Low T is the new flex, and that's a bit too tidy to trust

What happens when the internet runs out of ways to sell men a better version of themselves and starts selling them permission to be a worse one? Apparently, the softboy happens. And with him comes a shrug, delivered with real swagger: my testosterone is low... so what?

That is the framing of a new El País piece on the softboy's sudden celebration. Its core point is worth keeping in mind: studies confirm that levels of the hormone have declined, but none link that decline to the so-called "masculinity crisis." The counter-movement, in the piece's words, is demanding something revolutionary: just being normal.

The backdrop is a loud one. The Guardian noted that low testosterone is being blamed in the rightwing manosphere for a crisis of masculinity, and that global search interest in the term is up 60% from last year. So the softboy isn't arriving in a vacuum. He's arriving as the designated enemy of a very profitable panic.

The rebuke is deserved

Let's give the softboy his flowers first. A ScienceDirect qualitative analysis of how testosterone gets marketed found themes that read like a business plan: low T as a crisis of masculinity and sexual performance, a rebrand from "old man's problem" to something hitting younger men and their fitness, and self-optimisation tied to stereotypical ideals. In other words, someone figured out that younger men can be sold a deficiency.

Against that machine, "I'm fine, thanks" is a legitimately subversive act. It refuses the premise that your worth is a number on a blood panel and that your body is a project with a permanent to-do list. If maxxing culture is the disease, the softboy is at least the right instinct.

There's also some evidence he's more than a meme. One academic paper that analyzed mainstream media coverage of the softboy from 2015 to 2023 argues he undermines what R. W. Connell termed hegemonic masculinity. A related ResearchGate text suggests that, for straight women, he appears to have superseded the muscled, bearded, deep-voiced or emotionally unavailable man in the hierarchy of desire. Another source describes the type as widening the lane of manhood rather than abandoning it. We find that last framing the most convincing.

But a flex is still a performance

Here's our hesitation. A flex, by definition, is something you display. The moment low testosterone becomes a badge, it stops being a neutral fact and becomes content, another identity to curate, another aesthetic with its own uniform and its own sermon. Swap the protein shaker for the oat latte and the audience hasn't gone anywhere.

The same academic paper is refreshingly modest about this. Whether the softboy heralds "real change" in masculinity's place in society, or merely "visibility," it says, needs further analysis. We'd bet on a mix. Not everyone is convinced even by the visibility: one YourTango piece calls the Gen Z softboy trend a symptom of men who are insecure about masculinity and validation, and says it hurts everyone. We think that's too harsh, but it's a useful reminder that a new script is still a script.

Don't let the shrug replace the checkup

The part that matters most is the one a vibe can't handle: health. Low testosterone isn't always a "crisis," and the Guardian has run a piece asking why so many men are being told they have it, with a headline quoting the claim that "they've invented a spurious pseudo-disease." But that same piece quotes Jayasena making a point that cuts both ways: "to have a true diagnosis of male hypogonadism, you need low testosterone, but you also need key symptoms."

Read that twice. It means the hype isn't a diagnosis, but it also means the symptoms are real things a doctor should hear about. Persistent symptoms aren't a personality trait to be reframed as chill. And an Infobae headline today points to a study linking low testosterone combined with certain sugars to faster fatty liver, a reminder (from a headline only, so take it as a pointer, not a verdict) that hormones don't exist in a vacuum.

So here's our verdict. Celebrate the softboy as a counterweight to a market that profits from male insecurity. Enjoy watching the "optimize everything" crowd lose a talking point. But don't mistake not caring about a number for not caring about your body. The healthiest position is the dullest one, and it's the one nobody can monetize: ignore the influencers on both sides, and if you feel off, ask a doctor, not an algorithm.