The hottest thing a man can be is comfortable with being ugly.

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Let me start by making one thing perfectly clear: Glen Powell is by no means an unattractive man.

In fact, he has that perfect, chiselled Hollywood look that has, in recent years, catapulted him to certified heartthrob status — and he has the acting chops to back it up. He oozes old-fashioned masculinity and "alpha" energy. 

He looks exactly like the kind of man you'd cast as a Top Gun pilot or a tornado-chasing cowboy without so much as an audition. 

But his latest cover shoot for GQ is showing us something that I, for one, have started to crave when it comes to my crushes (celebrity or otherwise): an ease with not being so hot all the damn time.

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The magazine spread is all silly faces, exaggerated poses, unflattering angles and costumes that teeter between camp theatre kid and drunk uncle at Christmas.

One shows him stuffed into a comically oversized muscle suit, his arms and legs ballooned to absurd proportions. Another has him flat on a gurney, grinning manically through an oxygen mask as gloved hands prod and poke at him.

He's goofy and silly. He's making fun of himself, and in a media landscape where male stars have historically spent their entire careers flexing their abs and scowling suspiciously into the middle distance, it feels like a relief. 

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Of course, let's not crown Powell the patron saint of vulnerable masculinity just yet. He's still a tall, handsome, studio-anointed leading man with abs you could set a watch to. And while I would by no means call him problematic, there are things that don't sit quite right with me — namely, letting his ex front the media storm alone after those Sydney Sweeney rumours, then dismissing her side as "her own narrative" in this very interview. Vulnerable? Not exactly. Carefully curated? Absolutely.

Regardless, this shoot signals something bigger about what we, as women, want from men in 2025.

Glen Powell does embody the square-jawed alpha stereotype, that's for sure. But we are also craving men with substance. Men who can risk looking stupid and who make jokes at their own expense and who aren't constantly auditioning for the role of "world's most perfect male specimen".  

For decades, men have been sold one exhausting version of masculinity: stoic, jacked, dominant and emotionally unavailable. Be hot, be strong, be silent. And never, ever let them see you cry.

It's the kind of conditioning that's created a world full of guys who can bench press their body weight but not text their girlfriend back. Or men who will happily spend three hours buffing their car but won't spend three minutes in therapy.

Masculinity became a performance of control, strength and silence — and now, finally, we are starting to see the cracks.

And the cracks? They're the sexiest parts. 

The hottest thing a man can do right now is opt out of this performative form of masculinity and stop acting like being unbothered is a personality. To admit that feelings exist, to understand that humour and humility are hotter than protein shakes and poker faces. 

"Vulnerability is the greatest sense of masculinity," Powell says in this latest interview.

"Not acting like nothing hurts and not trying to act like that journey is painless."

Sure, that does sound like a PR bullet point, but it still rings very true. The men who are actually thriving right now aren't taking mirror selfies in the gym. They're willing to look, dare I say it, a little ugly. 

Just look at the pantheon of so-called "ugly hot" men in Hollywood.

Adam Driver is all angles and broodiness, with a face that trolls like to describe as "horse-like". But it's a face that audiences cannot look away from.

Pete Davidson may be perpetually dishevelled and permanently slouched, but he is magnetic because he laughs at himself and owns his mess.

Jack Black is loud, chaotic, a little bit hairy and somehow still manages to be the swooniest part of The Holiday while singing improvised songs in falsetto. 

Image: Getty.

These men didn't become our unconventional sex symbols by being perfect. They became sex symbols by refusing to be. 

Outside of Hollywood, we're seeing the same thing. The men who've actually made me stop and look twice are not the hot ones with perfect jawlines. They're the ones who can cry in front of me without flinching. Who don't mind me roasting them in the group chat. 

They're the boyfriends on TikTok proudly posting "GRWM" videos in their girlfriends' bathrooms and the husbands carrying baby carriers down the street without worrying that it will make them look "soft". 

They're not sculpted or flawless but instead leaning in to dad bods, ugly laughs, bad haircuts and the weird little quirks that make us all human. They are realising that swagger doesn't come from abs, but instead from ease. 

What Powell's shoot really gets at, is that masculinity doesn't have to be polished, controlled or intimidating anymore. In fact, the less effort it looks like you're putting in, the better. It's not that we want men to stop caring, but instead we want them to care about the right things: honesty, humour, depth. We want them to have the ability to show up and not just show off. 

Listen: Holly, Jessie and Amelia unpack a viral masculinity debate that has gotten a lot of people talking on Mamamia Out Loud.

If you want to stick around culturally, you have to be in on the joke. The celebs who last aren't the ones sculpting their image like perfect marble statues — they're the ones willing to look ridiculous and own it while doing so. 

Glen Powell will never know what it means to truly be ugly. But if he's smart? He'll keep pretending he does. Because the hottest thing a man can be right now isn't chiselled, alpha or even particularly handsome.

The hottest thing a man can be is comfortable being just a little bit ugly. 

Feature image: Getty.