Tired of performing masculinity - by Karen Rosenkranz

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Tired of performing masculinity<br>Untold stories of contemporary boyhood

Karen Rosenkranz<br>Jun 19, 2026

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© All photos in this post are shot on film<br>“Masculinity… I don’t think it’s relevant. Being a good person doesn’t have anything to do with how strong or dominant you are.” The words of a 15-year-old I recently interviewed for my forthcoming book documenting the lives of adolescent boys across London1. I’m talking to teenagers from a wide variety of backgrounds about everything from friendship and romance to body image and politics.<br>I’ve always loved interviewing people. Their candidness can be astonishing. Some boys are telling me things they haven’t told anyone else before, and I feel a great responsibility to share their stories in an authentic and respectful way. Many express love and admiration for their parents, something they might not have said out loud to them directly. Others are surprised that anyone is interested in what they have to say at all, and it feels like it’s been a while since anyone has truly listened to them.

​I started this project because I think there’s an urgent need to tell more nuanced and positive stories about boyhood. So much of the current narrative is focused on the negatives. From Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere documentary to the New York Times profile of looksmaxxer Clavicular, the emphasis is on extremes. The featured influencers, ranging from laughable to scary, are portrayed with a sense of feminist outrage and shock. But in a world where the most powerful governments turn their war politics into memes, where dominating the algorithm by whatever means possible offers real financial gains, is it any wonder figures like Clavicular emerge? They are a product of the culture we live in. I don’t want to trivialise the harm they are causing, but they are not a one-to-one representation of one gender as a whole. I also wonder if even a critical examination is giving them a platform they do not deserve.​<br>Of the boys I have spoken to, it’s the younger ones who are more easily impressed by what they see online. “I don’t think I have a bad jawline,” says 13-year-old Jordan. Had it not been for the algorithm serving him ‘self-improvement’ content, his jawline is probably something he would have never thought about. He’s a confident and articulate boy, yet self-conscious about his height. According to social media standards, being at least six feet tall is the ideal, as is a chiselled jawline and a built physique. Not feeling quite comfortable in a changing body and the desire to fit in are normal features of adolescence. But now these insecurities can be exploited by a rancid bunch of influencers and taken to more and more extreme levels. The ideals promoted by some of them don’t resemble manliness, but an unhinged caricature of it. The content can seem innocent at first, or even sound like sensible health advice. “They have some good takes, which on surface level you can agree with. Then it gets worse and worse. I come from a working-class family, so the lifestyle and freedom that gets sold to you was attractive to me,” reflects 19-year-old Khays, who says his sister saved him from falling down the right-wing pipeline as a young teenager. Most of the older boys see right through it.<br>“If a guy says the only thing that you can do is looksmaxx, the only thing you have is autonomy over your own body, you know how sad that is!?”<br>Khays goes on to point out the systemic issues negatively impacting boys. “The fact that there’s no structures to help you, you’re not gonna get your finances in order anytime soon, the lack of agency... It really doesn’t help men. They feel like they can’t do anything, the world doesn’t like them.”<br>Former trader-turned-YouTube economist Gary Stevenson suggests that the gym is one of the only places where hard work still delivers results. “If you can’t own a home to show your status, your body becomes your only tangible asset. It’s a way to demonstrate discipline and value that can’t be taken away by a landlord or an inflation hike.”2 Of course, this affects all genders. But I think women are better able to navigate it, because they’re more likely to have friends and communities to support them. Not because they’re biologically wired to do so, but because they’ve been socialised to value relationships and empathy. Also, they haven’t been conditioned to believe that their worth is linked to how much money they make.<br>Rather than lamenting the growing obsession boys have with their body and appearance, it should alert us to their sense of powerlessness. (I really recommend watching Gary Stevenson’s take on this, link in the footnotes). It’s not an easy problem to solve. Poverty and education are massive factors, as is social media and the increasing power these platforms have over people’s lives. I welcome the age bans that are now coming into force to protect young people...