Latest news with #toxicmasculinity
The Independent
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Danny Dyer on toxic masculinity, absent dads, and penis socks
'There's a bloke running naked down the street…and I think it's Mick from EastEnders.' Danny Dyer returns for Season 2 of Mr Bigstuff, and he's joined by co-stars Ryan Sampson and Harriet Webb to delve into toxic masculinity, absent fathers, fragile male egos, and the high-risk world of penis socks. They also break down the mechanics of 'quiching' someone in the face, why modern masculinity is broken, and why they believe comedy might be the remedy. Watch more red carpets, interviews, and pop culture moments on Independent Culture on YouTube.
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Emmys prove that we have a huge ageism problem
This week, coverage of the Emmy Awards nominations made much of the fact that Owen Cooper, a stripling of 15, had become the youngest-ever supporting actor nominee for his performance in Adolescence, the much-discussed Netflix drama about the effects of ' toxic masculinity ' on the young. It's an extraordinarily nuanced and naturalistic performance from Cooper, and the judges have got this one right. But at the other end of the age scale, Kathy Bates became the oldest-ever nominee in the best actress category for her role in Matlock, a revamp of the 1980s legal drama. She is 77, and while I realise that many people are heading for the uphills at this stage in their lives, this statistic does suggest that TV still has a bit of an ageism problem. While there were some more seasoned actors among the Emmy nominees (Harrison Ford, a sprightly 83, was recognised for the comedy drama Shrinking; Martin Scorsese, one year his junior, got a nod for his guest role in The Studio, playing a version of himself), there was also one very obvious snub. Ted Danson, who is the same age as Bates, was quite superb in A Man on the Inside, a comedy about a retiree who turns amateur detective. But this West Coast Miss Marple failed to impress the Emmy judges and received not a single nomination. It is true that, since the birth of moving pictures, we have been obsessed with youth and beauty. And, of course, the fact that the earliest cinema actors were silent on screen meant they were hired mainly for their looks – for their ability to raise an anguished eyebrow or convey despair in the prettiest of ways. Naturally, with the arrival of the talkies, stars such as Rudolph Valentino and Clara Bow saw their careers flounder; only a few, like Lillian Gish, survived the transition to sound. Gish was, in fact, the subject of one of the most glorious (if brief) career renaissances in cinema history when, in 1987 aged 93, she appeared in The Whales of August as one of two sisters returning to Maine for the annual holidays. It is a remarkable performance from Gish – sparky and playful. The scene in which she lets down her hair in front of a portrait of her dead husband is electrifying – you see the elderly woman register a sudden jolt of eroticism as she remembers her younger sexual self. The thing about older actors is that they bring to the screen not just the benefit of professional experience, but also the long curve of a life well lived – and the wisdom to abandon the fiercely held certainties of their youth. It's that subtle combination of insight and doubt that informs some of the greatest screen performances. I'm thinking of Jean-Louis Trintignant (81) and Emmanuelle Riva (85) in Michael Haneke's Amour (2012), as a couple embarking on the final few months of their lives, with the memories that should keep them together fractured by her dementia. Then there is 74-year-old Peter O'Toole in Venus, a frightful old roué of a thespian, brought down to earth by the arrival of a brash young Jodie Whittaker as the niece of his best friend (Leslie Phillips). What might have been a standard generation-gap comedy becomes something far richer thanks to O'Toole's portrayal of a man who knows he once had it all and realises it is slowly draining out of him as he gets ever closer to death. I also think of Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, James Hong (so adept at playing variations of one character in Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Anthony Hopkins, at 83, raging against the dying of the light in The Father – a performance that led to him being named the oldest-ever winner of the Best Actor Oscar. To put it simply, many actors give their greatest performances when they reach old age – so why are the elderly given so little screen time? When Scarlett Johansson cast June Squibb in Eleanor the Great, it caused something of a stir; that a Hollywood A-lister would put a 95-year-old character actress at the centre of her directorial debut – how outré! It's a worrying sign that such roles aren't seen as completely normal in an ageist industry hung up on the erroneous belief that young people only want to watch other young people. You will have noticed my above list mentions only cinema performances. The situation is worse in theatre and, as the Emmy nominations indicated, on TV. Understandably, theatre is no picnic when you are physically frail, with insurance companies creating a barrier to achieving stage glory. Yet time and again, I have seen elderly actors suddenly burst into life on stage – as if the very act of being in a theatre is rejuvenatory. Back in 2019, I was lucky enough to see Maggie Smith's final stage performance, aged 84, in A German Life at the Bridge Theatre, in which she played Goebbels' secretary, remembering past horrors with a mixture of clarity and confusion. It was a great swansong – wonderfully controlled and word perfect – far from the dying embers of a once-brilliant career. Television has no excuse for consistently failing to give roles of much substance to actors in old age. A friend of mine, who until recently worked in casting, left the industry because she said casting directors now assemble dramatis personae as if curating an Instagram page: only the bold and the beautiful need apply. Certainly, anyone unlucky enough to catch The White Lotus (bewilderingly, a big winner at the Emmy nominations despite its sheer superficiality) will know what she means. With the exception of 78-year-old Thora Hird's quiver-inducing turn in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (37 years ago!), or Maggie Smith's scene-stealing Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey, I can think of very few performances from older actors that have become major conversation points.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
