Muscles, Metrosexuals, and Male Tears: 39 Images That Changed How We See Men (For Good & Bad)

From a bodybuilder Arnie to a crying Frenchman, these 39 ground-breaking images have changed assumptions about how men behave, dress and show off their power. Introduction by Luke Kennard I have a picture of myself in 2011 pushing my son in a big red stroller because he only naps when moving. As I walked down the streets of the suburbs of Birmingham, I felt observed, looked at, commented on in a way.

I have a picture of myself in 2011 pushing my newborn son in a big red stroller because he only naps when moving. As I walked the streets of suburban Birmingham, I felt observed, looked at, commented on in ways that ranged from pity to blame to disproportionate admiration. It must be quite a sight, I thought, but here we go. I'd probably feel less self-conscious if I'd followed David Bowie and - like one of the images featured here - dressed like a dress.

Regarding the depiction of men and women in art history, John Berger famously remarked that "men act, women appear." Men were depicted showing their physical strength and readiness for action. To prove your dominance just by turning that gaze around and using the lens to capture masculinity feels subversive, maybe even a little undermining.

Strangely, a quarter of the way into the 21st century, the images of men crying - the 'Crying Frenchman' of World War II and Paul Gascoigne's tears at the 1990 World Cup - are still striking. Judith Butler describes masculinity as a fantasy, a horror story of invulnerability and tenacity that is all the more powerful because it is a lie. We know this, but we've probably all played a part in implementing it, knowingly or unknowingly. Boys are still told they shouldn't be sensitive, it's kind of embarrassing.

Despite the incredible range here, it's interesting how normative many of them are.The men depicted range from Eugene Sandow, the father of bodybuilding, to Arnie to Hulk Hogan. There is a lack of the body type that almost 80% of men enjoy: basically good, a little bulky, sparsely hairy. We might run 3K every two weeks and be so smug that we down a bottle of wine and a box of cheese straws in the same night.

The double quote is interesting how normative many of the men depicted are. There is a lack of the body type that almost 80% of men enjoy: basically good, a little bulky, sparsely hairy

To judge by our media, you'd think we're either waifs or muscle men. Of course, Jack's super-man form already exists in film and TV, from Hollywood movies (where you'd expect it) to depressing ITV crime dramas (where you wish you had a few more stringy arms and football abs). Even batting average is barely shown. I want to cheer when a man takes off his top even a little loosely.

If there isn't a positive movement for the average man, it's because men's bodies are less scrutinized and judged. Of course, we don't talk about body image much unless it's in the context of the gym. It's only occurred to me in my 40s that I can improve my appearance marginally with exercise (I'm still not entirely convinced and I suspect I've worn myself out for no reason). We can say: "What are you benching?" But I can't say, "I feel insecure about my knees today."

There is a powerful defiance of camp and spectacle, wearing a dress or sarong as a straight man, who is already aware of the boring reactions and thinks: "Yeah, so what?" There is also a terrible self-awareness in masculinity. I think the American Football Jerseys Fake Warhammer Shoulders are absolutely adorable. I would feel the same way about dictators on horseback if they weren't dictators.

The depiction of queer masculinity here offers an alternative, from Le Bowery's gloriously confrontational surrealist portraits to Rotimi Fani-Kayode's beautiful sculptural compositions of black queer men. Deliberately rougher around the edges, Sunil Gupta's Exiles depicts the underground (then illegal) culture of gay men's lives in 80s India: a furtive glance, a shy smile, the position of a cigarette, a palpable sense of danger.

The current outburst feels like the worst form of strongman masculinity. A dictatorship of the most dysfunctional, damaged, spiteful elements of the male ego, emotionally disordered and downright evil. It is pervasive in the humanosphere, but also in governments and political administrations. I've heard it described as a death rattle before it finally became extinct. This may be wishful thinking.

A Gay Times reporter wrote of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1978: "He made no attempt to appear powerful, but instead had a gentle—nay—sunny air about him." In the 1970s, Schwarzenegger turned bodybuilding from a subculture into a national obsession. He combined an exaggerated masculine body with a feeling of being secure in himself. Gay Times concluded, "He takes the inevitable attention of gay men as a compliment."

Gore Vidal wrote in 1985: "When Marlon Brando appeared on stage in a torn T-shirt and sweaty, there was an earthquake." Before Brando's performance in 1947's A Streetcar Named Desire, Vidal argued, Hollywood leading men were "nothing but a suit of clothes." Brando agreed to be a male sex object.

Many of the actor's performances avoided the buttoned-down vision of masculinity in the films of the 1930s and 1940s. He was emotional, violent and physical. Recalling her first sight of Brando on stage in the late 1940s, critic Pauline Kael wrote, "I've never seen anything like this." FB

As a leading Asian man, Hayakawa had to endure a lot of racist typing, and anti-gay laws meant that his characters never got the girl. As anti-Japanese sentiment rose in the 1920s, his star faded. However, he made a comeback in his career as the tyrannical Colonel Saito in 1957's Academy Award-nominated The Bridge on the River Kwai. JS

The Nuba mountain communities in Sudan's Kordofan region have faced violence from outsiders, from British colonial authorities to the central government in Khartoum, for centuries. Against this background, the famous tradition of wrestling matches developed.

It is estimated that around one in four women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence by a male partner. Since the early 1980s, photojournalist Donna Fratto has devoted her career to documenting the devastating effects of these relationships.

This photo is from Frato's 1991 book Living with the Enemy, which includes texts based on conversations with victims and perpetrators. During the project, she spent time in women's shelters, as well as riding in police cars and staying in people's homes. Here, an eight-year-old boy, Diamond, screams, "I hate you for hitting my mom," as his father is arrested in their Minneapolis home.

