Little men, big issues

Showing as part of the exhibition Harder Better Faster Stronger – Are Men OK? , currently showing at Stockholm’s art museum Fotografiska, this film by new—land director Louise Wachtmeister sees seven-year-old boys asked a deceptively simple question: "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

The results bring a darkly comic twist to a bigger question about current ideas of manhood, as the angelic, beautifully photographed little cherubs recite from a sharp script mentioning such goals as becoming ‘doomers’, ‘softbois’, ‘mansplainers’ and more. 

Against a backdrop of growing concern around manosphere and incel culture, the project explores the narratives boys absorb about what it means to be a man, often before they fully understand them.