{"id":303686,"date":"2025-10-14T21:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/303686\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T21:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:51:14","slug":"inside-the-maha-man-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/303686\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the MAHA man mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clint Fuqua<\/a> was MAHA before MAHA. In fact, the 48-year-old personal trainer and gym owner says he was one of the first people to hashtag \u201cmake America healthy\u201d (his was #MAH; the \u201cagain\u201d hadn\u2019t come along yet) in 2010. Fuqua had then gone through a bit of a \u201creinvention\u201d himself and decided to dedicate his life to helping others with what he calls \u201cpersonal health care reform,\u201d he tells Yahoo. \u201cThe goal was: How do we get people healthy, for real? It comes down to people taking control of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came onto the scene in 2024 with his plan to \u201cMake America healthy again,\u201d Fuqua was naturally on board. The principles he\u2019s now hearing from the Trump administration align with his ethos: \u201cI\u2019m gonna take care of myself, and I\u2019m not gonna rely on somebody else to take care of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMAHA moms<\/a>\u201d have made headlines advocating for RFK Jr.\u2019s plans on behalf of their children\u2019s health, whether through better food<\/a> or \u201cinformed consent<\/a>\u201d vaccine regulations. But what about the MAHA men? We went looking for what the movement means to these guys.<\/p>\n

What is MAHA to men?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Fuqua, MAHA means \u201ctaking better care of yourself: Eat what you\u2019re supposed to eat, do what you\u2019re supposed to do, exercise daily … set yourself up to live a good life and take care of people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That sense of autonomy, of taking your fate into your hands rather than trying to \u201cshove it back on a doctor or family member,\u201d as Fuqua puts it, is a big part of MAHA\u2019s appeal to men like him. There\u2019s plenty of overlap between what MAHA moms and MAHA men want, but this self-determination is especially compelling to the males of the group, says Jess Steier<\/a>, founder of Unbiased Science. The MAHA movement offers \u201ca sense of control: If you do this or don\u2019t do this, you will live longer and you will have a better life,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Of course, wanting autonomy is nothing new. But when COVID-19 hit the U.S., that desire was put into a pressure cooker. Amid lockdowns and ever-changing public health guidance, many Americans, particularly young ones<\/a> and especially\u00a0young men, felt like \u201cguinea pigs in this trial period of restrictions,\u201d Rachel Janfaza<\/a>, founder of the Up and Up, a qualitative research firm that studies Gen Z, tells Yahoo.<\/p>\n

In the listening sessions Janfaza hosts across the country, Gen Z men have pointed out the frustrating contradictions they saw during the pandemic. One said he was told he could go to wrestling practice but had to wear a mask, for example. \u201cThat didn\u2019t make sense to him when he was literally on top of people,\u201d says Janfaza. That period of sometimes confusing restrictions \u201cset the tone for the rest of their lives,\u201d she says. \u201cYoung people, and men in particular, are looking for that control and sense of autonomy in many walks of life,\u201d including their health, she adds.<\/p>\n

Between the pandemic and headlines about the rising rates of cancer<\/a>, chronic illness and obesity among young adults, Gen Z-ers may \u201cfeel like something is broken, and they want to take it into their own hands,\u201d and that may particularly be the case for men, Janfaza says.<\/p>\n

Masculinity and MAHA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Health Secretary Kennedy has posted some instantly viral videos of himself doing push-ups and exercising<\/a> \u2014 shirtless and in jeans. In one of those videos, he said he was \u201cpracticing\u201d for his then upcoming confirmation hearing<\/a>. While health experts aren\u2019t sure how these displays demonstrated his fitness for the role, they did show that he was physically fit, especially for a then 70-year-old man. And that matters to the men of MAHA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real physicality\u201d to a MAHA man, Kathryn Olivarius<\/a>, a Stanford University science historian who\u2019s working on a book about the MAHA movement, tells Yahoo. And that physicality \u2014 big muscles, a chiseled jawline, a tanned physique \u2014 \u201cis tied to a return to a masculinity that feels very situated in the past,\u201d Olivarius adds.<\/p>\n

For many men who support the movement, MAHA is synonymous with this kind of masculinity. \u201cMen are protectors and builders,\u201d says Fuqua. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta be able-bodied to build stuff and to be able to protect what you love.\u201d In particular, the goal is for \u201cmen to get back to being men,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The MAHA men \u2014 and Kennedy\u2019s videos \u2014 also closely resemble the countless male influencer (man-fluencer) videos that populate social media. A recent Common Sense Media report found that three-quarters of adolescent boys in the U.S. regularly encounter masculinity content online<\/a>. \u201cPeople are seeking to \u2018reclaim\u2019 something that society has lost,\u201d says Olivarius. And that desire is \u201camped up by our online culture,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Looking back on \u2018healthier\u2019 times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like their female counterparts, many MAHA men look to the past for solutions to problems they see in the current food, health care and wellness landscape. A MAHA man is the \u201ccave person\u201d to the trad-wife woman, says Steier. Some male influencers take this as far as promoting beef tallow<\/a>, carnivore or caveman diets<\/a> and eschewing sunscreen altogether<\/a>. In fact, 64% of men who responded to a Yahoo\/YouGov survey of 1,690 U.S. adults said they rarely or never wear sunscreen.<\/p>\n

