This Year in Masculinity: The 2020 Mannual Report
A collection of my favorite creative work about what it means to be a man.
The Mandate Letter is a fast-growing newsletter about the weird world of masculinity — written by me, Olympic medalist and Men’s Health contributor Jason Rogers. If you are new here, welcome! Check out the archive here and subscribe below.
Some Quick Admin 🥱
Hellllloo! First off, I need to share some quick admin, I’m going to be taking a short break from writing over the holidays. The next issue will arrive in mid-January.
Also, let me just say thank you for allowing me into your inbox. Considering how overwhelmed with work, news, social media, etc. we all are, that’s not something I take lightly.
When I started the Mandate Letter in June, I had no idea what to expect. I thought it would be a place that I collect a few thoughts here and there; however, the reception to this humble missive has been so overwhelming that the ambition has grown significantly.
In early 2021, I’ll be kicking off an interview series with folks doing interesting work around masculinity (in addition to the articles). I also endeavor to bring an audio component at some point next year (I hesitate to call it a “podcast” just yet).
If you have any ideas you would like to share about either of these ambitions, I accept them with open arms!! Email me: jason (at) jasonrogers.co). I respond to everything I receive!
This year in Masculinity
Ok, now let’s dig into the good stuff. What is the 2020 Mannaul Report? As you’d expect, I consume a lot of media about masculinity. I’ve got news alerts, Twitter lists, and a sacred altar where I pray to ask gods to send me good ideas. (Ok, maybe not the last one).
We all know that 2020 has been a dumpster fire on pretty much all accounts. However, it has also delivered us a lot of interesting work that scratches at the central question on this newsletter — how is the concept of masculinity evolving in culture?
As a result, I have a lot of stuff that I’ve consumed (and think is brilliant) but haven’t been able to incorporate into an article. So, what follows is a list of things I think is worth your attention. It is, by no means, exhaustive. But I’ve tried to organize it in such a way (by medium) that you can bookmark the page and return to it when you have more time to take a closer look. Ok without further ado.
📺 TV Series
Dave
Dave is a comedy series created by and starring Dave Burd (aka Little Dicky) that details his semi-autobiographical journey from YouTube rapper to hip hop superstar. The show offers a rare portrait of male vulnerability (Lil Dicky openly discusses sexual insecurities) against a backdrop of guys just trying to act hard.
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full series On Hulu 🔗
We Are Who We Are
We Are Who We Are is a coming of age drama by Luca Guadagnino that focuses on a group of American military brats stationed in Italy. The show is a simmering portrayal of teenage angst, gender identity, and the quest to know yourself through love.
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full series on HBO 🔗
Oh Jerome, No
Oh Jerome, No is a dark comedy series starring Mamoudou Athie as a sensitive developer looking for love in NYC. The show is a masterstroke in exposing cracks in masculinity by taking unhelpful behaviors to the extreme. (This one is technically from late 2019 but 🤷🏻♂️).
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full series on Hulu 🔗
🎞 Film
The Assistant
The Assistant is a drama starring Julia Garner as a PA to a predatory film exec. The narrative is a direct reaction to the #metoo revelations that followed Harvey Weinstein’s takedown and serves as a sizzling condemnation of harmful male behavior in Hollywood.
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full film on Hulu 🔗
The Sound of Metal
The Sound of Metal is a drama starring Riz Ahmed as a heavy metal drummer that, suddenly, goes deaf. It's the character's reaction to hearing loss — resistance to help, desire to fix things, etc. — that makes it difficult to watch, but also a fascinating study of masculinity.
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full film on Amazon Prime 🔗
Big Time Adolescence
Big Time Adolescence is a coming-of-age comedy starring Pete Davidson as a big brother figure to the teenage Griffin Gluck. The film delivers many amusing moments but, at its core, is an appraisal of the way that bad myths of masculinity get passed from one generation to the next.
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full film on Hulu 🔗
🎥 Long Documentary
The Weight of Gold
The Weight of Gold features Michael Phelps along with a number of other Olympic stars. These intimate stories detail the mental health challenges that come with being a top performer (fear of asking for help), some of which have, tragically, ended in suicide. (You may recall this appeared in a past Mandate Letter called “The Danger of Self-Reliance).
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full doc on HBO 🔗
The Game Changers
The Game Changers, by former MMA star James Wilks, investigates the link between the macho culture and meat consumption. Many athletes believe that they must consume animal protein to perform. The doc busts that myth although, for some, the truth may be hard to swallow. (You may recall this appeared in a past Mandate Letter called “Real Men Eat (Fake) Meat”)
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Full film On Netflix 🔗
White Noise
The Atlantic's first full-length doc, White Noise, is a frightening look into the recent bolstering of the alt-right movement. Underneath many of its associated viewpoints (white nationalism, anti-feminism, anti-immigration) is a familiar perversion of masculinity we've seen far too often in the era of Trump.
