Forget the clichés about “toxic masculinity”. From the nostalgic Traditionalist to the angry Fundamentalist, the isolated Castaway and the progressive Ally, Dr Stephen Whitehead breaks down the four modern male identities shaping the twenty-first century — and asks which will survive to 2125.
In a few short years, toxic masculinity has become the go-to term to describe the more unpleasant aspects of male behaviour. Pretty much every country and culture is now looking at examples of toxic masculinity within their male population. Which is fine, to a point. Unfortunately, most people don’t see beyond this. Many young males, for example, imagine that because they are male, they are toxic.
So why answer “no”? First off, masculinity is not singular but multiple. There are countless ways of men performing maleness, manhood, masculinity. The current media focus is on “toxic masculinity”, or traditional ways of being a man, but this is not a fixed biological condition. It is not predictable across the male species. As I show in this article, not all men perform this type of masculinity, and toxic masculinity itself has different levels or intensities, ranging from casually chauvinistic to extreme male fundamentalism.
Importantly, it is not the only masculinity out there: its opposite – progressive (or positive) masculinity – is a popular masculinity in countries such as the UK, the USA, Canada, Australasia, and Western and Northern Europe, and in those places where men have been exposed to, and adapted to, what I term “independent femininity”: a way of being a woman that is assertive, agentic, confident, singularly minded, and aspirational. Studies regularly show that upwards of 40% of men in such countries perform a liberal masculinity. A 2023 survey of American adults showed 43% of men identifying as feminist, and there is little difference between Gen Z and Millennials in this identification. Theirs is not a masculinity in crisis.\
Not true!
Every man is different. No two are identical, any more than any two women are identical. There are over eight billion humans in the world today and each one is unique. This is the miracle at the heart of the human story. However, grasping the enormity of that diversity is impossible, so when we talk about men and women we invariably categorise, stereotype, or create sociological typologies. From my decades of research into gender identity, I have created just such a typology of male types and their particular masculinity. Look around and you’ll see these men everywhere nowadays. You’ll certainly have met them.
However, if we ask a rather different question – “are men in crisis?” – then we can see that a great many are struggling to find a place in the world that values them as men. Many cisgender youths/men are suffering depression, social isolation, and suicidal thoughts, living solo or silo lives without love and attention. They are emotionally dysfunctional and consequently are being rejected by women as potential partners. These men, often through no fault of their own but as a result of social conditioning and circumstance, are male castaways: unable to envision a positive future for themselves, yet lacking the opportunity, self-love, resolution, and confidence to let go of traditional ways of being a man and embrace the social changes ushered in by women with independent femininity. While they may well be unreflective of their casual chauvinism and deep-rooted sense of male entitlement, they are a greate
These male castaways are in crisis, though it is possible to reach out to them through education, counselling, and appropriate professional support. Such support is now available in a great many countries, especially the UK, and is growing. What type of masculinity do these men have? I name it “collapsed masculinity”.
But there is also another type of masculinity – a way of being a man that is not easily reachable by any intervention. In my new book, The End of Sex, I term it “male fundamentalism”.
#1 – The Traditionalist: He is the most common type of man; easy to spot and difficult to avoid. Yet while he is not one of the more extreme types of men in terms of his masculine attitudes and relationship to women and LGBTQ+ people, neither is he an ally of modern women. He is casually chauvinistic, though likely in denial about that. The Traditionalist may be the epitome of gentlemanly behaviour when he’s around women, even spouting pseudo-feminist rhetoric if he wants to impress on a date, but at heart he’s living in 1965, not 2025. He recognises women are increasingly emancipating themselves; he just doesn’t want to fly the flag for them. He has never been fully convinced that women can rule the world, not even rule his local tax office; for him, men are the ‘natural’ leaders and so it will remain. As he would (quietly) say: “Male dominance is a biological fact.”
