At recent fashion weeks, the runway looked less like a catwalk and more like a gym floor. Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson walked the runway in Paris wearing a skin-tight knit that emphasised every contour of his physique. American football player Gavin Weiss appeared in a Gucci show wearing shirts cut to highlight his muscular build. Designers across Milan, Paris, and New York sent out silhouettes built around sculpted torsos and exaggerated shoulders. After several years of softer aesthetics and gender-fluid styling, the muscular male body seemed suddenly back in fashion.

Many observers described the shift as a return to hypermasculinity. Yet fashion rarely invents such changes on its own. Runways tend to mirror deeper cultural currents already unfolding in society. The renewed fascination with the muscular male body tells us something important about the moment we are living through.

Across the world, a generation of young men has turned toward a culture of relentless self-optimisation. Gym memberships are rising. Protein supplements have become a mass-market industry. Social media platforms are filled with transformation videos and advice on sculpting the ideal male physique. Online communities promote what they call “looksmaxxing”, the belief that appearance can be systematically improved through discipline, grooming, and training.

The body has become a project.

This transformation reflects a broader shift in how masculinity is performed in the digital age. For much of the twentieth century, male identity was anchored in relatively stable markers: Profession, authority, social status, and economic security.........

© Indian Express