Masculinity as Performance: A Power-Centred Reading of the Adolescent Man Box Study

The release of the Adolescent Man Box study has sharpened the national focus on young men, identity and the pressures shaping adolescent masculinity. The data is compelling, but it also opens a deeper question: how do we understand these pressures in a way that reflects the real, lived experience of boys, especially those in multicultural and minority communities?

In this article, I offer a power-centred reading of the Man Box findings, one that takes gender seriously, but situates it within the broader forces that shape identity, belonging and behaviour. Masculinity, as the study shows, is something boys perform under scrutiny, not something they simply believe. When we view this through a power lens, a clearer picture emerges of why boys act as they do, why some resist prevention messages, and what it would take to support them more effectively.

This piece aims to deepen the sector conversation: moving beyond norms alone, and toward an understanding of the structural pressures that boys negotiate every day. If prevention is to reach them meaningfully, it must start there.

Download the file below to read the full article.

Masculinity as Performance- A Power-Centred Reading of the Adolescent Man Box Study.pdf

Download PDF • 238KB