Posts in Reflections

How to Help Boys Resist the Manosphere: A Guide for Parents, Coaches and Educators

The manosphere is free, available in the middle of the night, and designed to be found by boys who are already vulnerable. It’s hard to compete with that. A teacher sees a kid for 50 minutes at a time. A coach sees him three times a week. A parent sees him between homework and screens.

But you have something the algorithm doesn’t. You know him. You’re real. And over time, that can become a sustaining anchor for boys as they become young men navigating the choppy waters of growing into adulthood.

ReflectionsJonathon ReedApril 29, 2026Emotional Literacy, Masculinity

Casino Masculinity: How Boys and Young Men Are Being Set Up to Lose

New research shows that more than one in three boys between ages 11 and 17 is already gambling—and sports betting is just one part of a much larger ecosystem of products designed to exploit boys’ and young men’s desire for belonging, independence, mastery, and purpose.

ReflectionsJonathon ReedMarch 4, 2026Youth, Masculinity

The Heart is a Muscle Too: Navigating a Rite of Passage in the Wilderness

The research that has defined Next Gen Men’s work for a decade tells us that the single most important factor for resilience is having at least one close, confiding relationship in which one feels truly known, accepted and valued. That’s how you overcome challenge.

ReflectionsJonathon ReedNovember 23, 2024Rite of Passage Expeditions, Youth, Masculinity

Watching Women’s Sports – A Men’s Liberation Tool?

Is supporting women’s sports one of the key’s to men’s liberation? Friend of NGM, Samantha Nzessi, explores this topic to find out.

ReflectionsAdmin NextgenmenJuly 26, 2024Community

Mane, Man, and Myth: the Hairy Truth About Masculinity and Patriarchy

Hair loss is both common and distressing to many people. We’re curious, how have patriarchal gender expectations shaped our experiences of hair loss?

ReflectionsAdmin NextgenmenJune 17, 2024Community

An Odyssey in Black

For the first time in my life, I was free of the endless internal verbal abuse I would typically subject myself to. Within this newfound reprieve from decades-old self-loathing, I finally saw that there was hope for me.

I was beginning to feel what it meant to be free, and understand that this kind of freedom was attainable.

ReflectionsAdmin NextgenmenApril 29, 2024Community

Height Discrimination and Gender Bias: Unveiling the Impact on Social and Professional Lives

You’ll notice that the traits associated with tallness — competence, wealth, status, leadership — are also traits we associate with masculinity. So, what is the association between patriarchal gender norms and height in our culture?

ReflectionsAdmin NextgenmenMarch 21, 2024Community

Hip Hop in its Essence is Real

Hip-hop in its Essence is Real.

If you’re a hip hop fan, you might know that that’s what “H.E.R.” stands for in Common’s 1994 ode to hip hop “I Used to Love Her.” It’s a classic that perfectly charts hip-hop history through a love song—but not necessarily a happy one. Let’s explore this love story, and what it can reveal about MASKulinity.

NGM Podcast Network, ReflectionsJake StikaFebruary 8, 2024Race, Masculinity, Media

How Reading Made Me a Better Man

B.O.O.K. Club’s reads since Spring of 2020

ReflectionsJake StikaJanuary 4, 2024Masculinity

Will Smith's Slap Harmed the Antisexist Men's Movement

Smith apologized to Rock saying: “I was out of line and I was wrong. My actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.”

ReflectionsJake StikaNovember 29, 2023Masculinity

Uplifted Like Mountains: Guiding Boys Through New Rites of Passage

From Taylor Swift to the Rocky Mountains, amidst wind-whispered stories and cold-night sleeping bags, we’re shaping the lives of boys becoming men. As they’re held in meaningful relationships and supported to overcome real challenges, a generation of compassionate, resilient and courageous young men is taking shape.

ReflectionsJonathon ReedNovember 27, 2023Masculinity, Youth, Rite of Passage Expeditions, Best for Camps

What Is Healthy Masculinity?

With a healthy masculinity summit in October 2012 in Washington, D.C., a key component of an ambitious two-year project to ‘spread the message of nonviolent, emotionally healthy masculinity,’ it seemed timely for Voice Male to ask several members of its national advisory board, and other colleagues and allies, to address in short essays their thoughts about the challenges inherent in trying define ‘healthy masculinity.’ What follows are the voices of those who responded just before the magazine went to press.

ReflectionsJake StikaNovember 21, 2023Masculinity

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