"I've never seen a child stand up to their abusive father," Fratto later recalled. "It blew my mind. The mother didn't call the police - the son called the police. He had shown the police where his father had hidden the screwdriver." JS

According to a recent biographer of Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, "the manliest president in American memory." He is pictured here on horseback when he was a lieutenant colonel in an army unit known as the Rough Riders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has a penchant for posing for nude photos—always while participating in macho outdoor activities like horseback riding or hunting. "It's easy to laugh at," says Ruth Ben Ghayat, author of a book about the strongman's political persona from Mussolini (who liked to pose shirtless) to today. "But using masculinity as a tool of authoritarianism is deadly serious. "Strong men use their bodies to present themselves as defenders of the nation, and yet they often also make themselves victims." JS

The North American Newspaper Alliance reported in 1957: "A vital element has been added to the planned and generously funded campaign to make Senator Jack Kennedy President of the United States."

Jackie ended up requesting 75 copies of "That Amazing Picture" to give to family and friends. And after JFK became president in 1961, the framed photo hung in the Oval Office. His identity as a father of young children had become an important part of his public image as a new breed of male politician: the young, tough leader of—to borrow his famous phrase—"the new generation of Americans." JS

"One of our crew took off his clothes and jumped in...he couldn't swim very well in his boots and clothes," Bristol later recalled. "As soon as we could, we flew." Although the soldier was never identified, his image quickly became a symbol of masculine courage and heroism in wartime. JS

Lee Bowery's friend Donald Urquhart recalled in 2004: "He was a fashionista and an eccentric, in the vein of Crickle Coates, Bonnie Roger, Barbara Cartland, Edith Sitwell and Quentin Crisp." As a performance artist and "club kid" of the 1980s, Bowery designed elaborate and sometimes controversial clothes and costumes. Traditional ideas about what a man could look like and what he could do were exploded.

In one famous performance, he gave birth to his friend and wife, Nicola Bateman, from a "vagina" with a string of navel sausages behind it. Another was spotted by the painter Lucian Freud, who immediately asked Bovary to sit for him.

Bowery died of an AIDS-related illness in 1994 at the age of 33. "I miss him," friend and filmmaker John Mayberry said last year. "He was like a flickering traffic light." FB

Adrian Street with his father who is a coal miner, 197 4

Adrian Street is known by many nicknames, including "Exotic", "Sadist with Sequins" and "Queen of Pro Wrestling". His catchphrase was, "Imagine what I could do to you," ending with a mournful moan, "Mmm..."

Jeremy Deller, the artist who made a film with Street before his death in 2023, says: "The look, even though it's awful, he said it was incredibly masculine." It's a challenge, isn't it? FB

Klein saw it as playful, but the child's twisted face retained a menacing power. FB

This image is often cited as a rare example of public tears from a man, as taboos around male expressions of emotion have loosened in recent years. A 2016 study found that modern men cry in public more than twice as often as their fathers. However, notable tears come in the long history of battle cries, which has its roots in the Homeric epics. By one count, men are depicted crying more than 30 times in the Odyssey. FB

"The most amazing human specimen I have ever seen," is how a Harvard professor described Eugene Sandow when he measured him in the 1890s. At the time, the Prussian-born athlete was a global fitness star. Today, he is known as the father of modern bodybuilding, having organized the world's first major "physique" competition in 1901 in London. "He's the Arnold Schwarzenegger before Arnold Schwarzenegger," says sports historian Conor Heffernan.

As Heffernan explains, Sandow's "lean, muscular figure" — still coveted today — used to be more associated with farmers and sailors than with the perfect man. Images like these helped reinforce what modern bodybuilders refer to as the "Greek ideal": a physique based on the sculptures of the ancient world. (Although looks can be deceiving, as Heffernan points out: the dumbbell Sandow is lifting is probably empty.) GS

In Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man, the anonymous narrator, an African-American man, hides in a New York basement lit by 1,369 light bulbs. "Before I lived in darkness where I was persecuted, but now I see. I illuminated my invisible blackness - and vice versa," she says, before recounting her life up until then with the ideas presented to her because of her race and gender.

Gordon Parks collaborated with Ellison on A Man Becomes Invisible, a photo essay published in Life magazine to promote the book. Striking images recreate key scenes from the narrative. This one marks the final passage, in which the hero (played by Ellison's friend Jon Bates) emerges from his underground retreat through a hatch - reclaiming his place in society. JS

Bowie—a famous sex icon—wasn't exactly a typical father of his time. "I don't feel very paternal," he told an interviewer in 1976. JS

Choreographer George Balanchine declared, "Ballet is a woman." The idea that it is a dance form for girls exists today, especially in cultures where machismo prevails.

This portrait depicts Juan Pablo Rodríguez, a Colombian-born choreographer and principal soloist of the Ballet Nacional del Peru. Rodríguez told Barreiro that he considers freedom of speech an act of resistance. JS

Hugh Hefner's urbane, sex-obsessed view of masculinity "became what it meant to be a modern man in the 1960s," says historian Amber Batura. Hefner turned Playboy magazine — first published in 1953 thanks to a loan from his mother — into a global empire of clubs staffed by women wearing distinctive "bunny" uniforms.

Like Ian Fleming's James Bond, Hefner exemplified the fantasy of masculinity "as a delightful and elaborate game," in the words of author Esther Allen, "in which women were seen as a sort of consumer product." As Hefner himself put it in 1992, "Most of my life has been like a teenage drama of an adult life." FB