Men ‘portrayed as either frightening or pathetic in film and TV’

Adolescence looked at a 14-year-old boy’s descent into the online misogynistic world of the ‘manosphere’ - Netflix

Men are being portrayed negatively in popular culture as either pathetic or frightening, most people believe.

A poll of more than 2,000 people found that most believe that films, television and adverts are failing to provide boys with proper role models such as the strong, silent but kindly hero of previous generations.

Instead, those questioned say men are presented as either hapless, ineffectual people characterised by Daddy Pig from Peppa Pig, Homer Simpson and Family Guy’s Peter Griffin, or monstrous figures such as Jamie Dornan’s serial killer Paul Spector in The Fall.

The study by Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) calls for a “masculinity reset” in which male and female qualities are treated positively and equally by the mass media.

The research is part of the the think-tank’s wider “Lost Boys” study, which published its first report in March, 2025. This found women and girls aged 16 to 24 in both white-collar and blue-collar jobs were earning nearly 10 per cent more on average than their male peers.

The number of males aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training increased by 40 per cent compared to just seven per cent of females since the pandemic.

Homer Simpson is a well-known male character who is seen as an idiot

The CSJ argues that a generation of young men are facing far worse outcomes than young women in education and beyond, falling further behind by virtually every yardstick, while changing social attitudes leave them feeling isolated.

The phenomenon was highlighted by Adolescence, the award-winning drama that told the story of Jamie, a 13-year-old boy whose fall into the online misogynistic world of the so-called manosphere led to violence and murder of a girl.

The poll found that three-fifths (57 per cent) of people felt that the media tended to portray men at extremes as either wimpy or excessively masculine – more than double the 25 per cent who disagreed with that proposition.

A similar 57 per cent said that male role models in popular culture were less masculine than those in past generations. Two thirds (66 per cent) said that boys lacked proper role models across popular culture.

In The Fall Jamie Dornan plays Paul Spector, a serial killer - Helen Sloan

When asked an open-ended question about which characteristics they would enjoy seeing in male characters on film and TV, 57 per cent said “honesty, respect and family values”, substantially higher than any other attribute.

David Gandy, one of the world’s most successful male models, said: “I noticed when my daughter started watching Peppa Pig how the father is treated as a bungling fool who gets it wrong, while the mum gets everything right.

“I like to empower my girls and to teach them about powerful women and what they have achieved, but men are just as important and we have to shout about what’s being achieved by them, too.”

David Gandy, the model, criticised the portrayal of Peppa Pig’s father as a bumbling fool - Hasbro Entertainment

Baroness Nicky Morgan, the former culture secretary and now chair of the Advertising Standards Authority, said: “If people only ever hear about misogyny, sexual assaults and violence by men towards women, no doubt it’s going to affect how boys are seen.

“How people are portrayed in the media undoubtedly shapes society’s view of them. The challenge has been getting online platforms to accept they are publishers with responsibility for content in a way that TV, radio, cinema, newspapers and magazines accepted decades ago.”

Neil Brand, a playwright, composer of film scores and Radio 4 film critic, said “There is a sense that men and boys are growing up with a society that is disempowering them. I think cinema has led this charge, even if it’s only reflecting what society is doing.

“Feminism and the #MeToo [movement] of the past 20 or 30 years has been incredibly important and necessary. What it has meant is that the less able and less socially responsible writers and filmmakers have gone for the obvious story, if you’re talking about women being empowered, which is that the men then have to lose that power and that the balance can’t be struck between the two.

“Somehow or other, it requires s---ty men for women to be shown achieving what it is they should be achieving.”

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