Mr P Exposes Toxic Masculinity in the Visuals for “Too Late”
For his latest, Mr P of the defunct group P. Square tackles domestic violence. A song about a love lost, Mr P decides to use the video of “Too Late” to show what it is like to lose someone due to abusive behaviour.
All through the video, Mr. P walks around an empty mansion and reminisces about his love. He then gets flashbacks of his abuse and how he was egged on by his friends.
While the message seems like the straightforward “don’t follow bad friends” or “don’t beat your wife”, there is a message that a lot of fans are choosing to ignore.
Toxic masculinity
The concept of toxic masculinity is used to refer to certain cultural norms that are associated with harm to society and to men themselves.
Traditional stereotypes of men as socially dominant. This also includes traits such as misogyny and homophobia. These can be considered “toxic” due in part to their promotion of violence, including sexual assault and domestic violence.
The socialization of boys often normalizes violence, such as in the saying “boys will be boys” with regard to bullying and aggression. This can be seen in the video when Mr P’s friend hails him for hitting his wife saying, “Na man you be”.
There is a lot of bad behaviour that men normalize in their relationships. For example, men can encourage or cover up for a married friend who cheats (see the Bovi prank).
Men also passively promote bad behaviour in their friends by staying silent about it. The bro code is their excuse for not reporting a rapist or violent friend. They do not reprimand their guys who abandon their families.
Yet, these men would consider themselves good men because they do not do the same thing in their own households. In reality, they are complicit in the crimes of their friends.
When you put this into consideration, you realize that indeed there are very very few good men out there. Maybe a handful. It truly is a shame and a pity.
With the rise of socially conscious music, it is clear Mr P is passing a message. However, we don’t know for sure if he knows exactly how many messages were passed in this video.
