Is the male loneliness epidemic real? The answer may surprise you

May 17, 2026 — 5:00am

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NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane wants us to stop “bagging men” and calling them “toxic”. Instead, she says, we should celebrate “healthy masculinity” and “champion top blokes”.

As reported in The Daily Telegraph this week, the opposition leader announced that, if elected to government, she would set targets for reducing male suicide, and improve access to men’s health services. The article had the unhelpful headline: “Male lives matter, too”, which was both defensive (who said they didn’t?) and had the capacity to make others defensive because it sets “male lives” against the lives of another, unnamed group, which can only be women.

The headline is a shame because Sloane is onto something. Men do have unique challenges in their physical and mental health. And while the term “toxic masculinity” has entered the lexicon for a reason – it describes something tangible and easily observable in our culture – it probably does alienate the majority of men who are not abusive or misogynistic.

Whatever the justice of the cause, Sloane, as a politician, is also latching onto an issue that she believes will be popular; something that will gain traction with a segment of voters she needs to win over. With One Nation lining up as the Coalition’s biggest electoral threat nationwide, that voting cohort is easily identifiable – socially conservative voters who might be tempted to vote One Nation.

Such a voter might think that feminism has gone too far, and has ended up with men being neglected by policymakers, or even actively disadvantaged by them.

Anti-feminism is a gateway to right-wing populism – the idea that increased feminisation........

© The Age