I will grant you I’m referring to what popular culture teaches us masculinity looks like. I’m taking my cues from what social media is popular, what US cinema has to say about masculinity. But that’s because it’s also about the expectations of displays of manhood, what we are obligated to do if we’re real men.

There’s also this video (on YouTube) from J. Draper and PBS which asserts that there’s been a masculinity crisis for about as long as there’s been a moral panic about new fads corrupting our kids (id est, always), that there have always been pundits and editorial correspondents saying that men are becoming too effeminate.

One source I haven’t yet been able to tap is what trans men have to say about masculinity, because to them social expression of their gender is super important. But I don’t know any trans men well enough to stop and ask them.