Does Putin’s ‘toxic masculinity’ really matter?

Apparently, if Vladimir Putin had been a woman, everything would be just tickety-boo.

Speaking to German TV, Boris Johnson has said that Putin is the ‘perfect example of toxic masculinity’ and that had he been a women – ‘which he obviously isn’t’, Boris felt the need to clarify – then ‘I really don’t think he would’ve embarked on a crazy, macho war of invasion and violence in the way that he has.’

Johnson was using Putin’s example to argue the case that Nato and the West ‘need more women in positions of power’ – Liz Truss is likely to agree – but this also speaks to a dangerous tendency of modern democratic leaders to make sweeping and exaggerated statements presumably meant to be crowd-pleasers, which risk backfiring in all kinds of ways.

To be sure, Putin’s back-catalogue of carefully staged and lovingly photographed action man antics, from the bare-chested horseback riding to the deliberate use of gangster slang, all do speak to a certain overcompensation.