"We constantly harp on the fact that men don’t have friends, don’t have close friends, don’t have the same networks that women do, and then we put the blame for their mental health back on them by saying ‘its toxic masculinity and if you guys were just more like women, then you would reach out for therapy of some sort,'" he said.
He illustrated how society would be radically different if women were encountering these issues.
Musician Harry Styles has often been celebrated by society and the media for wearing effeminate clothing as a means of defying gender norms. (Joseph Okpako)
"If women were killing themselves at 4 times the rate that men are, you would have a dedicated month and the NFL would change their uniforms to pink or something else so that we would have some sort of female suicide prevention month, but we don’t see that right now, because we blame it on toxic masculinity," he said.