New Animated Series ‘Finally! A Show About Men’ Proves Masculinity Doesn’t Have To Be Toxic

There are about 10 gazillion manosphere podcasts explaining what it means to “be a man” in a variety of concerning ways. Turns out to hear the truth about masculinity, what we really needed was ‘Finally! A Show About Men’.

Produced by husbands Sam Leighton-Dore and Bradley Tennant from their Gold Coast-based Sad Man Studio, the series has landed on Aunty Donna‘s Grouse House YouTube. 

It’s packed with comedians, actors and musicians, but underneath sits a surprisingly thoughtful question: why are we still making being a bloke so bloody hard?

“I’ve always been interested in men,” Leighton-Dore laughs. “I mean, I’m a man who is married to a man and was bullied by young men growing up. For better or worse, there has been no avoiding them.”

This has been a key theme of his career, from books to documentaries to illustration. But rather than writing another earnest think-piece about the “crisis of masculinity”, Leighton-Dore figured comedy might get through a bit more.

“If I can make someone laugh without feeling judged, they’re more likely to let me in and actually hear what I’ve got to say.”

The first episode, A Scrum Is A Safe Space, imagines rugby as one of the few places where men can openly cry, hug and tell each other they care. Absurd? Turns out – no.

“The sketch went nuts,” Leighton-Dore says. “Rugby players around the world were tagging each other in it because there’s truth to the sentiment. Sport is emotional.”

That’s the beauty of this show: it lets you laugh, then slips the uncomfortable question into your pocket on the way out. It’s earnest and self-aware, but takes the piss enough to get through to blokes. If men can express vulnerability after scoring a try, why is it still so difficult everywhere else?

“Australian culture has always celebrated a certain type of man — the stoic bloke or the larrikin. Deep down, what young man doesn’t want to be accepted?” he explains.

Leighton-Dore said it was impossible to separate his perspective on masculinity from his queerness.

Growing up, he realised he was gay while simultaneously being attracted to the boys who bullied him, so “perhaps my queerness offers a more robust and dynamic perspective on masculinity, because my experience with it has been so layered and complicated.”

“There’s been something really healing about watching men respond positively to a show that’s so informed, however subtly, by our queer experience and view of the world.”

Australia still doesn’t produce nearly as much adult animation as the US, but Leighton-Dore points to the international success of queer Australian projects like Lesbian Space Princess as proof that’s changing.

Finally! A Show About Men isn’t trying to solve masculinity, and its certainly not trying to cancel it. It’s just suggesting there might be more than one way to be a man — and that maybe we’d all be a bit happier if we stopped pretending otherwise.

I asked Leighton-Dore what he hopes, should a queer teenager stumble across the series on Youtube, they take away from it.

“A slightly broader idea of what it means to be a man,” he says. “Masculinity isn’t prescriptive. It’s not about what you do, but who you are while you do it.

“Also, it’s healthy to laugh at yourself — do it!”

You can watch Finally! A Show About Men now.