I write about masculinity a lot, I guess.

͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­

	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Thanks so much for reading. If you get something from this newsletter, would you upgrade to a paid subscription? I can only do this work with your support. Paid subscribers get full access to my weekend roundups, as well as a discount on Dire Straights, my new podcast with Amanda Montei. It's raining (essays about) men I write about masculinity a lot, I guess. Tracy Clark-Flory Aug 21   READ IN APP   Photo: Alexander Lunyov I’ve been immersed in a reporting project—not to mention riveted by some exciting conversations on the podcast—so I went looking through the archives for something to re-share with you this week. Instead, I realized just how much I’ve written about men and masculinity over the last couple years. I mean, really, I’ve been writing about men for much longer than that. There was a many years-long period of my reporting career that could be reframed as an investigation into straight men’s desire(s). I’ve spent plenty of time reporting on the manosphere, pickup artists, masculinity gurus, and so on. But this newsletter has taken up the theme in a different way. I thought it would be nice to have all those essays live alongside each other in one place. This list catalogs my attempts at wrestling with rhetoric about men that has shown up in recent popular discourse—from notions around “positive” masculinity to backlash against women’s hetero discontent. Season of the bad boy On 'Perfect Match,' the question is whether a 'fuckboy' can change—and whether anyone really wants him to be reformed. What made the bad men bad? Talking to my kid about Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and ‘I Hate Men.’ Doug Emhoff is a Good Husband meme The potential first-ever first gentleman of the United States has become 'the internet’s boyfriend.' Coddling is not empathy What about a 'shared horizon of liberation' between men and women? So, *about* positive masculinity Just a cautionary, big-picture note re: Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff. What about 'tonic' humanity? Beware hetero-exceptionalism On 'good husbands' and 'divorce memoir' backlash. Women like men too much It's why they casually 'hate' them. The problem is loving men in patriarchy. It's the 'tragedy of heterosexuality.' Zuck's initiation into manhood Mark Zuckerberg tells a very familiar story of fleeing an overly feminized world into a brotherhood of men. Just be a good person Forget 'how to be a man.' Men aren't just hot anymore—they're hot in a surprising way The growing taxonomy of men's attractiveness tells us plenty about shifting masculine norms and the delight of unexpected attraction. How does a little boy become a 'bad guy'? Netflix's 'Adolescence' asks why a 13-year-old committed murder, and it gives no easy answers. On mothering men And waiting for them to change. What is 'Pedro-masculinity'? It's the antithesis of ugly and aggressive petro-masculinity, sure, but it's also another narrow box. Let's not reduce Pedro Pascal's goodness to 'masculinity.' A man in awe of a woman As Travis Kelce put it during his podcast appearance with Taylor Swift: 'She's so hot when she says these big words.'   Like Comment Restack   © 2025 Tracy Clark-Flory 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe