Celebrating Masculinity

Celebrating Masculinity Providing inspiration and practical support for positive male role models Brotherhood, friendship and solidarity are important for males.

Make a positive difference by Celebrating Masculinity...

Celebrating Masculinity involves promoting constructive, healthy, pro-social aspects of manhood, focusing on qualities like responsibility, resilience and purpose. Showcasing positive male role models, encouraging physical and emotional health, as well as mutual support. We are promoting demonstrations of integrity, leadership, responsibili

ty, morality, sacrifice and commitment. Masculine traits of strength, resilience, stoicism and leadership are assets for society. Through living masculine virtues in our lives we are teaching boys and young men the importance of discipline, perseverance and making positive contributions. This aims to build strong, engaged men who contribute to families and communities, ensuring a balanced future for everyone. When men and boys proudly step up to tell our perspectives, it helps to build a healthier society for all. Inclusion means listening to all voices; we are all an essential part of the solution…

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Check out the lack of diversity and the lack of inclusiveness on display from the Australian Education Union (AEU), and ...
29/08/2026

Check out the lack of diversity and the lack of inclusiveness on display from the Australian Education Union (AEU), and have a think about what our precious children are experiencing in public schools. This is DEI gone wrong, and yet another example of a union that has been captured by narrow vested interests. As a nation, we can do a lot better with our education system.

I loved the first two seasons of Ted Lasso. Season 3 disappointed me. Season 4, four episodes in, feels like the show ha...
29/08/2026

I loved the first two seasons of Ted Lasso. Season 3 disappointed me. Season 4, four episodes in, feels like the show has forgotten much of what made it extraordinary...

Season 3 sprawls: bloated episodes, fragmented subplots and too much sermonising. Yet its heart survives.

Jamie Tartt completes one of television’s great male redemption arcs, growing from arrogant young star into a more humble, disciplined and generous man. Even better is his relationship with Roy Kent: rivals become friends; Roy becomes mentor; Jamie becomes worthy of his investment.

Fathers and father-figures still matter. So do the Diamond Dogs, brotherhood, responsibility, forgiveness and purpose. Vulnerability sits alongside strength rather than replacing it.

Season 3 is flawed, but still fundamentally humane towards men...

Season 4 is a jarring and unwelcome change.

Ted returns from Kansas to coach Richmond’s new women’s team. Jamie, Nate, Sam, Dani and most of the male squad disappear from centre stage. And with them goes much of the wonderful male ecosystem that the series created.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a great series about women’s football. The problem is sacrificing something television does remarkably rarely: portraying male friendship, mentorship and moral formation with genuine affection.

In its place comes much heavier gender politics: s*xism, unequal resources, female disadvantage, obstructive men and the need to champion women’s sport. Even Variety points out that feminist commentary was never the show’s strength, and that the new premise produces more of it than ever.

For me, that’s an enormous loss.

The original Ted Lasso didn’t treat masculinity as something embarrassing to dismantle. It showed us men competing, failing, suffering, forgiving, mentoring and loving one another. It asked what wounded men, and what might help them become better...

Ted is still a good man. Roy remains terrific. There are still flashes of warmth.

But boys and men desperately need stories in which somebody believes in them, challenges them, stands beside them and calls them towards courage, responsibility and belonging.

Seasons 1–2 understood that beautifully. Season 3 mostly remembered it.

Season 4 has abandoned that...

Here are some tips, inspiration, and ideas for encouraging your primary school-aged son (or daughter) to practice more w...
28/08/2026

Here are some tips, inspiration, and ideas for encouraging your primary school-aged son (or daughter) to practice more writing at home...

I have made a folder for my 9-year-old son, with a special cover featuring his favourite things, and I insist on two pages of writing each weekend (before screentime privileges).

I'm proud to share that I’ve been published for a second time in New Male Studies: An International Journal. It's a real...
28/08/2026

I'm proud to share that I’ve been published for a second time in New Male Studies: An International Journal. It's a real thrill to have my research and writing acknowledged alongside two heroes and inspirations of mine: Dennis Gouws (who is the Editor of New Male Studies); and Jerome Teelucksingh (an icon in the space of men's rights activism).

