Masculinity in Asia is undergoing one of its most significant shifts in decades. Nearly half of modern Indian men equate emotional maturity with strength, according to ‘The VIRTUE Guide To Modern Masculinity’, a new study from Virtue Asia that explores how men respond to emerging narratives of masculinity.
Developed with global market research and data analytics company Milieu Insight and strategic insights practice Canvas8, the study uncovers three emerging codes reshaping identity through a 300-man survey across Thailand, Indonesia and India.
One of the most interesting insights was the shift in how masculinity is viewed. The study found that the era of era of one-size-fits-all masculinity is over and that men across Asia are navigating a tug-of-war between the scripts they inherited and the identities they are now free to explore.
This has led to different sets of classes emerging. In India, for example, Virtue Asia found that 66% of modern men in India were ‘Remixers’, adapting traditional norms to fit their realities. 18% were ‘Experimenters’, comfortable stepping beyond convention; 14% remain ‘Traditionalists’ who hold onto established values, and 3% are ‘Outliers’ rejecting gender labels entirely.
With the next generation of men defining masculinity as a spectrum, not a template, brands have a unique opportunity to reflect that multiverse. That means designing products, campaigns, and experiences that recognise men as plural, evolving, and self-authored, creating space for them to explore, co-create, and express who they’re becoming.
The new markers of power
The study also found that traditional success markers like being the primary breadwinner (39%), owning wealth (44%) are giving way to more human moments such as emotional maturity (49%) and open-mindedness (43%) in India, for modern men. Today, achievement is measured less by hard power, dominance and control; and more by soft power, by how men lead, care, and connect.
This means that brands, instead of glorifying balance, need to humanise it. Winning today means helping men feel held together, not stretched thin.
Saumya Baijal, executive vice-president, strategy, Virtue India, shared: “The shifts in modern masculinity are critical and tectonic. It is up to brands now to shape these cultural shifts with audiences by nudging them towards more progressive, modern stances. Brands will need to be brave enough to do so, owning narratives as they build them.”
One narrative that brands can play a powerful role in building is the shift in how men express love. For generations men were taught to express love through duty, to provide and protect rather than to feel and connect. However, as fatherhood, partnerships and friendships develop, that love is being redefined as emotional presence and shared responsibility. Brands can help support this by framing care as something built together, rather than carried alone. They can turn emotional awareness into action, helping men move from intention to practice and making reliability, empathy, and accountability visible, and achievable.
