Gen Z is saying sufficient to a Hollywood behavior that has haunted motion pictures since cinema started.
Referring to these born roughly between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z’s preferences are drastically completely different than previous generations in the case of watching cinema, which dates again to the mid-Nineties, as they’ve little persistence for bloated runtimes and recycled plots. Now, Gen Z is rejecting one other Hollywood development that is plagued motion pictures because the delivery of cinema.
A brand new UCLA examine has discovered that Gen Z is rejecting hypermasculinity in motion pictures and TV and desires to see extra susceptible males in media. In response to the examine, younger audiences who watch motion pictures and TV are looking forward to male characters to shift away from “isolation and different masculine stereotypes and in the direction of vulnerability and connection.”
The college’s Heart for Students & Storytellers (CSS) added “focused questions” to its annual 2025 Teenagers & Screens survey, polling 1,500 younger individuals nationwide between the ages of 10 and 24. The findings have been revealed in a report titled “Gen Alpha and Gen Z: Evolving Masculinity.”
Yalda Uhls – the examine’s senior writer, the founding father of CSS, and an adjunct professor at UCLA’s psychology division – mentioned the next:
Our findings reveal a profound cultural shift: Youth are craving a model of masculinity outlined by emotional availability and joyful connection… By highlighting these narratives of partnership and care, storytellers can supply a imaginative and prescient of masculinity rooted in hope and love. For at this time’s younger audiences, probably the most compelling hero is not the one standing alone, however the one who has the braveness to be current.
One of many examine’s foremost findings is that Gen Z and Gen Alpha (born between 2010 and 2025) need motion pictures and tv to painting males as caring and affectionate fathers and emotionally open people, shifting away from what they view as outdated masculine stereotypes.
Joyful fatherhood emerged because the top-requested depiction of masculinity, with practically 60% of surveyed adolescents saying they need to see extra dads overtly expressing love and taking pleasure in parenting. Moreover, 46% of respondents mentioned they’re searching for tales that present males asking for assist, together with assist for his or her psychological well being.
The examine’s authors say the brand new findings underscore “CSS’ long-standing dedication to serving to content material creators re-imagine the on-screen illustration of boys and males. In 2020, CSS launched a foundational tip sheet for storytellers that has since moved from analysis labs into writers’ rooms, straight influencing tv manufacturing.”
If Gen Z is pushing Hollywood towards softer and extra emotionally fluent males, that shift feels overdue. Nevertheless, storytelling works greatest when it displays the complete spectrum of human expertise. Energy, solitude, and even hypermasculinity have their place alongside tenderness and connection. Quite than erasing one in favor of the opposite, the actual alternative lies in steadiness – permitting male characters to be sophisticated, conflicted, and totally human.