🔗 Trailer on YouTube; Rent or purchase on Amazon 🔗
📹 Short Documentary
The Guardian, Modern Masculinity
The Guardian's Modern Masculinity series is a thoughtful tour through infrequently explored corners of the culture of manhood. Host, Iman Amrani, talks to regular guys and experts alike about topics like pornography, the alpha male, circumcision, and many more.
🔗 Full Series on YouTube or The Guardian 🔗
Nowness, Masculinities
Masculinities is a short doc by Bunny Kinney for Nowness that asks the question, "what makes a real man?" While the bite-sized interviews offer a great overview of the British perspective on masculinity, the boy that first appears at 0:30 seems wiser than his years and steals the show.
🔗 On YouTube or on Nowness 🔗
Surfer Magazine, The LGBTQ+ Wave
The LGBTQ+ Wave by Surfer Magazine focuses on the rising visibility of queer athletes within the sport. Surf culture hasn’t always been hospitable to the non-wave-charging, hetero bro, so this short doc offers them so much deserved attention.
(On YouTube or on Surfer with accompanying article)
🎶 Music
Raleigh Ritchie, Andy
Andy by Raleigh Ritchie (aka James Anderson of Game of Thrones fame) is a thrilling sophomore album from the self-described “Sad Boi.” Ritchie presents as a shy and hesitant crooner. Still, each song combines raw emotion and a soothing lyrical finesse in a way that makes you hopeful about the future of R&B.
🔗 Wherever you listen to music 🔗
Lauv, ~how i’m feeling~
Lauv's ~how i'm feeling~ is a beautiful meditation on modern loneliness. Virtually every track crackles with the Pop Rocks sweetness of a summertime hit; yet, lining each catchy earworm is a kind of vulnerability rare among male pop artists.
Orville Peck, Show Pony EP
Orville Peck is a breath of fresh air to country music. The masked singer offers not only a baritone twang you'd expect of men of his ilk but also a kind of visual and vocal subversion that at once challenges all the masculine stereotypes you'd expect of the genre.
🔗 Wherever you listen to music 🔗
📸 Photography
The Barbican Centre, Masculinities
The Barbican in London hosted an unforgettable retrospective focused on the nature of masculinity. Drawing from the work of photographers around the world, the exhibit touched on everything from queer expressions of manhood to subversive critiques of the modern man.
🔗 Now closed, but you can view the tour guide or buy the exhibition catalog 🔗
Molly Matalon, When a Man Loves a Woman
Molly Matalon's When a Man Loves a Woman offers an unexpected twist on the male nude. Each portrait is a strange two-way kaleidoscope of fear, desire, and loneliness and stands a testament to the fact that whatever face we put up for the world, we all just want to be seen.
🔗 Read this Vice article or buy the book 🔗
Quil Lemons, Boy Parts
Quil Lemons' Boy Parts series was one of my favorites this year. Lemons masterfully bends color, texture, and light, making it a feast for the eyes. But he also dances with a certain ambiguity that makes you excited to question everything you think you know about being a man.
🎨 Art
Sam Leighton-Dore, Assorted Works
Sam Leighton-Dore just might have my favorite account on Instagram. His art is wide-ranging — ceramics, illustration, mural, etc. However, his work all calls unhelpful norms of masculinity into question with a kind of hilarious whimsy that is absent from most stuffy critiques.
🔗 On Instagram; Sam also wrote a great illustrated book in 2019 called, How To Be a Big Strong Man 🔗
Devan Shimoyama, Assorted Works
Devan Shimoyama's paintings are a radiant representation of new masculinity. Each positively bursts with individual elements of color and personality, such that the overall resplendence is so commanding you can't draw your eyes away.
Tony Toscani, Assorted Works
Tony Toscani is a figurative painter whose work harkens back to some of the greats. And while I love his use of color and experiments with proportion, what I find most fascinating are his depictions of men in their most vulnerable state.
🤵♂️ Fashion
Harry Styles, Vogue Magazine Cover Shoot
Few events this year lit up social media like Harry Styles gracing the cover of Vogue Magazine. Determined to forge his own path, Styles rejects the confines of masculine normality, embraces vulnerability, and sets a great example for young men of the future to choose an identity of their own.
🔗 In Vogue 🔗
Gucci, 2020 Fall Collection
Gucci's Alessandro Michele has a knavish talent for kneecapping the masculine industrial complex. Case in point, in his Fall 2020 collection, he sent a model down the runway with the world "Impotent" emblazoned on his chest.
