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masculinity

Fatherhood

Anthony Mackie explains his refreshingly old-school approach to raising his boys to be men

"In the past 20 years, we've been living through the death of the American male."

@thepivot/TikTok

Anthony Mackie explains how he raises his boys to become men.

While on an episode of The Pivot podcast, Marvel star and father to four sons Anthony Mackie recently took a strong stance regarding masculinity, saying: "In the past 20 years, we've been living through the death of the American male…but I raised my boys to become young men.”

While that sentence might at first seem like we’re heading into some cringey “alpha male” territory, the Captain America: Brave New World actor also elaborated on the values he instills in sons, like being respectful, having humility, saying “yes sir” or “yes ma'am” and “thank you,” opening the door for women, making sure their mother is "taken care of and provided for.”

Mackie then provided an example, saying that before leaving for a job, he would make his 15-year-old son the “man of the house,” with the responsibility of making sure the doors were locked and the alarm was on. Because, as Mackie put it, “if I’m not there to protect, he gotta be there to protect.”

This sentiment reflects a broader shift that many parents are experiencing. While there are certainly many praises to sing about modern practices like gentle parenting, many people are also longing for a return of some “traditional” approaches that are equally beneficial, particularly when it comes to setting helpful boundaries and teaching manners.

As one viewer put it, “That’s called structure, responsibility, accountability, and direction.”

But there’s also Mackie’s take on masculinity itself—involving caring for and protecting others, showing up for responsibilities, and embodying true leadership—which people are positively responding to.

leadership, raising sons, fathers and sons, young menMasculinity doesn't have to be toxic. Photo credit: Canva

Mackie's take t seems to touch on admirable traits that can go unnoticed by both far left progressives, who wave the flag of “toxic masculinity” (and thus alienate half the population), and the right wing "manfluencers" like Andrew Tate who offer a place for men to be welcomed while promoting actual toxic traits like misogyny, narcissism, and domination.

“That’s not the masculinity that needs to die. More fathers need to teach this,” one person wrote about Mackie's take.

Another echoed, “What a beautiful way to articulate being a man.”

As another viewer noted, parents can of course teach boys these traits while also teaching “emotional intelligence too—vulnerability, honesty, empathy, care. Then the boys will be golden.”

And just as we can incorporate both new and old parenting styles, we can also integrate some nuance in the way we talk about masculinity. Our conversations surrounding gender roles are constantly in flux, and yet there's a bit of stuckness around this topic—what makes a “real” man, how to be a “good” man, and so on. Mackie’s take put to words what a lot of folks are feeling: that the good parts of masculinity are being erased along with the bad, and that if we really do want the next generation of men to be fully realized, we need to teach them what that looks like.

Watch the full podcast episode below:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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Unrealistic ideals are everywhere.

When guys want to start working on self-improvement, they're told that Step 1 is always, every time, without fail, going to the gym. For better or worse, this is where men are repeatedly told to go to begin turning their life around. Whether it's gaining confidence, becoming stronger, looking better, or of course, the classic, attracting more women, guys have all sorts of expectations of what fitness can do for them. We're constantly told that lifting weights is the key to solving almost all of our problems. But is it really?

Real men who work out regularly are sounding off on social media about gym expectations vs reality and the responses are incredibly illuminating. If you're thinking about getting started on your own fitness journey, it might help to know exactly what you are, and aren't, in for.

Expectation: Wanting compliments from women. Reality: Getting them from men.

gif of two men lifting weights togetherSometimes gym bros are the best bros.Giphy

Studies, and some common sense, show that women are more attracted to men who appear strong. This inspires a lot of men to hit the gym hard in order to improve their chances, but the reality is they tend to vastly overestimate the impact lifting weights will have. In fact, most guys who work out quickly find that it's actually other men who are more likely to notice their hard work and throw them compliments.

In fact, bodybuilding as we know it—oiled up dudes with massive muscles in tiny speedos—owes its roots to the queer community. So, you could say that a lot of the things guys chase in the gym today, like big shoulders and biceps, were initially designed to attract other men.

"I thought women would compliment me on my muscles, but in reality I only get compliments from other gym bros 😅....and that's cool too!" a commenter wrote in a Reddit thread on the subject of gym expectations vs reality.

"I thought girls would be into me... Sadly, it's men that seem to give me more attention now," said another.

Not ideal for guys hoping to score more dates, but hey, a compliment is a compliment.

"Buddy I haven't seen in a while just told me my legs look juicy. Feels good bro," admitted one user.

Expectation: Getting stronger and looking better. Reality: It takes a long, long time.

Guys start working out with visions of looking like Mr. Olympia, but few realize how long it takes and how much consistency and mental grit are required to start seeing results. Social media bombards us with quick transformations in order to sell us supplements and workout programs, but the reality for most guys is that it will take years of consistent hard work to feel like you're really getting somewhere. Oh, and you'll probably never look like Mr. Olympia.

"I just didn’t realize how long it would take. At 2-3 sessions per week, it took a year before I saw anything in the mirror," one user noted, adding that it took over three years of consistency to see major changes.

