The Stedelijk Museum and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen have co-organized an exhibition titled "Beyond the Manosphere: Masculinities Today," which aims to critically examine contemporary masculinity and its online manifestations such as incels, looksmaxxing, and pickup artists. The show features works by artists including Reba Maybury and Richard Serra, and is curated by Melanie Bühler, with directors Rein Wolfs and Gianni Jetzer overseeing the project. The exhibition will travel from the Stedelijk to the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen later this year.
The article argues that the exhibition's title and framing are a cynical attempt to capitalize on the attention economy, using buzzwords like "manosphere" as SEO bait while failing to engage substantively with the very phenomena it claims to critique. The critic contends that the show rehashes tired themes about masculinity that have been explored in numerous previous exhibitions over the past three decades, and that it conflates "being a man" with masculinity in a way that undermines its critical potential. This matters because it raises questions about how museums navigate cultural relevance and whether they can genuinely address complex social issues without resorting to performative trend-chasing.