Men on masculinity
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Why do professional athletes feel pressure to ‘man up’ when injured?
Within the professional sporting world, have you ever felt pressure to man up?
It comes up a lot with injuries in professional sport, pressure from maybe a coach. It comes up at times when maybe you should still, you should be out for two weeks, but it's been a week and you feel a bit of that pressure to, oh, well, I better not sit out because I'm letting people down.
If you're a guy, there's a pretty good chance you've been told to man up at some stage in your life. Not to cry, not to be a pussy. And while things might be changing, there's still a certain school of masculinity that tells boys to act tough and mask their emotions. So what kind of effect is this having on your relationships? We've talked about gender on The Hookup before. You can check out an earlier episode, What Is Gender, on the podcast. And while nature versus nurture is still contentious, social pressures to make you act a certain way according to your gender still have a massive effect on people's lives. So we're honing in on the idea of being a man.
The Hookup with Hannah Riley. Love and
f***ing.
On Triple J.
Warning, sex and adult themes. I'm joined by Zach and Broden from comedy sketch group Aunty Donna.
Hi, I'm here to see bigoted Bill.
Okay, just so you know, Bill can be a little bit sexist, racist, ableist and generally bigoted. But it's best to hear him out. for joining the hookup,
guys.
Absolute pleasure. Thanks for having us. Absolute pleasure.
Now, what sort of culture did you guys grow up in when it came to being a bloke?
Well, you're talking here to two pretty stock standard mid-naughties boys here who both enjoyed music theatre. I know for me, when I was in high school, you know, the musicals that I used to do, there would be four boys and 56 girls in
one production. Same,
yeah. And, you know, the idea that, you know, to do music theatre, you had to be gay, to be a guy to do that, you know. So it was definitely that idea of masculinity and it was super big when I was growing up. Personally, for me, if I can give one example, in the noughties, I remember I got roped into somehow singing the national anthem at the school assembly
and
thinking, that's all good, that's fine. And then on the bus home, someone threw something at me and called me choir boy. And I remember thinking, that's incredible. But I was actually a little bit excited because I thought, I've got that story that I can tell in 10 years on Triple J or something like that where I can say that someone made fun of me for doing something that wasn't traditionally male. And I remember being quite excited. Oh, I've got something. I've got a story to tell. What about you,
Zach? I grew up in a very industrial sort of country town. So I think I was very aware of... of my lack of masculinity, I suppose. There was a very simple idea of what it was to be a man and what it was to be masculine there. I think it's a bit more complex in the cities, but I didn't play football. I wasn't tough. I wasn't strong. I had long hair, had a high-pitched voice.
You're an outsider, a true rebel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think I was pretty aware of my lack of masculinity growing up. And it's interesting because then I moved to the city and realised that there's different kinds of masculinity,
there's
different ways to be a man.
Did your dads ever try and, like, go on manly bonding trips with you and try and get that kind of masculine bonding going?
Not for me.
How does growing up with theatre and music shape a man’s view of masculinity?
The only story that comes to mind when you say that is I wanted to take... I really liked sport when I was in primary school and a friend started doing ten-pin bowling and my dad said, no son of mine is playing ten-pin bowling.
LAUGHTER
So it was pretty harsh, my upbringing.
Yeah, that sounds rough.
But looking back, I'm kind of glad he did stop me from playing
tenpinball. That had nothing to do
with...
And now you can say to your son, no, son of mine will play tenpinball.
That's right. No, we're not doing it in this house. Yeah, I don't think you become a sketch comedian if your parents are particularly rough about
those sort of things.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why do professional athletes feel pressure to ‘man up’ when injured?
0:02–3:53
2
How does growing up with theatre and music shape a man’s view of masculinity?
3:53–8:33
3
What impact does teasing about gender‑non‑conforming hobbies have on young men?
8:33–11:26
4
Do sportsmen experience body‑image pressure or is performance the only focus?
11:26–14:24
5
How are modern athletes showing emotion on and off the field?
14:24–18:25
6
Why do men still feel the need to prove masculinity through physical acts?
18:25–22:20