Expectation: More self-confidence. Reality: Body dysmorphia.

When men start working out, they often believe that if they lose weight or look more fit, they'll gain confidence. And often times, that's true! But in some cases, hyper focusing on the size of your pecs or the visibility of your abs can have the opposite effect. You can lose sight of the progress you've made and end up feeling even worse about your body.

"Unfortunately once you see improvement, sometimes you are always trying to up the improvement," a man wrote.

"I've even had other people comment on the weight loss and I have tangible evidence in a reduced waist size, yet when I look at myself I still feel big as ever," said another.

"Not really new, its a pretty common occurrence that once you get bigger you'll feel too small and as if you dont train hard enough to grow faster," noted one commenter, referencing a phenomenon sometimes called bigorexia.

Expectation: Less pain. Reality: Being sore all the time.

gif of man running up the stairs while another walks downstairs slowly and painfullyThis is how you move when you're in shapeGiphy

"[I expected] Less daily pain. Result: different daily pain," wrote one commenter.

My wife and I joke about this all the time. We both workout to be strong, fit, and healthy. Half the time, though, our legs are sore from squats and lunges and cycling and we're both waddling around the house. It kind of feels like it defeats the purpose at times.

Exercise is one of the best ways to relieve pain in your knees, back, hips, and more. But if you overdo it, your muscles will pay the price for days afterwards, or worse, you'll wind up injuring yourself.

Expectation: Six pack abs. Reality: It's not worth it.

gif of singer Usher lifting his shirt to show off his absWe can't all have abs like UsherGiphy

Ah yes, the Holy Grail of fitness for men: The elusive six pack. You could easily argue that men care more about abs than women (let's just not restart the dadbod discourse again, please), but whether the pursuit is misguided or not, almost every man who steps foot in a gym has at least dared to dream that one day they might acquire rock hard abs.

Guys in the thread showed up to tell us that, sadly, it probably won't happen just because you work out hard.

"[The reality is] I’m just sorta in shape bc I don’t watch my diet… you can tell I have a physique, I can lift heavy, and have endurance, but there’s some chub," one commenter admitted.

Six pack abs require either terrific genes, extreme discipline, or a combination of both. And the guys who have put in extraordinary effort in the gym and the kitchen to get there are here to tell us it's probably not worth the hassle.

"As someone who's gone down to about 10% to get abs. Don't. It's genuinely not worth it. I sit at around 15% which for me doesn't show ab definition, and I'm so much happier than I was with abs," one guy says.

Expectation: Feeling better physically. Reality: Feeling better mentally.

By now, we've learned that expectations of working out don't always match reality. It's not likely that you'll completely transform your body (at least not quickly), become perfectly happy with how you look in the mirror, and have women throwing themselves at you. But that's not to say that fitness isn't a goal worth pursuing. Sometimes, the most positive effects aren't the ones you see, but the ones you feel.

"One of the things I did not expect was being able to deal with my mental health, but it was a pleasant surprise to find out how much it helped me counter my depression," one man commented.

"Regular, strenuous physical activity is the thing that made the most dramatic difference in my mental wellbeing. My new girlfriend has these motivational memes everywhere, and one of them says 'Sweat is magic. Cover yourself in it daily and watch your dreams come true.' Dammit if that isn't the most truth I've learned in the last few years," added another.

The men's self-improvement industry has sold us a lot of fairly toxic ideas. It tells us to chase big muscles, six pack abs, and adoration from women in the gym, and that these things will ultimately bring us peace and happiness. Most guys who have been down this road have found out that that's simply not true.

However, getting and staying active does have a ton of benefits if you get into it for the right reasons. It can improve longevity, boost your mood and confidence, help you sleep better, and more. You may not become a Casanova with the ladies, but the guy spotting you on the bench press or complimenting your shoulders might just become a new best friend, something men desperately need more of.



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It's long been known that women, on average, take longer showers than men. The disparity isn't too large, just a minute or two overall, but it indicates there is a difference between how men and women are approaching their bathing hygiene. Now we know why... even if wish we didn't.

Brit Richards recently asked her husband about his shower routine on a whim of curiosity. After he explained it, she whipped out her phone in disbelief and asked him to tell her again while she recorded. Other people were going to need to see this to believe it.

"I'm just so upset," she says jokingly in the intro to the video. "I found out how my husband washes his body in the shower."

A caption overlaying the video reads: "PLEASE HELP. THIS CAN NOT BE HOW MEN SHOWER."

What's got Brit so freaked out? The pantomimed routine starts off well enough, with John scrubbing his beard and scalp with soap. OK, cool. But then we move onto the body, and, well, you'll just want to watch. Or, actually, maybe you don't.

@britforreal

“Mom, I’m scared. Can you come pick me up?” #men #husband #shower #help

Brit reacts in horror as her husband demonstrates that he washes what he calls "The Triangle" (an area that encompasses the groin and lower belly, basically) and then the "AMEX" (don't make me explain it. You watched the video, right?). And then... that's it.

Sure, we've covered the most important bits. But the thoroughness of John's routine definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

"You don't even wash your pits?" she asks him. "Sometimes," he says.

