Good Man, Real Man

A school hall in a small town is packed with pupils, the youngest of them eleven. Asked whether a boy who cries in the playground would be accepted, they cross the room and give their answer: mostly, no. Jacob Dunne has stood in a lot of rooms like this, and he wants to know whether a single day changes anything at all.

The pupils picked the subject itself - the school council and anti-bullying ambassadors chose sexism and misogyny - and the head of personal development says the phrase toxic masculinity is now banned in school, in favour of asking what a good man is. Society, and now the internet, sells boys misogyny and incel thinking; this is an attempt to sell them something healthier. The session is run by M-Path, whose facilitator Alex, a BACP registered therapist, takes the room through what he calls the man box - the rigid set of rules that boys and men are traditionally expected to follow.

And Jacob meets Will Adolphy, a psychotherapist who runs M-Path and was once inside the manosphere himself. He describes the two currents that pulled him in, status and grievance, and the collapse that ended it, followed by the friend who told him to join a support group.

Presenter: Jacob Dunne
Producer: Victoria Ferran
Executive producer: Susan Marling
Sound engineer: Mike Woolley

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4