It was a smoko break on a job site just outside town. Dust in the air, steel frames going up, utes parked in a rough line like they had been dropped there by habit more than design.
A few of the boys were sitting on upturned buckets, boots off, socks half rolled, mugs of tea going lukewarm. Good men, solid workers, the kind who turn up early and stay late without making a fuss.
Political institutions around the world remain shaped by gender norms that influence expectations of leadership, authority, and power. These norms often reinforce patterns in which political leadership and decision making are associated with men and masculinity, shaping how political parties, parliaments, and other institutions operate and who is able to participate fully and lead in politics and public life.
In countries across the world, there are growing numbers of men taking action to help end violence against women.
And there are growing efforts to engage men and boys in prevention efforts: as participants in education programs, as targets of social marketing campaigns, as activists and advocates, and as leaders and policy makers.
Yesterday, two things happened that made me empathize with boys and men who are drawn to the manosphere.
The first was that I had a friend – who I’ll refer by the pseudonym Hayden, for his privacy – disclose an instance of sexual harassment that happened to him in a place where he normally feels very safe.
The VicHealth Framing Masculinity Message Guide offers evidence-based strategies to challenge harmful traditional masculine stereotypes in Australia. It promotes productive conversations, aiming to encourage healthier, more diverse, and flexible norms for men and boys
Jan 14, 2026
Many years ago a troubling thought began rattling around in my head. What happens when an outdated patriarchal mindset meets nuclear weapons?
That question would not leave me alone. So in 2007 I wrote a small booklet called Sustainable Masculinity. It was nothing grand, just a thin 30-page booklet exploring a simple but uncomfortable idea.
I’d realised that the old patriarchal rule book that has guided male behaviour for centuries was written long before humanity invented weapons capable of wiping out civilisation. And the two may not coexist for very long.
Growing up, telling the heroes apart from the villains was easy.
The good guys were good, and the bad guys were bad. The odds were stacked against them, but the good guys always won, and the bad guys went away.
Everything was enviably clear.
The villains and the monsters, the Voldemorts, Saurons, and evil Emperors, they were all concrete, consistent, and always separate from ourselves.
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