The Making Of A Man

It’s a question we’re often asked as a magazine: what does masculinity mean to us, and to you, our readers, today? After all, it’s in our name: we are a publication for men.

For some, the very idea of gendered magazines might seem passé. Others might argue that a binary view of gender is, in itself, a bit old-fashioned. It’s true that many of the themes this magazine explores – fitness, food, mental health, personal relationships – are universal. And yet, it’s difficult to move through life and be wholly unaffected by ideas of what it means to be ‘a man’, whether those ideas feel empowering or limiting.

Unlike women, who by necessity have fought long and hard to challenge conventions around gender roles, men are less inclined to examine how notions of masculinity have shaped the way they see themselves, the choices they make or those that are made for them. Your own ideas about what it means to be a man might come from many places: fathers, grandfathers, teachers, coaches, action heroes, sporting champions.

For such a simple-sounding question, it demands an incredibly complex answer. In fact, it demands many different answers. This is our effort to capture some of that mutability.

The Musician

Rapper, songwriter and mental-health campaigner STEPHEN MANDERSON is better known by his stage name, Professor Green. He was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother on a council estate and lost his father to suicide when he was 24. He and his partner have a one-year-old son, Slimane

WHAT IS IT TO BE A MAN? As a kid, I found the whole thing really confusing. You spend your twenties trying to be all of these things – a man, an adult, a grown-up – and you think there’s a point in life when it just happens. But it’s a learning curve; a steep one, at times. Now, more than knowing what it is to be ‘a man’, I know what it is to be myself.

I think there are a lot of men who feel quite displaced at the moment, especially the older generations. Men’s place in the world is shifting, as is women’s. But women have fought so long for their position in society that men can feel a little bit behind, because we aren’t as honest about how we feel. We don’t have these big discussions with each other.

This is all a generational hangover, right? The stiff upper lip is a hangover from the war. And, yes, there will be times when you have to puff your chest out and be resilient. But when you come out the other side,