FARRAH STORR: Masculinity has been under pressure for the past decade and guys are fed up with it. So the worst thing you can tell them is…be more like girls!

How do you solve a problem like masculinity? All that anger! All that violence! All that inherent misogyny that every young boy has within him!

According to Labor, you install male ‘influencers’ in classrooms in the hope that they can teach other boys how to behave towards women.

Bridget Phillipson, the party’s education spokesperson, has pledged to introduce the plan in response to the post-pandemic rise in sexual harassment in British classrooms; as it were, a response to the Andrew Tate-ification of modern man.

In case you don’t know, Andrew Tate is a 6-foot-4 former kickboxing champion and social media personality who has ironically been kicked off almost every social media platform for his abhorrent views.

He has been hailed as the “king of toxic masculinity” and recognized as one of the loudest voices in the “manosphere” – the collective term for blogs, forums and websites that promote masculinity and, in some cases, encourage violence against women.

Make no mistake, Andrew Tate is not a good guy; After all, he is currently languishing in Romania awaiting trial for rape and human trafficking, charges he denies.

The Luton-born 37-year-old is by all accounts a self-confessed misogynist, routinely shocking and titillating with such ridiculous comments as suggesting women should ‘take responsibility’ for sexual abuse.

So how is it that he has become a figurehead for thousands of men around the world? The answer, I think, is because men – and especially schoolboys – are tired of looking more and more like women. And Andrew Tate, with his six-pack and flashy cars and his ability to execute a near-perfect tornado kick, is one of the few male voices unafraid to defend masculinity.

From what I can tell, masculinity has been under attack for the past decade; seen by many as a problem that needs to be solved. The MeToo movement has spawned a fourth wave of feminists with zero tolerance for “boys will be boys” behavior, leading an entire generation of young men to question any interaction with the opposite sex.

Just before Christmas, I was at a party talking to a young male friend. He is a decent sort: smart, kind and deeply respectful of women. He explained to me how confused he feels while dating.

Like more and more people in their twenties, there is something consciously unmanly about him. There is a sweetness in their voices, a delicacy that was never there when I was growing up with boys.

When I brought up the subject, he said to me, “This is what we think women want us to be. More like them…” He then explained how so many men he knows feel like they can no longer be themselves; masculinity has such a bad reputation in 2024. They do everything they can to present less as a ‘classic man’.

I lay in bed that night feeling desperately conflicted. On the one hand, shouldn’t we celebrate the fact that men are more in touch with their feelings? On the other hand, I thought about all the times I’d heard the phrase “toxic masculinity” spoken about by young women in the presence of men.

I thought about the characteristics that society currently assigns to “good men”: vulnerable men, men in touch with their emotions, men who choose book club over martial arts. Men who actually look a bit more like women.

And this, I think, is what really worries me. Because the more we point the finger at male identity as the problem, as opposed to specific examples of criminal behavior, the more some men will shy away and turn to characters like Andrew Tate.

So what’s the answer? Well, I would start by suggesting that compassion is needed, not anger. And celebrating what is good about men – ambition, drive, strength (yes, I know, women have these qualities too) rather than admonishing them for what is bad.

But most of all, I think understanding that men either feel lost and rejected or extremely angry should be the start of the solution. Imposing a government-trained “influencer” on them to explain why everything they do is wrong is probably not the case.

No one buys your vulnerable side, J-Lo!

They have money. They have looks. They have power. But the one thing celebrities still crave in 2020? Vulnerability.

First there was Beyoncé’s Renaissance documentary (hey, she’s just a tough 40-year-old, just like you – well, apart from the £600 million in the bank).

Then Posh and Becks revealed (almost) everything in Netflix’s Beckham.

Now J-Lo has spent $20 million on a mash-up of a documentary titled The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which is about aging, insecurities and her two-decade love affair with husband Ben Affleck.

J-Lo has always struck me as the most capable woman, so attempting to weave an alternative story feels somewhat hollow to me.

Can you remember your PIN code?

Last week I was shopping with my card when the cashier handed me the merchant’s keypad and asked me to enter my PIN.

Send a chill down the spine. I have been contactless for years and it turns out that I am one of almost one in five people who can no longer remember their PIN code.

So yeah, I walked out empty-handed – and with a red face.

Is it just me or is the whole world ‘triggered’ or ‘exploring their limits’? Therapy speaking is the language of choice for Generation Z, for those who put feelings above all else – is it any wonder that a new study shows that 5 percent of young adults are now unemployed for mental health reasons? When someone else tells me that he or she is “sharing their truth,” I run to the nearest therapist’s couch.

The real message behind Anya snap

This week, Hollywood star Anya Taylor-Joy was criticized for sharing a photo on her Instagram account of her tiny, tiny waist further constricted by a corset (pictured).

While some came to her defense, the overall message was clear: After a decade of body positivity, we should very well know better than to praise thinness.

But still… last week’s Milan Fashion Week saw a noticeable return to slim on the catwalks, with few medium and plus models making it to the show. Then there’s the fact that Ozempic use is widespread.

If the culture is going one way, the only certainty is that over time it will go the other way.