The end of the "women only" era. The wellness industry has discovered a new gold mine: The crisis of masculinity

For many years, the word wellness has been associated with scented candles, facial masks and Jane Fonda-style aerobics. It was a domain that men entered cautiously, or not at all. But that's fundamentally changing. The global wellness industry, worth trillions of dollars, has hit a ceiling in the female segment and found a new, previously under-exploited market: men in search of their lost identity.

From "self-care" to "biohacking"

To attract men, wellness giants first had to change their vocabulary. Men don't want to "take care of their skin" or "relax". Men want to "optimize performance." And so simple meditation becomes mental performance training and a healthy lifestyle becomes biohacking.

The aesthetics of softness and comfort have been replaced by the aesthetics of resilience and strength. Instead of warm herbal baths come ice vats, instead of relaxation retreats come spartan camps and fasts. But the goal is the same - to sell a product. Only the packaging is now rougher, darker and more masculine.

The monetisation of insecurity

According to sociologists and economists, this trend is no accident. Just as the marketing machine has for decades profited from women's insecurities about appearance and ageing, it is now targeting men's insecurities.

There is talk of a 'crisis of masculinity'. Traditional roles are crumbling and many men are struggling with what it means to be a man in the 21st century. The wellness industry offers a simple but expensive answer to this question: being a man means having an optimized body, high testosterone and iron discipline. And for that, you need our supplements, our apps, and our courses.

Bro-science: where science gives way to marketing

A dangerous aspect of this trend is the rise of so-called bro-science. This is a mix of half-truths, anecdotal evidence and pseudoscience that is being spread on social media. Influencers with worked-out bodies are giving advice on how to eat only raw meat, why to avoid certain vegetables or how to "hack" your own hormones.

Often this advice is intertwined with deeper ideologies that can be even anti-feminist. Health care thus becomes a gateway to a world where toughness is mistaken for health and suppression of emotions for stoic calm.

What to take away from this?

There is nothing wrong with men wanting to take care of themselves. On the contrary, concern for physical and mental health is a welcome shift in men. However, it is important to be able to distinguish between genuine health care and a marketing ploy that merely dresses up old complexes in a new, more "manly" coat.

The next time someone tells you that you need a special infrared lamp and a mammoth hunter's diet to achieve "true manhood", remember that it's probably not your well-being that's behind it, but just the cold calculation of a business model that has discovered a new target group.

Source: plus.rozhlas.cz/