Don't Be One Of The Boys

Hunter Johnson is on a mission to turn confused young blokes into healthy men and his fans include Prince Harry and Meghan.

- Juliet Rieden

Mateship is an Aussie identifier, that special male bonding club that says you’re one of us. Politicians love the word – it’s who we are as a nation. But for Hunter Johnson (above), mateship isn’t always a positive force – its blokey concept of masculinity is one of many cultural constructs at the heart of a cavernous gender problem which is brainwashing our boys and creating, at best, confused and, at worst, suicidal young men, unable to form meaningful relationships.

“Growing up I saw guys constantly having the need to earn their masculinity, whether it was drinking the most, taking drugs, in their language ‘getting the most women’, showing the least emotion,” explains Hunter. “But I also saw the fragility of it. All it took was one comment – for someone to say, ‘Oh mate, that’s a bit gay’ – for that person to crumble.”

Hunter Johnson is an extraordinary young man. Just talking to him makes you rethink everything you do and say, and want to join him in his bid to change the world. The 27-year-old from Sydney is charming, fun and effortlessly inspiring. But Hunter wasn’t always this enlightened, and as a teenager he buried himself in sport. He looks like a cross between a matinee idol and a football jock, which is also sort of how Hunter saw himself ... back then.