How dating became an extreme sport for men

Article here. Excerpt:

'Tristan Cressingham didn’t expect his relationship of seven months to end in quite as spectacular a fashion as it did.

At the start of November 2025, the 23-year-old photographer received a message from his then girlfriend who, he says, detailed the reasons why she wanted to be single and the things about him which gave her what she called “the ick”.

He says it featured a wide-ranging critique about everything from the length of his shorts (too short, apparently) to his keenness to reply to messages.

“Basically, she said she thought I was a bit ‘cringe’,” Tristan says.

Around the same time, a Vogue feature by Chanté Joseph headlined “Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?” went viral. The piece, published in October 2025, didn’t decry the appearances of men, but questioned the entire concept of having a heterosexual relationship.

“That someone is inherently ‘embarrassed’ of being with you is a hurtful thing to hear, especially from someone you thought accepted you, and yet the term is bandied about pretty casually now,” says Tristan. “It feels like the inference is that men are inferior to women. I can’t imagine a man writing a piece positing that girlfriends are embarrassing would go down well.”'