I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily.

Today, the essayist Jimmy Briggs asks all of us to explore how masculinity and our ideas about it have harmed us.

In his talk from TED Women, 2021, he explains the consequences of the most traditional notions of manhood

and how to rethink it to the benefit of everyone.

The world can be a toxic place. No one knows this more than women and girls,

cis and trans, as well as non-binary people.

I am a journalist with 30 years' experience reporting on the injustices women and others

face around the world.

I am a co-founder of the man-up campaign to energize youth activism against sexual and gender-based

violence.

I am a father to two daughters. I'm a life partner to a woman, and I'm a black man in America. Holding these identities and many more.

I say this call to action to you with the deepest sincerity and utmost gravity.

It is time for a gender reckoning, beginning with men authentically confronting our internal

selves and each other to deliver the toxicity within us.

Against the backdrop, a Black Lives Matter protest,

cries for a racial reckoning have echoed throughout the world,

at times seeming premature and largely misunderstood.

I believe a true gender reckoning

must be at the center of any transformative movement for social justice and equity.

But what is a reckoning?

Dictionaries say it means to resolve a bill or a debt.

In other words, to settle an account.

...