Exploring Mars constitutes toxic masculinity and is another manifestation of the male patriarchy by those who have already mistreated Mother Earth. That is the contention of a feminist who published an Op-Ed on the NBC News Think website.

The author, Marcie Bianco, also implied that a midlife crisis led to the launching of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying a 2008 Tesla Roadster (with the Starman robot behind the wheel) into an elliptical orbit between Earth and Mars. Elon Musk is the CEO and founder of both SpaceX and Tesla.

Several years ago, Musk described the mission to Mars as a “collective insurance policy” in the event that disaster of some kind strikes or occurs on Earth, Business Insider reported at the time.

According to British astronaut Tim Peake, Musk’s private-sector space mission could put humans on Mars within 20 years, the Express of the U.K. reported today.

Bianco seemed to suggest that Musk and equivalent male moguls generally are already responsible for climate change and other forms of environmental chaos. As alluded to above, she also insisted the space exploration is a patriarchal activity.

“The desire to colonize — to have unquestioned, unchallenged and automatic access to something, to any type of body, and to use it at will — is a patriarchal one…Rather, the impulse to colonize — to colonize lands, to colonize peoples, and, now that we may soon be technologically capable of doing so, colonizing space — has its origins in gendered power structures.”

The race to colonize Mars is just another example of male entitlement.



Houston has a new problem. And it's the patriarchy: https://t.co/fkrGqM1i2S pic.twitter.com/dnniApcfw5 — NBC News THINK (@NBCNewsTHINK) February 22, 2018

She also tossed the race card on the table in her criticism of Musk and other “rich white men,” in terms of whether their lives are worth being insured, a callback to Musk’s previous comment, given what she considers the results of 500 years of colonization on this planet. Bianco was making reference to billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, whose companies are also getting involved in exploring outer space.

The Editorial and Communications Manager of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, Bianco insisted that women are better stewards of the environment than toxic males who “raped and pillaged” the Earth through colonization and thus may be looking to Mars as a getaway.

‘This means that while men compete with each other over whose rocket is the biggest, fastest, and best, and send playthings off to become flashy space junk, women around the world are fighting to stay alive against violent assaults on their personhood — and their planet…Apparently, caring for the planet is perceived to be a ‘feminine’ quality and concern; the psychology of toxic masculinity spills over into the unethical disregard for the environment.”

She also suggested that masculine insecurity explains men’s alleged inattention to environmental issues as they seek to explore other worlds.

The author’s editorial also threw some shade on U.S. President Donald Trump.

“[Colonization of Mars] is the same instinctual and cultural force that teaches men that everything — and everyone — in their line of vision is theirs for the taking. You know, just like walking up to a woman and grabbing her by the p****.”

Neither Elon Musk nor SpaceX itself has responded to the essay, the San Jose Mercury News noted, adding that Musk would probably disagree with her claims of male-prompted climate destruction and its relationship to a Mars mission given that Tesla makes electric cars and solar panels.

It may also be fair to say that humanity the world over has sought to explore and push boundaries from the beginning of time. The Daily Caller separately wondered why Bianco seems to be unsupportive of science and exploration since last year’s women’s march accused the president of declaring a war on science.

Read the editorial by Marcie Bianco headlined “The patriarchal race to colonize Mars is just another example of male entitlement” in its entirety and draw your own conclusions.