#2 – The Male Fundamentalist: At some point in the past few decades, this man got very angry indeed, and very afraid. He’s spotted what modern women are bringing into the world with their independent femininity, and he doesn’t like it one bit. He is resisting with all his might every word and action of DEIJ values and practices. Saying he’s simply a traditional man is like saying the Nazis’ Waffen-SS were simply German infantry with fancier uniforms. The Male Fundamentalist is an ideologue — the storm trooper of the anti-feminist, misogynistic, racist, homophobic/transphobic movement — and he has become very active around the world. We see him in the US government rolling back the rights of women and trans people; reinforcing gender apartheid in Afghanistan, Iran, and many other countries; fermenting the manosphere with male-supremacist propaganda; and, directly or indirectly, enabling global femicide. He is more than ‘toxic’ — he is downright lethal.
#3 – The Male Castaway: Don’t feel sympathy for men as they now struggle with the burden of having their behaviour critically scrutinised by women — they haven’t yet earned that sympathy — but do commiserate with the Male Castaway because this is the one type of man who is in crisis. These are mostly younger guys (aged under 45) who were socially conditioned into traditional gender values but then found themselves living in a world that had stopped valuing those values. Where to go next? The Male Castaway, being a vulnerable guy, retreated into a solo, silo lifestyle, unable to relate to modern women and destined for a life lived in online male fantasy land. The Japanese call these Castaways ‘ hikikomori’. The Chinese term is ‘lao shu ren’. These men have what I term ‘collapsed masculinity’ — lacking self-awareness, motivation, emotional intelligence, even libido. Add in his poor social skills and you can see why the Male Castaway is a poor investment in the dating game. He is bruised, confused, isolated, and depressed. Some are suicidal. Is he dangerous? Only to himself.
#4 – The Progressives: Many independent-minded women, especially feminists, may well reject any suggestion that they need male allies in their fight for gender justice, freedom from male violence, and the right to own their own bodies. But they’d be wrong. And anyway, it’s too late. A great many men have already signed up as feminists — not just in the West but across the global North, East, and South. I signed up over 30 years ago and I certainly wasn’t the first man to do so. Which makes me a little biased in my description of this guy, because basically, I am he. Do we Progressives have any weaknesses? Sure. We can be too intense and self-righteous, annoyingly quick to step onto our DEIJ platform, and conflicted by our non-violent principles when considering how to respond to the likes of Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin, Andrew Windsor, and Donald Trump. We are still a minority worldwide but are growing in number. The trajectory of history is on our side.
The male species has never been one stereotypical, indistinguishable, predictable, monolithic body of testosterone all performing the same masculinity. To imagine otherwise is to slip into uncritical thinking at best, simple-mindedness at worst. Diversity has always been a strength of the male species, not a weakness. Indeed, it is men’s (and women’s) ability to adapt, change, shift thinking, and develop new thoughts that has saved the species to date.
And it continues. To be sure, this process of gender evolution has gathered pace since the 1950s, and we are now in the global throes of it, which can be disorientating for a lot of men. But this evolution will save, not destroy, humanity.
So consider the four types of men described above along with their masculine performance, and imagine which of those will still be around at the end of this century — and which are fast heading for extinction. Add into the mix the AI factor and that will give you a big clue as to what the male species will look like in 2125.
Dr Stephen Whitehead is a sociologist, author and consultant internationally recognised for his work on gender, leadership and organisational culture. With more than two decades in academia, he served as Senior Lecturer in Education and Programme Director at Keele University before moving to Asia, where he has lived since 2009, building an international consultancy for schools and universities across the region. He is the author of 20 books, translated into 17 languages, including Men and Masculinities, Toxic Masculinity: Curing the Virus, Self-Love for Women and The End of Sex: The Gender Revolution and its Consequences. His concept of “Total Inclusivity” has been widely applied in workplaces, schools and universities, and his writing has helped shape global debate on identity, gender and organisational change. For more on Dr Stephen Whitehead’s take on modern organisations and their culture, see his recent book, Total Inclusivity at Work (London: Routledge).