'Not all men': How the shifting political terrain is making harmful rhetoric seem moderate - ABC Religion & Ethics
There's a growing discomfort with some of the language we use to describe gendered harm. The debate over toxic masculinity is familiar, fraught and often circular. But a newer unease has emerged in social media discussions: the suggestion that even terms like manosphere — the longstanding descriptor for the online ecosystem of influencers, activists and communities that espouse men's grievance and promote male dominance — may now be too harsh, too alienating, too gendered. This is part of a broader commentary suggesting that the use of gendered language to describe male-dominated networks of harm risks shutting men out of the conversation. On the surface, this can sound like progress — part of an authentic effort to 'meet men where they are' and broaden their engagement in gender equality and violence prevention. But it's worth asking, Why now? Why are terms long used in research and advocacy increasingly being labelled divisive? What has shifted to make naming gendered harm feel too uncomfortable? Part of the answer lies not in the words themselves, but in the shifting political ground beneath them. We are living through a moment where discourse around gender and power is polarised and polarising. As far-right ideologies become louder, more organised and more visible, they promote traditional, hierarchical gender roles. Those who reject such extremism but remain wary of structural gender analysis begin to sound moderate by comparison. The political rightward shift not only amplifies the extreme — it repositions suspicion of feminist ideas as balanced, and even reasonable. Nick Adams addresses the DC Young Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club on 29 January 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post via Getty Images) Just look at what's happening in the United States. Earlier this year, Donald Trump, Jr offered praise and support for Andrew and Tristan Tate — high-profile figures known for espousing misogynistic, authoritarian worldviews under the guise of male empowerment, and currently facing charges of sexual assault and human trafficking. Then, just days ago, President Trump nominated Australian-American Nick Adams — a self-styled 'alpha male' and anti-woke provocateur — as ambassador to Malaysia. These aren't fringe actors. They're being platformed and legitimised by the highest levels of political power. This is the context in which softer critiques of feminist language start to look reasonable. The psychologist who questions the use of manosphere , the commentator who says we should avoid 'gendered generalisations' — they are absolutely not promoting hate. But their discomfort with naming gendered power now lands in a conversation that is already being pulled sharply to the right. And in that climate, simply appearing not-too-extreme becomes a kind of authority. This rhetorical repositioning matters. It shifts focus from how power operates to how language feels. It allows a soft revival of 'not all men' logic — not as an internet retort, but as a structural narrative. And while that logic was never especially extreme, it begins to start feeling more moderate, even reasonable, against the backdrop of louder, more overt forms of backlash. The result is a growing reluctance to name masculinity at all. A growing chorus singing that identifying men-dominated networks of harm might alienate the very men we should be engaging. That the real danger is not misogyny, but the discomfort that arises when we try to talk about it honestly. But gender is already in the conversation. It's baked into the structures we're trying to understand. The term manosphere doesn't indict all men. It describes a network of ideologies that organise around male grievance and gender dominance — including incels, men's rights activists, pick-up artists and self-professed misogynistic content creators. Calls to soften this language often come from a place of care, especially within the men's health sector. But when that care comes at the cost of political clarity, we have to ask who benefits. If we avoid naming gender because it feels impolite, we risk preserving the very hierarchies we claim to be addressing. More than that, we reduce gendered violence to individual bad behaviour, rather than expressions of entrenched power. This depoliticises the conversation, obscuring the broader patterns that sustain inequality. And that's the real danger of this shift. It allows harmful ideas to be repackaged as reason. It allows misogyny to hide in plain sight — not in overt rhetoric, but in discomfort with naming the structures behind it. And it leaves us with a strange, unsettling reality: that in a world where the discourse keeps moving right, simply saying 'gender matters' now feels like a provocation. Professor Steven Roberts is Head of School of Education, Culture and Society at Monash University.
Times
06-07-2025
- Times
I have a question that stalks us all: why have so many men gone toxic?
This may be a jaundiced view of where we are today, but it does sometimes seem as if half the population is clamouring to be recognised as suffering from a mental illness and are magnanimously indulged in this aspiration by the state, while the real psychos — resistant to the suggestion that there is anything wrong with them — continue causing misery to their victims and the police and social services look the other way. This certainly seemed the principal lesson of To Catch a Stalker (BBC3). A succession of young women, driven to their wits' ends and scared for their lives as the consequence of what we might genuinely call toxic masculinity, sought help from the authorities and were rewarded with the most meagre of outcomes. In the overwhelming majority of cases the men doing the stalking were spurned ex-boyfriends who took this blow to their self-esteem very personally indeed (although in one case it was simply a female recruitment officer who was being harassed by someone she had found a job for).