This skepticism of modern products and medicine runs deep. Fuqua believes there\u2019s a lot of \u201ctrash\u201d on the sunscreen market, so he sticks to versions that use natural minerals like zinc instead of chemical sunblocks<\/a>. But he also believes that sun is important to health<\/a> (it is, to a point) and suggests that skin cancer<\/a> is a problem of modern behavior. People are \u201cbig overgrown plants with emotional issues: We need water, food, sunlight and some emotional support,\u201d he says. \u201cWas skin cancer as big of an issue [in the past]? No, because people got out of the sun as much as they could or wore coverage; they weren\u2019t out there in a thong doing gardening.\u201d (Skin cancer has existed for many years, but Fuqua is right that covering up and staying in the shade are also effective forms of sun protection<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Similarly, Fuqua sees modern food as the result of \u201cfrankenscience.\u201d So, he gets his eggs directly from a local farm. It\u2019s too inconvenient to get in Dallas, where Fuqua now lives, but he grew up drinking raw milk<\/a> from his aunt and uncle\u2019s cows (\u201cthere\u2019s nothing better\u201d), and is among the 40% of men who think it should be fully legal across the U.S.<\/a>, according to Yahoo\/YouGov polling. And while he\u2019s not wholly against vaccination, Fuqua doesn\u2019t think shots and their schedules should be one-size-fits-all for kids. He cites his mother, who was a teacher who questioned vaccines and blended up baby food for him rather than ever buying formula.<\/p>\n

Fuqua\u2019s beliefs illustrate a central tension public health experts see in the MAHA movement: \u201cThere are kernels of truth buried in some places,\u201d says Steier. Yes, whole foods are best, but consuming some ultra-processed food is fine<\/a>, as long as it isn\u2019t the majority of your diet<\/a>. Alternative vaccination schedules are better than no vaccines at all, but there\u2019s no proven danger in kids getting more than one at a time \u2014 and there is a risk of infection if vaccination is delayed.<\/a> And physical sunscreens like zinc work well, but chemical ones are also effective and perfectly safe<\/a>. The movement is characterized by \u201cthis very binary way of thinking, and that to me is the most dangerous part of MAHA,\u201d Steier says.<\/p>\n

The tech-nostalgia paradox of MAHA men<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even as Fuqua looks back to the past for guidance about what is healthiest now, he also places hope in certain technologies. He would like to see genetic testing used to help determine which kids get which vaccinations and when. Fuqua also believes that at-home testing and annual full-body scans<\/a> should become routine. This combination of retrograde and futurist beliefs is a theme among the men of MAHA in particular, according to experts.<\/p>\n

The distinction between good and bad tech seems to lie, for MAHA men, in the difference between corporatized and institutionalized products (vaccines, Big Food) and ones marketed as personalized (supplements, at-home blood tests). \u201cMAHA is presented as being about asserting agency and control, and there\u2019s a tech component that [makes you feel] like you\u2019re optimizing your own body and own self,\u201d says Olivarius. Everything from high-protein diets to wearable trackers falls under \u201cbiohacking, in a way that makes you feel like an active participant in a kind of gamified [approach to health],\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Experts say this is fine \u2014 to a point. \u201cYou want to get healthy and fit, and you\u2019re going to biohack and run and lift weights? That\u2019s great if you want to do that and it makes you happy,\u201d says Olivarius. \u201cWhat scares me is, [if] you start to slip into the anti-vaccine territory, then it becomes less about lifestyle and more about a worldview,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The good, the bad and the hopeful for MAHA men<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of the practices that Fuqua and men like him incorporate into their own lives are good for health and well-being. It\u2019s also apparent that Fuqua is acting in good faith; he genuinely cares about the student-athletes and clients he trains. But this is exactly what presents a problem for scientists. When it comes to public health, it\u2019s dangerous to take the bad with the good. It\u2019s the job of scientists to think and communicate in relative risks \u2014 to talk about nuance and why any given behavior won\u2019t guarantee better health. But that messaging just isn\u2019t as direct and satisfying as MAHA\u2019s \u2014 and because basic healthy behaviors have become wrapped up in political identity, it\u2019s difficult for science communicators to support some MAHA beliefs while countering others without alienating those involved. \u201cPublic health needs better PR,\u201d says Steier. \u201cBut we can\u2019t get it because by definition science is all about the nuance; we\u2019re never proving anything, we\u2019re accumulating evidence \u2014 that\u2019s a mouthful, and people don\u2019t want a mouthful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than fight or disagree with the MAHA men, Steier thinks the way forward is through \u201cempowering\u201d them. \u201cAll right, men, you\u2019re smart enough to see through the grift\u201d of the marketing of ultra-processed foods, for example, she says. But Steier points out that wellness is now a bigger industry<\/a> than Big Pharma<\/a>, but with none of the regulation. So perhaps MAHA men can turn that same skepticism on supplements or vaccine misinformation. \u201cThere are some red flags here, but you\u2019re in the driver\u2019s seat, you can make the best decision \u2014 just know there are people who are taking advantage of you.\u201d<\/p>\n