Jerome is a Trinidadian historian and Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies who founded International Men’s Day on 19 November 1999 (choosing his father’s birthday and a date of national unity). He has spent decades promoting the observance of IMD worldwide, along with World Day of the Boy Child (May 16th, also known as International Boys Day).

My first piece for New Male Studies (NMS), “The Ripples of Social Change”, appeared in 2023.

The new article is in the current issue of NMS, which is Vol 14 No 1 (2026):
https://www.newmalestudies.com/OJS/index.php/nms/issue/view/45

When Did Hollywood Make Movies That Men Actually Wanted to Watch?

I asked hundreds of men for the films they love and recommend to other men, then added titles from further searching and online tools. The result: 540 movies, spanning 1930–2024, plotted against Hollywood’s total film output.

Two peaks stand out. The 1980s (the greatest period of movies for men) gave us Top Gun, Die Hard, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Platoon, Indiana Jones, Rain Man, and Dead Poets Society. The late 1990s was a close second, with The Matrix, Fight Club, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, and Good Will Hunting.

After that and during the last quarter-century, positive depictions of masculinity have thinned out for a long stretch. But perhaps now we're seeing the green shoots of a resurgence...

My short piece is a starting point, not the last word. What are your favourite movies for men, and why?

Homepage for New Male Studies (NMS): An International Journal.
https://newmalestudies.com/



David Maywald

Best wishes for all of the good men who are about to spend the weekend at the Dads4Kids Men's Summit at Stanwell Tops (s...
28/08/2026

Best wishes for all of the good men who are about to spend the weekend at the Dads4Kids Men's Summit at Stanwell Tops (south of Sydney). Apologies that I can't make it this year due to several family commitments. I am praying for you all to find strength in the role model and teachings of Jesus Christ. We are stronger together. The brotherhood provided by Dads4Kids, and facilitated by this summit, is crucial for men and boys to move forwards.

David Maywald

I'm delighted to have an endorsement for 100 of the Best Books for Men from Michael Gurian, Bestselling Author of The Wo...
28/08/2026

I'm delighted to have an endorsement for 100 of the Best Books for Men from Michael Gurian, Bestselling Author of The Wonder of Boys and Saving Our Sons:

"David Maywald has earned our collective gratitude for this comprehensive collection of books about boys and men. In my mind, this book puts boys and men's literature on the map for both individual readers and post-modern culture as a whole. There has been a boys movement growing for decades and Maywald tracks it beautifully via his Stages model. I highly recommend this book."

You can read 100 of the Best Books for Men: Honouring the Authors, Elders, and Thought Leaders at the National Library of Australia website for free:
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-4239882219/view

To get hold of the e-book or the paperback search for "buy 100 of the Best Books for Men by David Maywald", and the results will show you distribution options that are tailored to your circumstances.

The e-book is available for a very affordable $1.99, while the paperback is significantly more expensive (due to 300-plus pages of colour printing).

100 of the Best Books for Men follows the journey of a man's life from boyhood, through initiation, rites of passage, mature manhood, fatherhood, mentoring, Men's Health, relationships, to becoming an elder, and the challenges currently being faced by boys and men...

It's a treasure of timeless wisdom, which makes an ideal Father's Day gift for the man who has an interest in books and ideas.

The Australian Education Union’s Gender Equity Position Statement 2025 opens with a claim that is demolished by public d...
27/08/2026

The Australian Education Union’s Gender Equity Position Statement 2025 opens with a claim that is demolished by public data: girls and women are “systemically disadvantaged” versus boys and men in education.

In Australian schools the opposite is large and getting worse.