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Women Are Sharing The Things Guys Flex To Appear "More Masculine" That Actually Have The Complete Opposite Effect
Few things are more painful than being stuck in a conversation with a man who thinks he's being smooth and charming, when really, he's just waving a giant red flag. In the spirit of calling it like it is (and hopefully opening up a little dialogue along the way), here are 19 things women say men flex to "appear masculine" that actually have the opposite effect, whether it be harmful, cringey, or just plain not cute: 1."Refusing to wear sunscreen — like, you're not tougher than the sun and you'll age like a raisin." —Wild_Cauliflower_970 2."Had a guy flex that he worked as an HVAC on roofs and decided he didn't need any water on the two hottest days of the year last year, and then ended up in the hospital. THEN he tried to flex, not sleeping, and I'm just sitting there like, of ALL the things to flex on, you chose those two, and you are fully aware I'm a nurse?? What??" —theblackcanaryyy 3."Bragging about 'being alpha.'" —HurricaneDrill213 "You say 'Alpha Male.' We hear 'Deactivate Vagina.'" —RaptureInRed 4."Walking with their arms bowed out. No, Carl, that doesn't make your muscles look bigger. A literal flex, I suppose." —Ilovethe90sforreal 5."Bragging (usually lying and making up stories) about how they have so much money, women, power, and how strong they are. No, I do not want to hear about how you can get any woman you want and beat up any man if they look at you funny. You're not cool; you're an insecure moron." —_allycat 6."Aggression repulses me, even the small things like puffing their chest out or shouting at someone who bumped into them accidentally, huge ick, and sometimes it feels like a lot of men do it intentionally because they have a female audience." —Leolou6 7."Talking about how easily they could 'fuck someone up' to show us you're a protector. All it says is that you 1) probably can't and 2) are the kind of dumbass who will unnecessarily escalate situations. A 'protector' carries themself in such a way as to never make talking it necessary and is also intelligent enough to get out of the situation before violence becomes necessary." —whitezhang 8."Flexing with your car like revving the engine or driving too fast." —decensum8thhouse 9."When they're obsessed with their fast cars or lifted trucks. Please stop taking photos with your car for your dating profile 🙏." —spookycamphero 10."Not sure if it's a flex, but guys that boldly say they don't change their baby's diapers, specifically if it's a poopy diaper. These are the same guys that brag they'd die for their family, but they'll let an infant sit in crap all day until their wife changes the diaper for them. There's nothing masculine about being afraid to help your own child." —piper33245 11."Not knowing how to do basic tasks like cooking or cleaning. You don't look like a masculine alpha; you look like a dependent child." —Agitated-Cup-2657 12."Acting like they have no emotions." —No-Sandwich1511 13."Acting like you're less of a man if you dress nicely and fix your hair and overall appearance." —WintertheName 14."Refusing to do anything that they think is girly or gay makes a guy look insecure and weak, and so much less masculine than if they just did the thing. Things that make a dude look good: rocking the pink shirt, letting a niece/daughter paint your nails, liking cats, cooking/cleaning/doing laundry like it's no big deal, decorating a living space like an adult, unapologetically liking girl music or movies too, buying tampons for your partner or sister, holding a purse when asked, being involved in daughter's activities as well as son's..." —rinky79 15."Acknowledging their own body count as if it's a badge of honor. Makes no difference if you slept with 100 women. You just look like an asshole with no respect for who gave you their time." —BowlApprehensive6093 16."When they claim to be players. That's embarrassing." —Ambitious-Comb-1731 17."Talking nonstop about their gym gains but forgetting that being humble and kind is way more attractive." —kiradabaddie 18."1) Not taking care of your skin — moisturizer, sunscreen, washing/exfoliating daily/as needed. 2) Saying, 'I don't read' not because they can't, just pure unwillingness to read/listen to books, articles, anything, basically being willfully ignorant. 3) Refusing to be seen as soft/vulnerable/emotional. For example, not holding hands, refusing to kiss or hug, ignoring their girl in favor of being with the bros, and being seen as 'tough.' Hiding/forcing down emotions, even when they'd be expected and accepted (like crying at a funeral, jumping at a haunted house, or being excited to pet a puppy)." —elisespeaces And lastly, as for what does make men the exact opposite of what some guys try to project: 19."Kind of the one of the sexiest things about my husband is that he's quietly calm and confident. Like this man is unshakeable. He's never jealous. He's never boastful or aggressive. It's honestly so hot. So I suppose to answer your question: boastful, aggressive, jealous men reek of low self-esteem/low confidence, and it's not only a huge red flag, it's a gigantic turn-off. Nothing will make me outright laugh and think of a guy as a 'poor little man' than those traits." —canconfirmamrug Got any others to add? Drop 'em down below. Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
