What is the future of masculinity?

Masculinity, as it has traditionally been conceptualised and embodied, is at a crisis point. Longstanding models of manhood—built around dominance, emotional restriction, and power over others—are no longer socially viable, yet few coherent alternatives have been offered. This has left many cisgender men in a kind of identity vacuum: a cultural wasteland where meaning is sought online, often through figures who promise certainty, power, and permission to express disowned parts of the self through misogyny, entitlement, or aggression.

Within this vacuum, we see polarisation. On one end, public figures and influencers legitimise contempt for women and glorify control, reinforcing the idea that masculinity is under attack and must be defended. On the other, there is increasing social rejection of these traits—leaving some men feeling shamed, isolated, or unsure how to relate without the scripts they were given.

At the heart of this crisis is the way masculinity has been entwined with violence and emotional suppression. Anger has often been treated as the only acceptable male emotion, while boys are rarely socialised into emotional literacy, vulnerability, or relational attunement. At best, this leaves men ill-equipped to function as emotional equals in adult relationships. At worst, it perpetuates cycles of emotional, physical, and sexual violence.

Increasingly, women are refusing to absorb the cost of this. Many are choosing to remain single, with or without children, and openly describing increased wellbeing, autonomy, and peace. Research supports what is visible culturally: women’s health and life satisfaction are often higher when they are not partnered with men who expect emotional labour without reciprocity. Where women do engage with traditional gender arrangements, they are increasingly explicit about the trade-offs. If they are expected to perform femininity, motherhood, and care work, they expect financial security, respect, and emotional presence in return. The unspoken labour is no longer being given away for free.

Alongside this, we see glimpses of alternative masculinities emerging. Men who combine strength with emotional maturity, confidence with attunement, presence with accountability. These figures are compelling not because they abandon masculinity, but because they expand it—demonstrating that power does not require domination, and strength does not require disconnection.

At the same time, gender itself is being radically re-examined. Trans, non-binary, and gender-fluid identities disrupt rigid binaries of masculinity and femininity, even when they continue to orbit around them—sometimes by defining themselves in opposition to what those categories have historically represented. Political attempts to erase or constrain these identities reflect a broader resistance to change: a desire to preserve familiar power structures and certainty, even at the cost of bodily autonomy, self-determination, and human dignity.

Underlying all of this is a struggle over power and belonging. We are negotiating how to form identity in relation to one another while also remaining aligned with ourselves. The tension lies in wanting acceptance without self-betrayal, connection without domination, and intimacy without hierarchy.

So what is the future of masculinity?

It is not a return to the past, nor a rejection of masculinity altogether. It is a re-imagining. A revolution not of force, but of integration. A movement toward listening—to internal truth, to social feedback, and to others’ lived experiences—without treating difference as threat.

In an ideal future, cisgender boys are raised with care, attunement, and emotional safety. They are supported to know themselves, to name their feelings, and to tolerate vulnerability without shame. Masculinity becomes less about control and more about presence; less about dominance and more about responsibility. Strength is redefined as the capacity to remain connected—to self, to others, and to values—even under pressure.

ThThis task calls us to observe and understand our own relationship to masculinity, including the wounds shaped by how it has existed in our lives. Only through this presence and reckoning can we begin to reimagine it with genuine freedom and creativity.