Girls beat boys in every NAPLAN literacy domain, every year level. Writing gaps are brutal: about twice as many boys fail writing standards than girls. By Year 9 the average boy can be a year or two behind in writing. Boys enter school more developmentally vulnerable plus more likely to be in disability and behaviour caseloads. Girls finish Year 12 at higher rates. Women are 62% of new university commencements and 61% of bachelor completions. Young women hold degrees at ~53% versus ~40% of young men.

A union that cannot say “boys are the failing s*x in literacy” isn't analysing education. It's protecting a slogan.

Then the definitions: s*x is “consigned at birth”. “Women” means anyone who identifies as a woman, and anyone said to have been “oppressed as women”, including non-binary people. Once “woman” is an identity plus a grievance, no female statistic can falsify the theory...

Education is 74% female in workforce composition (primary teaching is over 82%). The AEU statement treats this feminised workforce as proof that women are locked out, then calls men being 24% of teachers and 30% of school leaders a scandal. The actual classroom crisis is the shortage of men in primary schools, not women failing to monopolise the principal’s office.

The statement defines “gendered violence” so broadly that it includes not only violence against women, but also harm linked to s*xuality, race, or someone not acting “masculine” or “feminine” enough (and even just seeing it happen to a colleague). That cheapens real s*xual violence and turns dissent from gender ideology into a WHS event. Sex-based toilets and change rooms for girls are treated as a problem to be opened by identity.

Pay-gap talk skips hours, career breaks and the fact that award rates are s*x-blind. The AEU modus operandi is to teach the “construction of gender” and to “decolonise” the curriculum while boys can't even write.

AEU Members need literacy support for the bottom quartile of students, behaviour management assistance (including from parents), and honest s*x-based safeguarding. This document gives them a factional template instead.

The Five Greatest Books of All Time for MenTo celebrate the release of my new book, 100 of the Best Books for Men: Honou...
27/08/2026

The Five Greatest Books of All Time for Men

To celebrate the release of my new book, 100 of the Best Books for Men: Honouring the Authors, Elders, and Thought Leaders, I’ve attempted an even harder task... choosing the top 5 books of all time for men.

My top five:

1. The Bible (about 1200 BC–100 AD)
The foundational book of Western civilisation. Its stories and teachings wrestle with faith, courage, temptation, sacrifice, fatherhood, brotherhood, suffering, redemption, service and love. No other book has shaped the moral imagination of the Anglosphere more profoundly.

2. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (about 180 AD)
Perhaps history’s greatest handbook for self-mastery. A Roman Emperor reminds himself that a man cannot control the world, but he can govern his character: practising duty, humility, discipline, courage and emotional steadiness.

3. The Odyssey by Homer (about 700 BC)
The archetypal masculine journey. Odysseus confronts war, danger, temptation, loss and adversity while struggling to return to his wife, son and home. Adventure ultimately gives way to responsibility and belonging.

4. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (1946)
A profound testament to the human capacity to find purpose amid terrible suffering. Frankl teaches that meaning can be discovered through responsibility, love, work, service and the attitude we take towards circumstances we cannot change.

5. Iron John by Robert Bly (1990)
A landmark exploration of masculine psychology. Through myth, Bly examines initiation, the father wound, mentorship, masculine identity and the difficult journey from boyhood into mature manhood.

Completing my Top 10:
6. Manhood in the Making by David D. Gilmore (1990)
7. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson (2018)
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
9. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)
10. Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung and others (1964)

Together they span scripture, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and great storytelling. And they explore the timeless question at the heart of 100 of the Best Books for Men: How should a man live?

What would make your top 5?

The Australian Education Union’s Position Statement on Gender Equity 2025 should be scrapped.https://www.aeufederal.org....
27/08/2026

The Australian Education Union’s Position Statement on Gender Equity 2025 should be scrapped.

https://www.aeufederal.org.au/download_file/view/3144/171

Its central claim is extraordinary:

“Girls and women continue to be systemically disadvantaged compared to boys and men in education and employment.”

Yet Australian education data tell a very different story.

Boys begin school with substantially higher developmental vulnerability and childhood disability. They fall behind in literacy: in 2024 Year 9 writing, 69.2% of girls were Strong or Exceeding versus just 53.1% of boys.

