Feeling Sad? Hit the Gym!

“What do you do when you’re sad?” Vienna-based sociologist Helena Spindler looks around the room. Without hesitation, several boys respond: “Go to the gym!” Their words stay with her long after the Sensibilisierung Initiative workshop has ended.

Exercising when you’re feeling low is not inherently problematic; it can be very healthy. Physical activity can help relieve stress and improve your mood. The danger arises when the motivation shifts. For boys, exercise, discipline and self-control are increasingly becoming almost the only accepted responses to sadness, insecurity or feeling overwhelmed. Muscles and sweat take the place of conversations and tears. Social media fuels this development. A teenager may initially search for fitness and motivation tips, watch videos about building muscle and explore what impresses women. None of these topics is inherently problematic, yet online, only a few clicks separate a healthy “I’m working on myself” from “I have to be a real man!”

From Fitness, Fashion and Dating to the Red Pill

“A 16-year-old generally doesn’t deliberately search for terms such as misogyny, red pill or manosphere. He and his classmates are more likely to be looking for answers to questions that are perfectly normal at their age: How do I get stronger? How do I become more attractive? How do I become successful? But this is precisely where the boundaries begin to blur,” explains Helena Spindler, founder of the Sensibilisierung Initiative. The so-called manosphere is a network of online communities and influencers discussing masculinity, gender roles and relationships. Parts of this scene promote anti-feminist views and rigid ideas about how men and women should be.

A study published in 2026 examined precisely this intersection. Researchers analysed 2,414 actual TikTok videos from the viewing histories of 142 young men aged 16 to 25. Around 38 per cent of the videos addressed everyday topics such as fitness, sport, fashion or dating. The researchers explicitly did not classify this material as manosphere content. They did, however, describe these topics as “cultural touchpoints”: themes that can connect with manosphere content and are therefore relevant to prevention. Manosphere narratives accounted for 5.76 per cent of the videos analysed. (Fisher et al., 2026)

“It’s about identifying which content is misogynistic, but also understanding the appeal of content that can draw young people towards these themes in the first place,” adds Omid Mansouri, a child protection trainer and anti-discrimination expert who co-founded the initiative.

Crying Like a Girl

“Don’t be a pussy!” Insults like this equate femininity with vulnerability and devalue both. Men who show emotion are quickly labelled weak. Anger, by contrast, is often considered an acceptable form of emotional expression.

“When anger is the only emotion boys are allowed to express openly, it can also conceal sadness, insecurity or feeling overwhelmed. This can make it difficult to recognise: Am I angry right now, am I hurt, or am I afraid?” explains Helena Spindler. Young people therefore need space to recognise, distinguish and express their emotions, as well as opportunities to question the gender roles they encounter, including on social media.

Media Literacy and Gender Roles

Austria is introducing a new educational mandate: a new subject, “Media and Democracy”, is set to be taught at upper secondary level in academic secondary schools (AHS) from the 2027/28 school year.

“For us, media literacy means more than recognising fake news. A video can be factually accurate and still convey a problematic gender role,” Omid Mansouri points out. “Imagine an influencer taking his followers through a typical day: he gets up at 5 a.m., works out, eats a high-protein diet and takes a cold shower. The question is not just whether this is true, but also what image he is presenting. What does strength mean to him? Does he also talk about insecurities or moments of sadness? How does he measure success? How does he treat his partner on camera? And how do his videos make viewers feel? We would like to see these topics included in the new subject. They are highly relevant to young people and to their lives today.”

The importance of this critical engagement also becomes clear when digital media intrude into people’s lives—for example, when artificial intelligence is used to create and distribute sexualised images of students.

The Image? Fake. The Humiliation? Real.

Today, realistic-looking images can be created faster than ever before. Within minutes, an AI-generated nude image of a schoolgirl can spread throughout an entire school. What happens among students and teachers in situations like these? Who protects the girl targeted? Who helps the class understand what has happened? Who laughs and contributes to the image’s circulation? What consequences follow?

Current research explicitly describes sexualised deepfakes as a form of “AI-generated image-based sexual abuse” and documents substantial psychological, social and relational harm. The file may be fake, but the humiliation, loss of control and reactions of the peer group are real.

Feminism as the Enemy?

In its work with young people, the Sensibilisierung Initiative encounters a troubling pattern. When discussions focus on the pressure girls face over their appearance, boys respond with comments such as: “But boys have to be muscular.” When the topic is violence against women: “But men get hit too.” When gender roles are discussed: “But men have to earn all the money.”

“While we are shocked that these ideas are still present in the minds of Austrian teenagers in 2026, we also need to understand what lies behind these objections. Often, they reflect the pressure young men feel and the expectations they believe they have to meet,” explains Helena Spindler.

The Sensibilisierung Initiative team therefore places great importance on preventing discussions from turning into a competition over which gender suffers most, or allowing feminism to become the enemy. These insecurities are precisely what the manosphere feeds on. It taps into needs for belonging and recognition, offering simple explanations and clear-cut gender roles as solutions.

“Boys need to learn to distinguish between personal development and ideology,” says Omid Mansouri.

This is why simply labelling individual videos as problematic is not enough. What matters is enabling young people to recognise the underlying messages, express their own insecurities and explore different understandings of strength, success and relationships.

Prevention Through Education and Dialogue

The Sensibilisierung Initiative therefore advocates media and gender education that engages more closely with young people’s everyday lives. In its workshops and talks, it asks concrete questions such as: “Who decides when a body is attractive?”, “What kinds of strength are there?” and “Can I grow as a person without conforming to a rigid gender role?”

Making these distinctions is a central part of contemporary prevention work. Young people need more than guidance on navigating digital content. They also need knowledgeable adults who can discuss the underlying values and expectations with them. The Sensibilisierung Initiative brings this perspective to professional development for educators, specialist events and keynote talks, and is also available for interviews and podcast appearances.

About the Sensibilisierung Initiative

The Sensibilisierung Initiative is an interdisciplinary network of educators, trainers and researchers working with children, young people and education professionals. Its focus areas include social skills, media use, emotional education, relationship-building, anti-discrimination and child protection.

Mag. Helena Spindler’s work encompasses sociology, psychology, communication, self-reflection, feminism and gender roles. Omid Mansouri, with whom she founded the initiative in 2025, is a media and experiential educator, child protection trainer and anti-discrimination expert. His areas of expertise include media education, gender roles in digital spaces, cyberbullying, and social and emotional skills. The initiative’s team is available for talks, discussions and workshops.

Contact for Enquiries and Interviews

Sensibilisierung Initiative – Association for Social Development and the Support of Children and Young People
Salztorgasse 6/5/22, 1010 Vienna, Austria
willkommen@sensibilisierung.at
+43 664 258 28 00
www.sensibilisierung.at/de

Source

Fisher, K., Benakovic, R., O’Gorman, K., Rice, S., Tierney, K., Miller-Idriss, C., Dashtgard, P., & Seidler, Z. (2026). Development and application of the Masculinity Content Classification Framework. Telematics and Informatics, 107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2026.102402

Press release: Nina Kainz, Die Buchstabenheldin, www.diebuchstabenheldin.at