Can you gauge someone's sincerity — or even toxic attitudes, like misogyny or racism?
The play, which runs through Oct. 27 at the 59E59 Theaters (and sorely deserves a longer life in New York), underscores with a sly smile the potentially toxic attitudes that are a byproduct of decades of prosperity and cultural self-absorption.
Yale Women's Center issued a statement on its Facebook page speculating on the allegations and students' responses: "We believe that [the team's] actions, and some community members' responses, reflect toxic attitudes that persist on our campus".
Paulie may be a fictional construct, but his toxic attitudes and soulless cynicism aren't hard to find if you watch TV long enough.
In fact, one of the most toxic attitudes on the part of a therapist, can be that of patronizing those who are in desperate need of validation for their keen observations -- and that is even when they cause discomfort to authorities -- parents, teachers, peers, etc.
It also works in stark contrast to the Hangover series, which reveled in the bad vibes of toxic male attitude for no higher purpose.
Then, as the political and media rhetoric around Romanian and Bulgarian immigration to the UK grew more toxic, patients' attitudes began to harden.
In a country where 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime, where slut shaming and victim blaming run rampant during rape trials, and where spousal rape has only been illegal for 38 years, street harassment becomes a less acute, but just as pervasive extension of toxic cultural attitudes about women and about sexuality.