Boys are less likely to attain Year 12 or equivalent qualifications. The gap continues into university: in 2024, 62% of commencing domestic higher-education students were women; just 38% were men.

Yet the AEU declares girls systemically disadvantaged relative to boys.

The bias runs throughout the document. Female disadvantage is repeatedly identified and targeted for intervention; male disadvantage is largely invisible.

There's an entire section called “Educational Rights of Women and Girls.” Where is the equivalent for boys and men?

The AEU admits education is over 75% female, while more than 82% of primary teachers are women. Yet the extraordinary underrepresentation of male teachers receives little attention.

Meanwhile, it demands “decolonised” curricula, removal of “patriarchal structures”, and teacher training in the “construction of gender” and intersectionality.

Even its safety lens is selective: Australian men account for approximately 96% of traumatic workplace fatalities, yet male disadvantage barely registers.

This is the fundamental problem: when females fall behind, disparity becomes evidence of systemic injustice. When males fall behind, the disparity can disappear from view.

That isn't gender equity. It's an ideological double standard.

Genuine equality works both ways.

The AEU should scrap this one-sided statement and start again: replace ideology with evidence, predetermined victim hierarchies with measurable outcomes, and selective equity with genuine fairness.

When girls are disadvantaged, help girls. When boys are disadvantaged, help boys. Every child matters.

The Australian Education Union’s Position Statement on Gender Equity 2025 should be scrapped.For an organisation entrust...
27/08/2026

The Australian Education Union’s Position Statement on Gender Equity 2025 should be scrapped.

For an organisation entrusted with Australian education, its central claim is astonishing:

“The AEU recognises girls and women continue to be systemically disadvantaged compared to boys and men in education and employment.”

In Australian education, mountains of evidence make that sweeping claim extraordinarily difficult to defend.

Boys begin behind. They experience substantially higher developmental vulnerability and childhood disability.

They fall further behind in literacy. In 2024 Year 9 writing, 69.2% of girls were Strong or Exceeding, compared with just 53.1% of boys.

Boys are less likely to attain Year 12 or equivalent qualifications.

And the disadvantage continues into university. In 2024, 62% of commencing domestic higher-education students were women and only 38% men.

Yet somehow the AEU concludes that girls are systemically disadvantaged relative to boys.

This isn't a minor oversight. It exposes the fundamental bias running through the entire document.

Female disadvantage is repeatedly identified, explained structurally and targeted for intervention. Male disadvantage is largely invisible.

There's an entire section entitled “Educational Rights of Women and Girls.” Where is the Educational Rights of Men and Boys?

The AEU itself admits education is over 75% female. More than 82% of primary teachers are women. Yet instead of seriously confronting the extraordinary disappearance of men from classrooms, the document concentrates on women's representation and advancement.

Its asymmetry and delusion extends even further.

It demands curricula be “decolonised” and “patriarchal structures” removed. It wants teacher education and professional development embedding “the construction of gender” and intersectionality. It declares discrimination the biggest contributor to gender inequality in employment without demonstrating that sweeping causal claim.

Even workplace safety receives the same distorted lens. The statement concentrates on how workplaces disadvantage women while Australian men account for approximately 96% of traumatic workplace fatalities.

This is the central problem: disparities appear to count as evidence of systemic injustice when females are behind, but can virtually disappear when males are behind.

That isn't gender equity. It's an ideological double standard.

None of this requires ignoring genuine problems facing women and girls. Address them vigorously.

But genuine equality works both ways.

An education union worthy of the name should follow the evidence wherever it leads; especially when that evidence shows boys struggling from school entry through literacy, completion and tertiary education.

The AEU should scrap this deeply one-sided statement and start again.

Replace ideology with evidence.

Replace predetermined victim hierarchies with measurable outcomes.

And replace selective “gender equity” with a simple principle:

When girls are disadvantaged, help girls. When boys are disadvantaged, help boys. Every child matters.

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