📌 MOODBOARDING MANHOOD

Forget everything you knew about Pinterest. The platform long associated with weddings, recipes and cottagecore is now going full throttle on men.

For the first time, Pinterest has released a men-only trend report, spotlighting how male users (especially Gen Z) are showing up on the platform. 1 in 3 Pinterest users are now men, and no–they’re not just saving sneaker boards. Top trending searches include “Pilates outfits”, “faded beard styles for men”, “rock climbers”, and “jorts outfit”. In fact, Pinterest just launched a dedicated Pinterest Man profile to house rising trends in men’s style, wellness, and lifestyle.

On the surface, it might look like Pinterest is just playing catch-up with a demographic they previously overlooked. But look closer, and this marks a deeper cultural inversion: a rewriting of gender-coded spaces.

OUR TAKE

Spaces once seen as inherently feminine (fashion, self-care, even moodboarding) are being reimagined for male audiences. It’s the reverse of what we’re used to: think soccer vs women’s soccer. Where masculinity was once the default, feminine-coded spaces are also becoming aspirational as men look for tools and community that can help shape their identity.

Asia has been quietly leading this shift for years, expanding the meaning of masculinity beyond stoicism and strength into something more layered: emotional fluency, aesthetic exploration, and cultural self-awareness.

• 🇹🇭 Boys’ Love dramas broadened the emotional range of masculinity in media
• 🇯🇵 Japanese brand WOLG wants to normalise “masculine makeup” and challenge stereotypes
• 🇰🇷 Skincare brands like Etude House and Innisfree offer male-specific product lines that are widely embraced by Gen Z
• 🇻🇳 American-Vietnamese designer Hung La’s label Lu’u Dan reclaims the Asian masculinity narrative, previously flattened by Western tropes

In recent years, young men have often been portrayed as “lost” through mental health stats, manosphere headlines, and a loneliness epidemic too vast to ignore. Pinterest’s move however offers a different narrative that aligns more closely with what is already unfolding in Asia. We’re not just looking at what men are into but rather what’s important to them: self-care, agency and a sense of self.

Much like their female counterparts rethinking femininity (hello brat summer, demure & mindful), we’re also seeing masculinity take on new, sometimes unexpected, cultural forms. From the popularity of aura farming to Minecraft’s box office chaos, led by Gen Alpha boys – male audiences are increasingly shaping and dominating cultural participation.

So what does this mean for brands? 

It’s time to ditch the old pink = feminine, tech = masculine rhetoric and expand your assumptions. If your brand speaks to “women,” ask yourself: what would it mean to open the door to others? And if you’re targeting men, ask: what are your assumptions about who they are and what needs to change?

Brands don’t need to solve masculinity but they can support the process. Whether it’s helping someone rewrite their own identity or giving others the tools to witness, support or even challenge that transformation with empathy – brands can either shape the space or make it safer for others to step into it.

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

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