"You don't round the corners of your cheeks and you sit on public toilets? ... You've never washed your legs or feet?" The answer is extremely unfortunate.

Brit ends the video by telling him, tongue-in-cheek, of course, "You can't live here anymore."

Giphy

John takes the criticism in stride and with a laugh, but the viral video's three million viewers are raising important questions.

To put it bluntly, women who saw Brit's video were absolutely horrified:

"Girl you didn't realize his showers were 20 seconds long?" one user asked.

"EVERY INCH NEEDS TO BE WASHED. EVERY INCH."

"You need to take showers together to supervise."

"BRB going to go talk to my teenage boys…I’m not about to raise a man that does this."

The roasts just kept coming, to the point that Brit started to feel a little bad for publicly putting her husband on blast. "POV: You told the Internet that your husband does the triangle wash in the shower and now millions of people are roasting him in your comment section and its actually all your fault," she captioned a follow up video. Woops!

John may be the unwitting face of the 'Triangle Wash' movement, but he's definitely not the only one. Commenters had plenty to say about that, too:

@britforreal

Replying to @Mama I’m sorry babe, but 2025 isn’t gonna be your year. #marriage #shower #help #sos

"You are not alone! I even saved your video to show my husband because apparently washing “parts” is all he does too 🙄🤣.. it’s been an argument for years!"

"My husband takes like THE shortest showers and I’m so nervous to have this conversation with him! My anxiety can not"

"Yup I broke up with a guy after I seen the way he "washed" himself."

My theory on why so many men seem to be lacking in basic hygiene and grooming? It's because they weren't taught anything growing up outside of the bare basics, and then they were conditioned to think anything more than that was 'girly'. There are lot of hygiene and hygiene-related tasks that are considered feminine, like: Washing your face, moisturizing, taming your eyebrows, trimming your nails, exfoliating, wearing chapstick, and more. It stands to reason that putting too much effort into smelling good, being clean, and grooming our most sensitive areas could be interpreted as "unmanly."

A 2022 review of survey data interestingly found that more egalitarian countries, or countries where there was greater social equality between sexes, tended to see a smaller difference between how men and women approached hygiene. Less sex equality was associated with a greater difference in hygiene norms between men and women. So there's plenty of evidence that our gendered hygiene habits are created, at least in part, by our surroundings and not inherently embedded in our DNA.

Guys, I know that our culture has instilled some toxic beliefs in us, but we've just got to do better. We need to wash our pits and feet and, occasionally, wash the grime and oil from our faces properly. It's the least we can do, if not for ourselves, then for our partners. Being a little stinky and rough around the edges might have been cool in the Wild West, but they invented body wash for a reason.

Nolan Reid / TikTok

There's an old joke slash meme that goes something like this: "Guys literally only want one thing and it's disgusting." Its used to imply, obviously, that men are shallow and crude creatures. TikTok creator and simple-life advocate Nolan Reid, however, has a different idea of what men really want.

Nolan recently made a video about "Little things in life that make men happy."

The hilarious list includes:

  • A fridge full of beer.
  • Drinking said beer in the garage. With your dog. And a good buddy.
  • Finding a cool stick.
  • Kicking a rock.
  • Staring at water.
  • Dropping rocks into said water.

As a fellow man, I would say: Yeah. That pretty much covers it.

It really doesn't take much! Watch Nolan's full video to see the rest, and just appreciate how much joy and satisfaction he gets from these simple thing.




People loved Nolan's list – so much so that they began adding their own ideas of "simple things men love."

The video racked up hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok and Instagram.

One commenter wrote, "He just described my whole personality." Another added, "This guy gets it."

Others chimed in with their own additions to the list, like staring at a fire for hours. Or just peace and quiet.

But most of the nearly 200 comments were just people chiming in to say one thing:

"Hell yeah."

Finally, someone who understands us.

Nolan's ultra-relaxed vision of "masculinity" is honestly so refreshing.

Men on social media are usually bombarded with the Andrew Tates and Jordan Petersons of the world, influencers who constantly berate us to make more money, lose weight and add muscle, sleep with more women, take charge, relentlessly self-improve.

I like Nolan's much chiller idea of masculinity. It reminds me of being a kid, taking pleasure in the simple things, not racing to be anywhere, not trying to impress anyone or prove anything.

Nolan's entire account is a breath of fresh air, an antidote to hustle culture. His videos find joy in:

  • Breaking down cardboard boxes
  • Driving at sunset
  • Going fishing
  • Throwing a frisbee
  • Wearing t-shirts
A daily visit to his page is almost like a meditation. I highly recommend giving him a follow to add a little counterprogramming to your social media feed.

Nolan says in another recent video that he started making TikToks and Instagram reels just for fun, but discovered along the way that he was really passionate about the message.

"I never thought that my simple living and love for little things would resonate with so many of you."

He said he hopes to inspire people to "take a step back and enjoy the good simple things in life."

I suddenly have the urge to go chuck a rock into a river, so I would say: Mission Accomplished!

This article originally appeared last year.