🔗 Article about the “Impotent” T-Shirt on Vogue, and the full collection on Vogue 🔗
📚 Books
Peggy Orenstein, Boys & Sex
To write Boys & Sex, Peggy Orenstein spent two years talking to high school & college guys. It's an incredibly important and nuanced study of the unhelpful bedroom beliefs/behaviors rampant among young men. My favorite book of the year.
Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley
Uncanny Valley is a memoir by Anna Weiner that digs into the years she spent working in Silicon Valley. She unspools many familiar themes — hustle culture, extravagance, etc. — but turns a sharp, critical eye on the male-centric, bro culture that abounds in tech.
Adrienne Miller, In the Land of Men
Adrienne Miller’s In the Land of Men, is a gripping look back on the author’s years heading literary fiction at Esquire magazine. Her sharp perspective on male-dominated spaces reminds us that even the most erudite men can fall victim to their worst intentions.
📄 Articles
Wesley Morris, “My Mustache, My Self”
Wesley Morris’ “My Mustache, My Self” is one of those essays you just have to read to understand. But to hack a description, it’s a retelling of his experience growing a mustache during COVID and how that act reconnected him to his masculine identity and his heroes from the past.
🔗 In NY Times 🔗
P. Carl, “Becoming a Man”
In "Becoming a Man" P. Carl, offers a wonderful tale of contradictions. The essay (which is an excerpt from a forthcoming book on his transition) recounts the forging of a new identity that must reckon with the present pitfalls of masculinity and familial figures from his past.
🔗 In NY Times 🔗
Peggy Orenstein, The Miseducation of the American Boy
In “The Miseducation of the American Boy” Peggy Orenstein draws on her reporting from her amazing book Boys & Sex (mentioned above) to help us understand how the male teenage years can be a breeding ground for harmful ideas about sex.
🔗 In The Atlantic 🔗
🎙 Podcasts
Mark Pagán, Other Men Need Help
Other Men Need Help hosted by Mark Pagán is simply a joy to listen to. Each episode takes what might seem like a banality of daily life (e.g. saying “I miss you”) and turns it into an excavation of the masculine mind.
🔗 Wherever you listen to podcasts 🔗
Aymann Ismail, Man Up
I could always depend on Slate’s Man Up podcast (with Aymann Ismail) to uncover things about the male experience I hadn’t given proper thought. Sadly, the production has come to an end; however, there are many great back episodes add to your list.
🔗 Wherever you listen to podcasts 🔗
NY Times, Modern Love, “Why Can't Men Say "I Love You" to Each Other”
I read NY Times’ Modern Love essays like I gobble down popcorn. But, I thought the podcast’s reading of Ricardo Jaramillo’s “Why Can’t Men Say ‘I Love You’ to Each Other” really cut to the core of male bromantic life.
🔗 Wherever you listen to podcasts; Essay in NY Times 🔗
🧠 People
Thomas Page McBee
Thomas Page McBee is consistently one of my favorite writers on masculinity. His Twitter and Instagram accounts always push my thinking, so I highly encourage you to follow him. He's also written two amazing memoirs AMATEUR & MAN ALIVE.
🔗 On Twitter; On Instagram; His Website 🔗
Justin Baldoni
Since his 2017 TED Talk, Justin Baldoni has built a powerful platform around masculinity. Check out his “Man Enough” interview series. But more importantly, he has a book on masculinity coming out in 2021!
🔗 Wherever you buy books; Man Enough Platform 🔗
More Smart People
There so many creative minds helping us understand masculinity. I could list for days, but I gotta this thing somewhere. But here’s a short list of more people to follow!
Share your favorites
There are many things I’ve had to leave off this list. But also others I’ve missed! Please share some of your favorites, by hitting reply or drop a comment below. I respond to all messages/comments, and I look forward to connecting with you.
A Humble Request: Help The Mandate Letter Grow
And now, if you’ll permit me, I’d like to make a small request. If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, I humbly ask that you share it with a few friends on social media, by email, by smoke signal, I don’t really care how! (These recs are also rolled into a long thread on Twitter if you feel so inclined to retweet).
The faster the Mandate Letter grows, the sooner I’ll be able to take on more ambitious projects (e.g. heavy-hitting interviews, a podcast, a book about the state of masculinity, etc.). 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
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This Year in Masculinity: The 2020 Mannual Report
Great stuff; thanks for summarizing. I've been on a similar inquiry in recent years, and captured some core learnings (and favorite thinkers/practitioners!) here, if it's of interest: https://citizenstout.substack.com/p/why-does-patriarchy-persist-part-e2d