The crisis that always is, but never was: A brief reflection on 150 years of panic about men, masculinity and social change
Every few years, a wave of concern breaks across the media landscape, warning that boys and men are in deep trouble.
The current surge is particularly loud. In both Australia, the US, the UK, and beyond, we hear that boys are falling behind in school, that men are struggling to find purpose, and that masculinity itself is in decline.
This alleged male malaise is wide-ranging. Some commentators point to a rise in loneliness and male suicide, while others wring their hands about boys growing up without male role models, being raised in “feminised” schools, or unable to compete with high-achieving girls and women in a world where traditional career paths and gender roles are shifting.
Cultural critics complain that men aren’t “manly” enough anymore, while dating discourse is filled with claims that feminism has made men less desirable or less necessary. At the more extreme end, online influencers in the so-called manosphere (such as Andrew Tate) declare that modern society is anti-male and that men must “reclaim” their power through dominance, discipline, and withdrawal from progressive norms.
Read more: Andrew Tate is charged with sex crimes – his followers will see him as the victim
These concerns have reached into politics, policy, and education. A parliamentary inquiry in the UK is now investigating boys’ outcomes in schooling, and think-tanks are leading the way in declaring an educational crisis for boys.
This is amplified by headlines similarly warning of boys’ and men’s seeming disadvantages, while social media algorithms boost a daily churn of anxiety over men’s mental health, employment, dating prospects, and cultural identity.
But there’s a deeper story here, one we’ve heard many times before.
Across the past 150 years, claims about a “crisis of masculinity” have recurred with striking regularity. What changes are the social and economic contexts; what remains consistent is the impulse to declare masculinity as under siege.
Far from being a historically unique moment, the current hand-wringing is the latest instalment in a much older story, one that often obscures more than it reveals.
Boys and the classroom: A recycled panic
Take the narrative that boys are falling behind in education. This is now a dominant concern, including here in Australia, where boys’ literacy rates, school engagement, and university attendance have received mounting attention.
The problem is often framed as one of gender bias – schools allegedly tailored to girls’ needs, a teaching workforce that’s too female, and curricula that fail to appeal to boys.
But this isn’t the first time boys’ educational performance has provoked public anxiety. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a similar panic took hold. Then, as now, media reports decried boys as “lost” in the classroom, framing the success of girls as a zero-sum game.
Back then, commentators called for more male teachers, more discipline, and a return to traditional values.
The data tells a more complicated story. Working-class boys and boys from racialised communities have long faced educational challenges, but these intersect with poverty, racism, and structural inequality more than gender alone. The disproportionate successes of more socially-privileged boys get wilfully ignored.
The tendency to treat “boys” as a homogenous category flattens these differences and recycles outdated assumptions about innate male behaviours and aptitudes.
‘Crisis talk’ in every generation
When we look at the history of masculinity in crisis, a pattern emerges. In the Victorian era, men were said to be losing their vigour due to industrialisation and urban life.
Thinkers of the day worried that modern comforts were producing over-civilised, effeminate men, prompting cultural movements such as Muscular Christianity to restore masculine vitality.
The emergence of the Boy Scouts in the early 20th century can also be seen as part of this response, a structured effort to instill discipline, physical strength, and imperial masculinity in boys thought to be drifting from “true manhood”. As can the “invention” and rise of physical education around the same period.
After World War I, millions of traumatised soldiers returned home to a society where women had entered the workforce and gained new autonomy.
Similar anxieties flared after World War II, as the male breadwinner ideal was reinstalled amid quiet dissatisfaction and growing domestic pressures. Not all men could meet this standard, especially those already marginalised by race or class.
Read more: Gendered violence in schools: Urgent need for prevention and intervention amid rising hostilities
The 1970s and ’80s saw masculinity reshaped again. Deindustrialisation decimated huge numbers of what had been traditionally male-dominated jobs. Second-wave feminism made important gains in workplace rights and gender equality.
These structural and cultural shifts provoked backlash, with commentators framing feminism as a threat to men.
The 1990s saw masculinity become a marketplace battleground – the sensitive “new man” was soon countered by the hedonistic “new lad.” Pop culture reflected a masculine identity in flux, and often in retreat.
Today’s digital version of this cycle finds its voice in reactionary influencers who promise lost boys a sense of purpose, control and clarity in a world they’re told no longer values them.
These figures draw on longstanding themes – that feminism has gone too far, that women are to blame for men’s problems, and that masculinity must be restored by rejecting softness, care, or compromise.
Looking beyond the headlines
None of this is to suggest that boys and men face no challenges. Many absolutely do. But the “crisis” narrative tends to isolate gender from other structural factors, and it obscures more productive questions about how masculinity is changing, and what kinds of masculinities are being rewarded or marginalised.
Moreover, crisis talk can have harmful effects. It encourages defensive posturing, reactionary politics, and a sense of victimhood that does little to support boys’ wellbeing.
It also risks erasing the violence, harm, and exclusion that some forms of masculinity produce, both for men themselves and as enacted against people of all genders.
What if, instead of asking whether masculinity is in crisis, we asked what kinds of masculinities are emerging? Maybe we could ask who benefits from calling them a crisis? What if we stopped seeing gender as a competition and started focusing on how to support all young people, boys included, to thrive in a rapidly-changing world?
The real work lies in moving past old scripts and moral panics, and towards a more thoughtful, inclusive approach to gender justice.
History reminds us: Masculinity is not in decline, and neither is the always-present – but always overstated – panic about boys and men in practically each and every decade.
Monash alumni, join our latest #Decoded webinar on 1 July, 2025, featuring Professor Steven Roberts and Dr Stephanie Wescott. They’ll examine the influence of the online manosphere on students and schools, exploring how misogynistic communities online are shaping the way boys see gender and power – and what we can do about it. Learn how these ideologies are spreading, the cultural drivers behind them, and the real-world impact on classrooms. Register here.
